The London Midland Region covered a huge part of England from London to the north and north west, from the Scottish borders into the south west. It served huge metropolitan cities and towns, supported heavy industry, and ran through areas of outstanding natural beauty such as the Peak District and Lake District. Modelling the Midland Region from 1948 is an essential guide to creating your own model based on the London Midland Region of the British Railways era. It covers the history of the London Midland Region; British Rail and LMS locomotives; passenger and goods rolling stock; structures and scenery unique to the region, and signalling and electrification. The authors of this book are trustees of the charity Famous Trains model railway and directors of its operating company Famous Trains Ltd.

A saga about one of the oldest and most romantic enterprises in the land America s railroads The Men Who Loved Trains introduces some of the most dynamic businessmen in America. Here are the chieftains who have run the railroads, including those who set about grabbing power and big salaries for themselves, and others who truly loved the industry.

As a journalist and associate editor of Fortune magazine who covered the demise of Penn Central and the creation of Conrail, Rush Loving often had a front row seat to the foibles and follies of this group of men. He uncovers intrigue, greed, lust for power, boardroom battles, and takeover wars and turns them into a page-turning story for readers.

Included is the story of how the chairman of CSX Corporation, who later became George W. Bush s Treasury secretary, was inept as a manager but managed to make millions for himself while his company drifted in chaos. Men such as he were shy of scruples, yet there were also those who loved trains and railroading, and who played key roles in reshaping transportation in the northeastern United States. This book will delight not only the rail fan, but anyone interested in American business and history."

There are more than 400 miniature railways in Britain. Some are hidden away and privately owned, others are parkland attractions, and some - such as the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch - are large commercial enterprises. They come in an array of gauges (from 5 inches up to 15 inches and sometimes beyond), but their most definitive characteristic is that they can carry passengers, whether sitting astride the rolling stock or inside enclosed carriages. In this colourfully illustrated guide, David Henshaw offers a concise history of miniature railways from the nineteenth century to the modern day, including a whistle-stop tour of the most notable examples open to the public - including the Ravenglass & Eskdale and Eastleigh Lakeside railways - exploring their layouts, engineering and rolling stock.

Built as part of the massive expansion of Great Britain's railway network during the nineteenth century, London's thirteen mainline railway stations are proud symbols of the nation's industrial and architectural heritage. Produced in association with The National Archives, and profusely illustrated with period photographs and diagrams, London Railway Stations tells the story of these iconic stations and of the people who created them and used them. Though built in an age of steam, smoke, gas lamps and horses, most retain features of their original design. This book will bring new light to these old buildings, and help you to see London's mainline stations through new eyes.

Praised by the Chicago Tribune as "thoroughly and compellingly detailed history," Volumes I and II of Maury Klein's monumental history of the Union Pacific Railroad covered the years from 1863-1969. Now the third and final volume brings the story of the Union Pacific--the oldest, largest, and most successful railroad of modern times--fully up to date.
The book follows the trajectory of an icon of the industrial age trying to negotiate its way in a post-railway world, plagued by setbacks such as labor disputes, aging infrastructure, government de-regulation, ill-fated mergers, and more. By 1969 the same company that a century earlier had triumphantly driven the golden spike into Promontory Summit--to immortalize the nation's first transcontinental railway--seemed a dinosaur destined for financial ruin. But as Klein shows, the Union Pacific not only survived but is once more thriving, which proves that railways remain critical to commerce and industry in America, even as passenger train travel has all but disappeared. Drawing on interviews with Union Pacific personnel past and present, Klein takes readers inside the great railroad--into its boardrooms and along its tracks--to show how the company adapted to the rapidly changing world of modern transportation. The book also offers fascinating portraits of the men who have run the railroad. The challenges they faced, and the strategies they developed to meet them, give readers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of one of America's great companies.
A capstone on a remarkable achievement, Union Pacific: The Reconfiguration will appeal to historians, business scholars, and transportation buffs alike.

