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Books > Sport & Leisure > Transport: general interest > Trains & railways: general interest
The author came to London from Lancashire as a nine-year old,
having developed an interest in buses and trams at a very early
age. He remained in south-west London for the next forty-five
years. As a young teenager he took up locospotting, joining a small
group of fellow enthusiasts who met regularly by the lineside at
Clapham Junction, and avidly followed this hobby for roughly ten
years. For the first half of that decade, his hobby was centred
largely close to London because of age and money restrictions, and
his trips further afield were rare. In this book, he describes his
experiences: visiting stations, lineside watching, bunking sheds,
and making more official trips to depots and works. He gives us a
spotters-eye view of the changes to British Railways at the time:
new steam locomotives still arriving; the early days of the
Modernisation Plan; and seeing elderly locomotives at the end of
their service life. Towards the end of this period, he acquired his
first camera and uses these photographs to illustrate his exploits
in the early years of his hobby.
A 2-4 player card game of trains, tracks, and tricky decisions
designed by the award-winning design duo Brett J. Gilbert and
Matthew Dunstan. In the sleepy English countryside, life continues
undisturbed as it has for centuries. It is up to you to travel to
every corner of this land, bearing the promise of modernisation,
accommodating the oddly specific demands of the locals, and
ushering in the age of steam. In Village Rails, you will be
criss-crossing the fields of England with railway lines, connecting
villages together, and navigating the complex and ever-changing
demands of rural communities. Connect stations and farmsteads to
your local network while placing your railway signals and sidings
ever so carefully. Meet the exacting standards of cantankerous
locals planning strangely specific trips, and weigh their demands
against your limited funding. There is much to balance in this
tricky tableau-building card game of locomotives and local motives.
Players: 2-4 Playing Time: 45 mins Age: 14+ Contents: 122 mini
cards, 50+ tokens, 4 scoring dials
There is always a sense of adventure when going on a railway
journey. Whether it is aboard the Orient Express from London to
Istanbul, or travelling the Transcontinental railroad through the
Canadian Rockies to the Pacific coast, or riding the Serra Verde
Express through the Brazilian rainforest, Rail Journeys takes the
reader on a journey through some of the most unusual, romantic and
remarkable landscapes in the world. Find out about the Coast
Starlight, which carries passengers from Los Angeles along the
Pacific coast to Seattle and all points in between; or the 7,000
kilometre Trans-Siberian, crossing the entirety of Mongolia and
Russia from Beijing to Moscow; or 'El Chepe', the Mexican Copper
Canyon railway, a line which took 90 years to build and negotiates
87 tunnels, 36 bridges and sweeping hairpin bends as it climbs from
sea level to the rim-top views it offers at 2,400m; or enjoy the
engineering excellence of the Konkan Railway in India, connecting
Mumbai with the port of Mangalore via some 2,000 bridges and 90
tunnels; or experience the Shinkansen 'Bullet Train' as it races at
speeds of more than 300 km/h between Tokyo and Kyoto, passing the
iconic Mount Fuji on the way. With 210 outstanding colour
photographs, Rail Journeys takes the reader to some of the most
historic, spectacular and remotest locations in the world, places
where trains still offer romantic and astounding experiences of
rail travel at its best.
Do you love trains? Do you love adventure? If so, join Tom
Chesshyre on his meandering rail journey across Europe from London
to Venice. Escaping the rat race for a few happy weeks, Chesshyre
indulges in the freedom of the tracks. From France (dogged by rail
worker strikes), through Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and
Poland, he travels as far east as Odessa by the Black Sea in
Ukraine. With no set plans, simply a desire to let the trains lead
the way, he heads back via Hungary, the Balkans and Austria. Along
the way he enjoys many an encounter, befriending fellow travellers
as well as a conductor or two. This is a love letter to Europe,
written from the trackside.
For British Rail, the 1970s was a time of contrasts, when bad jokes
about sandwiches and pork pies often belied real achievements, like
increasing computerisation and the arrival of the high-speed
Inter-City 125s. But while television advertisements told of an
'Age of the Train', Monday morning misery continued for many, the
commuter experience steadily worsening as rolling stock aged and
grew ever more uncomfortable. Even when BR launched new
electrification schemes and new suburban trains in the 1980s, focus
still fell on the problems that beset the Advanced Passenger Train,
whose ignominious end came under full media glare. In British
Railways in the 1970s and '80s, Greg Morse guides us through a
world of Traveller's Fare, concrete concourses and peak-capped
porters, a difficult period that began with the aftershock of
Beeching but ended with BR becoming the first nationalised
passenger network in the world to make a profit.
