During much of his early career, from 1944 through to the early 1960s, Richard Hardy took hundreds of pictures of life on the railways and the men he knew and worked with on a daily basis, using his trusty Brownie 620 box camera. These unique behind the scenes images form a fascinating and hugely evocative portrayal of Britain at the height of the era of steam, during the time of the 'Big Four', and after 1947 when the sprawling nationalised network known as British Railways came of age.