This book is an exploration of the lines that ultimately became The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway, with the story of why it became known as The Poppy Line and tales of people who worked on it.

Published in February 2023 by Pen & Sword and written by Rob Shorland-Ball,, this hardback book measures around 24.1 cm x 17.1 cm, and has 120 pages, 95 colour illustrations, and one map.

It has a published price of £25, although Pen & Sword currently has it on offer at £18.75, and at the time of writing, it can be obtained from Amazon for £19.05.

This book has 12 chapters but is not a book about the history of the railway, instead it gives an insight into why it came about and what led to its demise.

Chapter 1 is an extremely brief description of how the line came to be in existence, followed by Chapter 2, which is a more detailed look at how the line nickname of “The Poppy Line” came about. 

Chapter 3 is another short chapter that briefly describes how isolated lines were joined to become the M&GNR, while Chapter 4 describes how the company dealt with those places where competitors also had station.

Chapter 5 is another very brief chapter, this time describing the formal establishment of the company in 1893, whilst Chapter 6 is a single page description of an example of competition with the Great Eastern Railway.

Chapter 7 is the most interesting part book as it deals with the day-to-day operations of the railway and looks at the company’s locomotive works at Melton Constable, whilst Chapter 8 discusses administrative changes between the Grouping in 1923 and the line’s closure in 1959.

Chapter 9 seems to be a missed opportunity as it describes some of the line’s stations, but omits other important ones such as Fakenham, Cromer, North Walsham and Norwich City.

Chapter 10 is a collection of anecdotes from four people who worked on the line, while Chapters 11 and 12 look ahead to preserving parts of its heritage.

Although the book is an enjoyable and satisfying read, the author’s approach seems to fall between telling the history of the line, describing its daily operations, and its fight for survival.

There are too few photographs of the railway itself, with just seven photos of stations and nine of trains.

There are many irrelevant illustrations, such as a photo of a church with a herd of cows as a reminder of a cow that derailed a M&GNR train in 1892 and a photograph of a motorcycle belonging to one of the storytellers in Chapter 10.

Although there are 25 maps in the book, the one on the left below is the only one showing the complete network of company lines.

However, at first sight, it would seem that the prominent green line is the railway, but studying the caption shows that the barely legible yellow line defines the railway’s routes.

The line’s headquarters and locomotive works were at Melton Constable, and the scenes on the right below are two of several illustrating what at one time must have been a hive of activity.

It seems a pity that the author has chosen the photo of brick rubble at the top-right to illustrate the engine shed at Norwich City when there are undoubtedly many photos available of the engine shed in operational use.

Although the railway served several seaside resorts, it seems a waste to include the photo on the left showing a child building a sandcastle when the space could have included a photo of more relevance to the railway. Similarly, the photo at the top right is a repeat of a photo included in a previous chapter.

Although there are 12 chapters, many of them are too brief to be particularly useful. The most interesting chapter describes the day-to-day operations of the railway and the company’s locomotive works at Melton Constable, but there are not enough descriptions of some of the line’s stations or the operational railway, and very few photographs of stations or trains.

Conversely, there seem to be too many irrelevant illustrations that do nothing to add to the story, even including a photograph of someone’s motorcycle and a robin perched in a hedge.

The book’s sub-title is a little misleading as it states “From the Midlands to Norfolk and Norwich”, yet the only mention of Norwich is in the chapter of anecdotes.

There seems to be a disconnect between the publisher’s website and the published book, as the website states the book has 95 colour illustrations & a system map, whereas there are 111 illustrations with many of them in black-and-white, or often sepia tinted, and 25 maps.

With so many different locations mentioned throughout the book, the lack of a detailed index is a major omission,

The book is available to purchase from Amazon and from Pen & Sword.

We would like to thank Pen & Sword for providing RailAdvent with a copy of the book for review.