The history of the railway tells us much about Britain as a nation.

Over the years, rail has both driven and reflected wider social and economic trends: the locomotive was the most famous incarnation of the steam engine that powered the industrial revolution, the creation of British Rail following nationalization was an icon of the postwar consensus, and privatization has epitomized the era of neoliberalism in which we live.

The railway is once again in a period of change that speaks to the state and direction of the country. Forty thousand rail workers across sixteen companies have just voted to strike, setting the stage for the biggest walkout since at least 1955, and possibly since the 1926 general strike.