A$ Hardback, 256 pages

West Lothian (Linlithgowshire), despite being one of Scotland’s smaller counties and compact in area, lies on lands that have been occupied from way back into pre-historical times. It also sits astride a field of oil-bearing shale, some 75 square miles in area, which was to effect Scotland’s first oil boom, as well as rich measures of quality coal, limestone, fireclay and ironstone, these latter being in ever-increasing demand by the burgeoning iron and steel industry of the late 1800s. Inevitably, these mineral riches required dependable transportation to the users and customers, and railways were to provide the means. By the early 1900s, the county, with some twenty oil works and refineries, was to be criss-crossed by four main lines of railways, a myriad of branch lines and sidings connected thereto, and a network of both private standard gauge and narrow gauge railways serving both the mining operations and the finished products based on these mineral riches. This book examines the growth, the zenith and the inexorable decline of these lines and is illustrated with over 300 mostly previously unpublished photographs, plus maps and route diagrams.

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