Nigel Welbourn has a lifelong passion for lost railways. He has been writing the popular and critically acclaimed Lost Lines series of railway books for Ian Allan Publishing since 1994. Its 14 volumes provide illustrated histories of over 400 different lost lines in the British Isles, together with numerous closed stations and depots. Nigel has always had a great love of Scotland and has visited and revisited the country's railways over the last 50 years. His travel and research over these years has uncovered a rich railway heritage and an unparalleled diversity of lost lines. As a schoolboy he travelled around Britain by train to record as many railway lines proposed for closure as possible. His enthusiasm remains undiminished and over the last five decades he has visited and revisited his earlier haunts - many of which are now sadly devoid of trains or have disappeared altogether. Nigel has lived in seven English counties and one region of Wales. He is a Chartered Town Planner and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and was awarded the Robert Davies Roberts Memorial Book Prize by the University of London for his thesis on disused railways.