|
Books > Business & Economics > Industry & industrial studies > Transport industries > Railway transport industries > Railway trades
The British Rail corporate image and its Rail Blue livery was one
of the longest-lived colour schemes carried by the trains of
Britain in the forty-eight-year life of the nationalised railway
network. Launched in 1965, after Beeching, the then new corporate
image was an attempt by the BR design panel to raise the profile of
the railway system countrywide and to sweep away the dull steam-era
image as the swinging sixties got underway. By the mid-1970s,
virtually all BR locomotives and multiple units were carrying Rail
Blue livery, while most of the passenger coaches were in matching
blue/grey. As the British Rail network was sectorised from the late
1980s in preparation for eventual privatisation, new bold, bright
livery schemes for the fleet swept away the familiar, but by then
somewhat jaded BR image. The BR blue era is now looked upon with
affection as a golden age when the system was operated by an
immense variety of locomotives and rolling stock, all now part of
history in the same way that the steam era was viewed when the BR
blue era ruled on Britain's railways.
In Logomotive Ian Logan's photographs are assembled into chapters
and picture essays recalling the great days of lines such as the
Santa Fe, the Union Pacific, and the Kansas City Southern. Some of
his journeys are presented as travelogues in which he meets the Fat
Controller, gets to sound the horn, and wanders into freight yards
to see the last generation of streamline locomotives rusting amid
the weeds. Animal motifs, Native American allusions, advertising
slogans, names of famous trains such as the Super Chief and the
Wabash Cannonball provide the subject matter for other picture
features.
The failure to deliver a fault-free infrastructure can have a major
impact upon service delivery and effect the business plans and
passenger perception of franchise. Reducing infrastructure faults
is essential in delivering the passenger or commodity from A-B on
time with respect to improving safety, reliability, and quality.
This text focuses, explores and discusses how the infrastructures
of railway systems in the UK and internationally endeavour to
become or remain fault-free. This selection of papers presented in
this volume are grouped into five sections. These are: towards a
fault-free infrastructure; performance and its role in the
efficient infrastructure; reliability - above and below; staying on
track; trains on track - their role in the performance matrix. This
book covers the key issues and highlights the developments and
challenges that await the profession in this initial high-cost
sector of the rail industry.
In 1977, the iconic Swindon Works was building locomotives. By
1986, it was shut down. In The End of the Line, Ron Bateman
recounts the fight to save Swindon Works, its 3,500 jobs and the
livelihood of the entire community it represented. Initially
joining through the Works Training School in 1977, Ron witnessed
this tragic struggle and the crushing blow dealt to the industry
that had defined Swindon for generations. Combining personal
recollections with information and interviews from many other
insiders and railmen, this book provides the only comprehensive
chronicle on the final decade of 147 years of railway engineering
and a fateful milestone in the history of Swindon.
From the early 1800s and for nearly 170 years, steam locomotives
were built in Great Britain and Ireland, by a variety of firms,
large and small. James Lowe spent many years accumulating a
considerable archive of material on the History of the locomotive
building industry, from its early beginnings at the dawn of
railways, until the end of steam locomotive construction in the
1960s. British Steam Locomotive Builders was first published in
1975 and has not been in print for some years. This useful and well
researched book is a must for any serious railway historian or
locomotive enthusiast, 704 pages with reference to 350 builders,
541 illustrations and 47 diagrams. The material in this book has
been carefully selected to cover all the leading former steam
locomotive manufacturers in the British Isles.
One would be challenged to find a railroad to compare scenically
and historically with the Rutland Railroad. With Yankee
persistence, it struggled for its existence in the snows of Vermont
and northern New York for more than one hundred years. Running
through territory amply covered by larger and stronger lines, it
survived bankruptcy, receivership, flood, unequal competition,
seizure, depression, and strikes. Its vestigial remains operate in
a small area to this day. Jim Shaughnessy-award-winning railroad
photographer and authority-discusses the Rutland's entire history
thoroughly, from preconstrnction in 1831 to the present. In this
updated edition, the author covers the history of the three lines
that continued to operate after the demise of the Rutland
Railroad-the Vermont Railway, the Green Mountain Railroad, and the
Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority. Lavishly illustrated with
more than 500 incomparable photographs (including those by railroad
photographer Philip R. Hastings), The Rutland Road has other
features for the railroad enthusiast and historian alike: maps,
charts, reproductions of advertisements, a detailed index with
engine rosters, a chronology of the Rutland Railroad, and other
significant statistical information.
When Jim Body joined Great Northern Railway in 1916, he could never
have imagined that it would become 'the family business', with both
his son Geoff and his grandson Ian taking to the rails. Through the
eyes of three generations of Bodys, the rail industry changed
beyond recognition, going through two world wars, grouping,
nationalisation, the end of steam and privatisation before ending
up as the industry we know today. With tales that include being
suspected of spying, dealing with dramatic flooding, and the first
Glastonbury Festival, Three Generations of Railwaymen is a rare
behind-the-scenes look at one family's life and experiences in the
railway industry.
|
|