Victoria's Railway King

A biography of the railway entrepreneur and chairman of nine British railway companies, responsible for railroad development around the world.

The accomplishments of Edward Watkin are almost too many to relate. Though known for his large-scale railway projects both in Great Britain as well as Canada, the United States, Greece, India and the Belgian Congo, he was also responsible for a stream of remarkable projects in the nineteenth century that helped shape people's lives, such as the development of Wembley Park as a destination for urban Londoners.

Until now, little has been known about Watkin’s personal life, which is explored here through the surviving diaries he kept. Author Geoff Scargill, chair of The Watkin Society, has delved into the mind of one of the nineteenth century’s outstanding individuals in this fascinating biography.