Joint Operations Around Manchester and in South Yorkshire, is the latest volume in a series of books by Robert Pixton, covering the lines across the Pennines, especially those of the former Great Central.

This volume looks at the joint lines that once served the area from Lancashire to Yorkshire, serving heavy industry and providing an intense passenger service in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The lines and services declined on many of the branch lines and some of the cross country lines by the 1950s, heralding their final demise in the early 1960s, as a result of the Reshaping of British Railways.

Today there are still a few important corridors crossing this area of the north of England, which have become increasingly important in recent times as roads become more congested and bus services are cut back.