Most British Railway companies established their own workshops for the construction and maintenance of locomotives, carriages and wagons. Whole towns built up around these massive, self-sufficient complexes, and names such as Ashford, Crewe, Derby, Doncaster, Eastleigh and Swindon will always be associated with their railway origins. This is the story of these works and their products, from the earliest days of railways to the present time. It includes track plans for all major locomotive works and outline histories of all the workshops acquired by British Railways at nationalisation in 1948. There is also a history of locomotive, carriage and wagon building and maintenance by the British railway companies.