The London Midland & Scottish Railway was the largest of the Big Four railway companies to emerge from the 1923 grouping. It was the only one to operate in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, as well as having two short stretches of line in the Irish Republic, and was also the world's largest owner of railway hotels and railway shipping operator. Mainly a freight railway, it still boasted the best railway carriages, and the work of chief engineer Sir William Stanier influenced the first locomotive and carriage designs for the nationalized British Railways. Packed with facts and figures as well as historical narrative, this extensively illustrated book is a superb reference source that will be of interest to all railway enthusiasts.