The preserved heritage museum railways of Britain are thriving. Not
only is there continuing nostalgia for the steam locomotives of a
bygone era, but a growing number of diesel locos and multiple
units, both in use and under restoration on site, make the
different lines ever more attractive to the modern enthusiast. This
book contains a multitude of information to help the reader find
and enjoy these lines, including maps, mileages (miles and chains),
gradient profiles and tables of locomotives and multiple units.
Details of steam locomotives are covered, together with the
often-overlooked ex-industrial steam and diesel locomotives. The
information provided here also includes the statuses and current
liveries of rolling stock at each of the featured railways, as well
as details of future plans for expansion and refreshment
facilities. Lavishly illustrated with colour photographs showing
some of the best locations for lineside and station photography,
this book is a vital guidebook for anyone looking to explore
Britain's preserved railways.
Originally published in 1979, this volume is an invaluable study of
a railway system and its adjustment to changing
political-geographical conditions, as well as changes in economic
and social geography. Each change in the territorial extent or in
the internal territorial-administrative organisation of Germany has
had its repercussions upon the spatial pattern of the country’s
economy and consequently upon the demand for transport.
Furthermore, the central position of Germany within the continent
has given an added importance to the role of its railways in the
overall pattern of the European railway system. For the transport
geographer the comparisons and contrasts with the British railway
system are particularly insightful.
Tim Parks s books on Italy have been hailed as "so vivid, so packed
with delectable details, they] serve as a more than decent
substitute for the real thing" (Los Angeles Times Book Review).
Now, in his first Italian travelogue in a decade, he delivers a
charming and funny portrait of Italian ways by riding its trains
from Verona to Milan, Rome to Palermo, and right down to the heel
of Italy.
Parks begins as any traveler might: "A train is a train is a
train, isn t it?" But soon he turns his novelist s eye to the
details, and as he journeys through majestic Milano Centrale
station or on the newest high-speed rail line, he delivers a
uniquely insightful portrait of Italy. Through memorable encounters
with ordinary Italians conductors and ticket collectors, priests
and prostitutes, scholars and lovers, gypsies and immigrants Parks
captures what makes Italian life distinctive: an obsession with
speed but an acceptance of slower, older ways; a blind eye toward
brutal architecture amid grand monuments; and an undying love of a
good argument and the perfect cappuccino.
Italian Ways also explores how trains helped build Italy and how
their development reflects Italians sense of themselves from
Garibaldi to Mussolini to Berlusconi and beyond. Most of all,
Italian Ways is an entertaining attempt to capture the essence of
modern Italy. As Parks writes, "To see the country by train is to
consider the crux of the essential Italian dilemma: Is Italy part
of the modern world, or not?""
A comprehensive account of the Charleston & Hamburg's history
from its inception through Reconstruction, "The Charleston &
Hamburg," with its forgotten stories of America's premier railroad,
is a necessary addition to the bookshelves of historians and rail
fans alike!
