Few people realize it, but Barnsley was once the center of a railway universe. In Victorian times, dozens of competing companies put forward schemes to build railways across, through and around the town. Between them they constructed what some still regard as the most dense railway network in the country - more complicated even than London's commuter system or even the railway networks of our major cities. The reason almost no one knows about it is because many of the lines built never saw a passenger service. They were built for one reason: coal. A maze of semi-unknown branches served every...

Over 200 images, many previously unpublished, shows how Barnsley was once the 'centre of a railway universe', which was more complicated that the London Underground!