As an historian and independent researcher, Susan is particularly interested in the way that the working classes used railways in the mid-19th century and how it affected their leisure mobility. She completed a research Masters (2005) and PhD degree (2012) with the Institute of Railway Studies at the University of York. Her PhD focused on early excursion crowds, using resources offered by the National Railway Museum in York. Her book on this subject, Early Victorian Railway Excursions (2015), was translated into Japanese last year. Her subsequent research focused on the experiences of women working on the railways in wartime, again using oral history resources in the National Railway Museum, and published as Female Railway Workers in World War II (2018). She has appeared in a number of television programmes talking about her railways researches, Susan also writes local history books for Clements Hall Local History Group in York. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.