From the early years of steam power to today's awe-inspiring
high-speed passenger trains, this book spans nearly two centuries
of locomotive history. It covers the first designs of the 1830s,
early North American freight trains, the golden age of railways
from 1900-1950, the crossover from steam power to diesel and
electric, and how the locomotive was transformed into the superior
passenger and freight-pulling power of today. Bringing us to the
present, the latest developments are highlighted, including the
modern wonders that are Europe's Eurostar and the Japanese bullet
train. This definitive history of locomotive technology from the
1830s to 2000 charts the development of locomotive design
throughout the world, including Britain, the United States, Canada,
Europe, Australia, India, China, Japan and the Pacific Rim, and
includes detailed specification boxes for over 100 key locomotive
designs. With insightful text and 700 photographs, the book is a
guide that will appeal to all railway enthusiasts. *
Mysterious ghost stations forgotten beneath the cities of Paris and
London; desolate grand rail hubs in the Pyrenean mountains; metro
stations in China that terminate in a wasteland; Abandoned Train
Stations looks at some of the thousands of disused station
buildings, platforms, lines, tunnels, and rail yards left behind by
modernity. Organised by continent, this book takes the reader to
every corner of the globe. Explore Canfranc International Railway
Station, once a busy mountain hub of international travel between
France and Spain; see the eerily empty platform at Kings Cross
Thameslink, London, today a service tunnel following the station's
closure in the early 2000s; examine the grandiose Michigan Central
Train Station in Detroit, an historic Amtrak rail depot, and once
the tallest rail station in the world; marvel at the dusty,
overgrown shell of Abkhazia's once beautiful railway station in
Psyrtskha, a physical legacy of the former Soviet era in the
Caucasus; see the disused Tiwanaku train station, situated almost
4,000 metres above sea level in the Bolivian Andes; or learn about
the fascinating Istvantelek Train Yard, in the Hungarian capital of
Budapest, better known as the 'Red Star train graveyard' because of
its many Soviet-era engine wrecks. Illustrated with more than 200
photographs, Abandoned Train Stations provides a fascinating
pictorial journey through the little-known remnants of rail
transport infrastructure from every part of the world.
CrossCountry Trains Ltd won the right to operate the CrossCountry
franchise from 11 November 2007 when the Strategic Rail Authority
determined that its bid for the franchise was the best value for
money and the most sustainable. CrossCountry operates the most
extensive passenger rail network in the UK covering 16 million
route miles per year; it also operates the longest rail service in
the UK - the 08:20 a.m. Aberdeen to Penzance (774 miles). Based in
the centre of England in Birmingham, the company serves seven of
the country's largest cities and provides 295 services every
weekday, which equates to around 30 million passenger journeys per
year. It also employs around 1,626 employees. The company does not
operate any stations itself, but CrossCountry's trains do call at
more than 119 stations stretching from Aberdeen in the north,
Stansted Airport in the east, Cardiff in the west and Penzance in
the south west. With Birmingham New Street at the hub, its services
crisscross the country in a similar pattern to that of the UK
motorway system.
Europe by Eurail has been the train traveler's one-stop source for
visiting Europe's cities and countries by rail for nearly fifty
years. Newly revised and updated, this comprehensive annual guide
provides the latest information on fares, schedules, and pass
options, as well as detailed information on more than one hundred
specific rail excursions and sightseeing options.
Britain gave railways to the world, yet its own network is the
dearest (definitely) and the worst (probably) in Western Europe.
Trains are deeply embedded in the national psyche and folklore -
yet it is considered uncool to care about them. For Matthew Engel
the railway system is the ultimate expression of Britishness. It
represents all the nation's ingenuity, incompetence, nostalgia,
corruption, humour, capacity for suffering and even sexual
repression. To uncover its mysteries, Engel has travelled the
system from Penzance to Thurso, exploring its history and talking
to people from politicians to platform staff. Along the way Engel
('half-John Betjeman, half-Victor Meldrew') finds the most
charmingly bizarre train in Britain, the most beautiful branch
line, the rudest railwayman, and - after a quest lasting decades -
an Individual Pot of Strawberry Jam. Eleven Minutes Late is both a
polemic and a paean, and it is also very funny.
The 'Big Four' railways had experimented with diesel-powered
shunting locomotives from 1933 with the Great Western Railway
seeing the advantages of operating diesel-powered railcars, and
doing so successfully from the same date. The 1955 'Modernisation
Report' predicted the end of steam power and laid out the basis of
the 'Pilot Scheme' for the introduction of main-line diesel
locomotives to British Railways. A number of these hastily designed
classes of locomotives were found wanting in terms of power and
especially reliability, but pressure to forge ahead with their
introduction meant that the numbers constructed were unrealistic
and, in consequence, many had very short operating lives.
Fortunately, the 'Pilot Scheme' did bring forward some excellent
reliable classes of locomotives that were produced in large
numbers, with examples surviving into the modern railway operating
companies and the preservation scene. Early and First Generation
Green Diesels in Photographs brings together the work of four
photographers - Ron Buckley, Robert Butterfield, Andrew Forsyth and
Hugh Ramsay - charting the development of diesels in their
photographs from 1949 to 1966.
