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Books > Sport & Leisure > Transport: general interest > Trains & railways: general interest
Today, Sussex is best-known to railway aficionados as the home of
the Bluebell Line, Great Britain's first preserved standard gauge
passenger-carrying railway, but at one time the sound of steam
could be heard across the county. Many main line routes had been
electrified in the 1930s but only the passenger services were
affected and, well into the BR era, steam traction continued
unchallenged on a variety of tasks, ranging from Bulleid Pacifics
on long distance inter-regional expresses to diminutive LBSCR
'Terriers' pottering around on menial shunting duties. Some
distinctive designs, such as the elegant Billinton K Class
'Moguls', were closely associated with Sussex and gave the county a
special identity. Using some of the most evocative images available
this album vividly recalls the closing years of steam in this
much-loved county.
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 200 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.
Reveals the legacy of the train as a critical site of race in the
United States Despite the seeming supremacy of car culture in the
United States, the train has long been and continues to be a potent
symbol of American exceptionalism, ingenuity, and vastness. For
almost two centuries, the train has served as the literal and
symbolic vehicle for American national identity, manifest destiny,
and imperial ambitions. It's no surprise, then, that the train
continues to endure in depictions across literature, film, ad
music. The Racial Railroad highlights the surprisingly central role
that the railroad has played-and continues to play-in the formation
and perception of racial identity and difference in the United
States. Julia H. Lee argues that the train is frequently used as
the setting for stories of race because it operates across multiple
registers and scales of experience and meaning, both as an
invocation of and a depository for all manner of social,
historical, and political narratives. Lee demonstrates how, through
legacies of racialized labor and disenfranchisement-from the
Chinese American construction of the Transcontinental Railroad and
the depictions of Native Americans in landscape and advertising, to
the underground railroad and Jim Crow segregation-the train becomes
one of the exemplary spaces through which American cultural works
explore questions of racial subjectivity, community, and conflict.
By considering the train through various lenses, The Racial
Railroad tracks how racial formations and conflicts are constituted
in significant and contradictory ways by the spaces in which they
occur.
'A delightful book ... the perfect companion as you wait for the
8.10 from Hove' Observer After the Beeching cuts of the 1960s, many
railways were gradually shut down. Rural communities were isolated
and steam trains slowly gave way to diesel and electric traction.
But some people were not prepared to let the romance of train
travel die. Thanks to their efforts, many lines passed into
community ownership and are now booming with new armies of
dedicated volunteers. Andrew Martin meets these volunteer
enthusiasts, finding out just what it is about preserved railways
that makes people so devoted. From the inspiration for Thomas the
Tank Engine to John Betjeman's battle against encroaching
modernity, Steam Trains Today will take you on a heart-warming
journey across Britain from Aviemore to Epping.
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