Travelling around the Eastern Region in the 1970s and 1980s meant Deltics and then HSTs on the East Coast Main Line; long and slow freight trains crawling across an industrial landscape; rattling DMUs running between large grey cities or picturesque villages. It meant locomotives and stations alike covered in a layer of brake dust and grime. For author Andy Gibbs, travel on the Eastern Region at first involved trips to London’s Liverpool Street and King’s Cross stations; a Student Railcard allowed trips to Peterborough; British Rail staff tickets and passes meant travel even further afield – York, Doncaster and Leeds, among many other places.

With a range of evocative and previously unpublished photographs taken during the 1970s and 1980s, Andy Gibbs offers a portrait of the Eastern Region during this time, allowing the reader to enjoy this interesting period in British railway history in all its grubbiness.