Produced annually by the team from Modern Railways - the leading
monthly rail magazine, The Modern Railway 2021 offers a
comprehensive review of the UK rail industry, together with an
overview of events in Europe. With contributions from Roger Ford,
Tony Miles, Alan Williams and other members of the team, The Modern
Railway 2021 provides an in-depth examination of: Policy and
finance, Infrastructure maintenance and renewal, Train operation
(passenger and freight), Major projects now under way including the
recently confirmed HS2, Rolling stock manufacturing and
maintenance, Signalling and telecommunications, Customer interface
and support, Light rail and Metro systems as well as European
developments. And in addition to editorial coverage of all the main
players and projects, The publication includes a comprehensive
directory of almost 3,000 suppliers and businesses involved in all
aspects of the UK rail industry.
A quick look at today's map of the county of Leicestershire and
it's easy to see that its county town, Leicester, sits at an
important railway crossroads. With London to the south and the East
Midlands cities of Derby and Nottingham to the north, the line
linking St Pancras and Sheffield is crossed in Leicester by one of
England's most important east-west link lines. This link provides
passenger rail journey opportunities to and from Birmingham to the
west and the cities of Peterborough and Cambridge to the east. In
addition, it is playing an increasingly important role as a freight
route to and from East Anglia, including connecting the UK's
largest container port at Felixstowe with a number of terminals
across the country. The line between Leicester and Burton on Trent
may have lost its passenger service, but it remains an important
access route to the quarries in the area around Coalville. The
county's railways may have been drastically pruned by the Beeching
Axe, but they still have a wide variety of traffic on offer. In
this book John Jackson looks at the variety of traffic at work on
the county's main lines. The story is completed by a glance at
today's roll of Brush's workshops in Loughborough and loco
servicing and stabling facility now occupying the former depot at
Leicester itself.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the great age of railway building,
Charles Dickens could not but be aware of their transformative
impact on society. So he wrote about it - to a remarkable extent.
He wrote a classic ghost story, 'The Signalman'; in Dombey and Son
about what is now the West Coast Main Line being carved through
north London in great ravines. He wrote satirical pieces about
railway catering - even back then; about the wonder of express
train travel to the Channel ports; travel pieces about exploring
America by train - and about being personally involved in the
notorious Staplehurst train crash in Kent. Now, in the year of
Dickens' 150th anniversary, Tony Williams, a distinguished Dickens
scholar, collects all these railway writings into a handsome little
volume ideal for a long train journey...
Lancashire and Yorkshire led Britain and the world into the
industrial revolution, yet were long cut off by the Pennine chain.
The railway age finally brought the two counties together and
ensured the continued growth of Manchester as Britain's second
city. It was linked to Leeds and Sheffield by a series of heroic
railway tunnels, three of which were successively the longest in
the world when completed in the 1840s. Often taken for granted,
this book portrays them as extraordinary achievements against
seemingly insuperable odds that deserve the fullest recognition.
These pages look not just at the tunnels and the men who created
them but also at how lines built through them connected key
stations either side of the Pennines. They step back further in
history to show how canals paved the way for the railways and also
look forward to the future with its brave talk of HS3 achieving
journey times that seem unimaginable. There is a remarkable
collection of illustrations ranging from period lithographs through
to present-day photographs. The many varied themes in this book
include: * The vision of George Stephenson - 'Father of Railways' *
Navvies left to fend for themselves in huts thrown together with
loose stones and thatch * Drunken riots following pay day * Death
and chronic illness at Woodhead tunnel on top of the Pennines *
Enginemen coming close to suffocation when working heavy freights
through the tunnels * Early travellers who preferred to get off and
walk rather than travel through a tunnel behind a 'steam monster' *
Branwell Bronte, errant brother of the literary sisters, dismissed
for constant carelessness at a Calder Valley station * The
magnificent Huddersfield station - a stately home with trains * The
Midland Railway with almost eight miles of tunnel between Sheffield
and Manchester * Inferno in a tunnel when a derailed tanker train
caught fire and temperatures reached 1,500 degrees C. * The superb
new Woodhead tunnel with its electric services that closed to
passengers after only 16 years
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