The MSJA is an interesting little oddity of railway history: on the face of it a rather dull Manchester commuter line, but with a fairly fiery early history, and the rare distinction of having been electrified three times on different systems.

The line was owned jointly by the London & North Western and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire, and included the interesting provision in its constitution that the two companies should be equally represented on the board, with the chair alternating between the two. This, of course, was fine as long as everyone was on good terms, but when the MS&L chairman, Edward Watkin, fell out with Captain Mark Huish of the LNWR, it meant that each board meeting simply reversed the decisions of the previous one using the chairman's casting vote, and all kinds of entertaining chaos ensued. Despite this, the line somehow managed to run an efficient and popular commuter service, and was electrified as early as 1933.

Dixon's original account of the railway's history ended in 1972, after British Rail had converted the Altrincham line from 1500 V DC to 25 kV AC, and removed most of the features that gave it a measure of individuality. Since then, the opening of the Windsor Link has made the long-neglected South Junction route into the main East-West link across Manchester, while the Altrincham line has become part of Manchester's Metrolink tram system - ample reason for Dixon to bring the story up to date with the 1994 second edition.

The booklet is up to the usual Oakwood Press standard, with a decent selection of maps and photographs. Signalling diagrams from the 1940s are a nice bonus, but it is a shame that it wasn't possible to include drawings of the 1933 electric units that were so characteristic for the line. ( )