Almost every family tree will have a railway employeein one of its branches. This comprehensive, illustrated guide opens up to genealogists and railway enthusiasts the vast range of unique information stored in the documentary archives of the railway companies of England and Wales. It describes in detail the sources available for the researcher and how to gain access to them, giving examples of the many different types of records, and includes (among extensive appendices) the first-ever alphabetical listing of all the known railway companies which existed in England and Wales prior to nationalizationalmost a thousand in totalwith their dates of opening in each county, and the location of their staff records."