This book is a pictorial record of diesel-powered freight and passenger services throughout the area surrounding the North Wessex Downs. Roughly bounded by Oxford, Swindon, Reading, Pewsey and Basingstoke and covering over 140 route miles, this is a region of gently rolling countryside and contrasting light industrial scenes.

The period featured covers fifteen years leading up to the wholesale introduction of electric trains on major routes, when the much-loved InterCity 125 High Speed Trains still held sway on express passenger services, and Class 59 locomotives dominated the prolific aggregates traffic from the Mendips. Photographs depict the changing seasons and a variety of motive power, operator liveries and traffic types including stone, oil, bitumen, cement, steel, coal, china clay, fly ash, automotive and infrastructure trains.