The West Coast route between London Euston and Scotland is no ordinary railway. How could it be when the London & North Western Railway which owned most of the route between Euston and Carlisle from 1846 to 1922 claimed it was the Premier Line and appropriated Britannia in its coat of arms? Its Scottish partner which ran north from Carlisle to Aberdeen called itself the Caledonian Railway and helped itself to part of the royal insignia and the Scottish flag in its coat of arms, and both companies helped to transport the Royal Family to Balmoral for the annual summer holidays. It was the Royal Mail route and it was the oldest firm in the business incorporating the first all steam main lines in the country. At first it was the only route from London to the North East but unlike the later railways through the fairly flat lands of eastern England the West Coast Main Line went mountain climbing, first to a summit at Shap 916ft above sea level on the eastern flank of the Cumbrian mountains between Lancaster and Carlisle, and again over Beattock summit at 1015ft in the Southern Uplands on the way to Glasgow. And for passengers going on to Inverness there were the Grampian mountains with more climbing on the Highland Railway from Perth. In 1923 nearly all of the 120 or so railway companies then in existence were amalgamated into four major groups and the West Coast Main Line and the tracks on into the Highlands became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway. The map depicts the line from Euston to Inverness a year later with all stations and major features shown together with historical facts, many highlighted in lineside notes showing what could be seen and what has happened since, and an accompanying booklet describes the line and its train services. They form a fascinating record of what today is the most modern conventional route in the country carrying the heaviest traffic at speeds undreamed of by George and Robert Stephenson who built the early railways.