Bob Pixton is a retired teacher who lives in Swindon in Wiltshire, he was originally from the Manchester area and has always had an interest in the railways of Lancashire and Yorkshire. He has been researching and collecting material about the lines that ran across the Pennines for many years, with a view to writing a series of books about the railways that criss crossed this once heavily industrialised part of Britain. The author is also a railway modeller with an interest in constructing layouts, which have a slant towards freight operation, producing a miniature copy of his favourite areas of railway research, railways that serve industry.