Why did Telford need railways? Shropshire was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution in England. The railways provided a way of getting raw materials into the works and finished products to market, and the network grew steadily with the industries of the time; mining. brick and tile making, iron smelting and forging. Author David Clarke covers the history of the railway network and lines in Telford, from its early industrial beginnings to the present day. The book examines the importance of the coal and engineering industries to the region, and covers the rolling stock, signals, signal boxes and locomotive depots of the network. It details the variety of traffic that was generated in the area and traffic passing through. It also gives details never before published of the workings in and out of Hollinswood Yard.

Once an icon of American industry, railroads fell into a long decline beginning around the turn of the twentieth century. Overburdened with regulation and often displaced by barge traffic on government-maintained waterways, trucking on interstate highways, and jet aviation, railroads measured their misfortune in lost market share, abandoned track, bankruptcies, and unemployment. Today, however, as Robert Gallamore and John Meyer demonstrate, rail transportation is reviving, rescued by new sources of traffic and advanced technology, as well as less onerous bureaucracy. In 1970, Congress responded to the industry's plight by consolidating most passenger rail service nationwide into Amtrak. But private-sector freight service was left to succeed or fail on its own. The renaissance in freight traffic began in 1980 with the Staggers Rail Act, which allowed railroad companies to contract with customers for services and granted freedom to set most rates based on market supply and demand. Railroads found new business hauling low-sulfur coal and grain long distances in redesigned freight cars, while double-stacked container cars moved a growing volume of both international and domestic goods. Today, trains have smaller crews, operate over better track, and are longer and heavier than ever before. Near the end of the twentieth century, after several difficult but important mergers, privately owned railroads increased their investments in safe, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly freight transportation. American Railroads tells a riveting story about how this crucial U.S. industry managed to turn itself around.

In roughly one hundred years - from the 1870s to the 1970s - dining on trains began, soared to great heights, and then fell to earth. The founders of the first railroad companies cared more about hauling freight than feeding passengers. The only food available on trains in the mid-nineteenth century was whatever passengers brought aboard in their lunch baskets or managed to pick up at a brief station stop. It was hardly fine dining. Seeing the business possibilities in offering long-distance passengers comforts such as beds, toilets, and meals, George Pullman and other pioneering railroaders like Georges Nagelmackers of Orient Express fame, transformed rail travel. Fine dining and wines became the norm for elite railroad travelers by the turn of the twentieth century. The foods served on railroads - from consomme to turbot to souffle, always accompanied by champagne - equaled that of the finest restaurants, hotels, and steamships. After World War II, as airline travel and automobiles became the preferred modes of travel, elegance gave way to economy. Canned and frozen foods, self-service, and quick meals and snacks became the norm. By the 1970s, the golden era of railroad dining had come grinding to a halt. Food on the Rails traces the rise and fall of food on the rails from its rocky start to its glory days to its sad demise. Looking at the foods, the service, the rail station restaurants, the menus, they dining accommodations and more, Jeri Quinzio brings to life the history of cuisine and dining in railroad cars from the early days through today.

This beautifully illustrated and fully updated book features 26 of the world's greatest railway journeys, from those of epic scope, such as the Trans-Siberian, Australia's Indian Pacific and The Canadian - to those of great scenic beauty, such as the UK's Settle to Carlisle and Switzerland's Glacier Express. Steam-powered journeys include France's Vivarais Line and the USA's Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. These superlative journeys include the incredibly high (from Puno to Cuzco in Peru), the dramatically steep (the Khyber Pass), and what may well be the most famous, the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Luxury cruise trains are well represented, including India's Royal Orient Express, Africa's Blue Train and Spain's Al Andalus - as are more adventurous routes such as Beijing to Hanoi. Each trip is evocatively written up by a knowledgeable and enthusiastic railway travel writer. All the journeys can still be made, and practical information and contact details are given for those who want to undertake the journeys themselves. It includes: Canada - The Canadian: Across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver; United States of America - The Coast Starlight: Los Angeles to Seattle; Denver & Rio Grande - Railroads: Durango & Silverton and Cumbres & Toltec lines; Mexico - The Copper Canyon Railway: El Fuerte to Chihuahua; Peru - Puno to Cuzco; United Kingdom - The Settle & Carlisle; The Royal Scotsman: Edinburgh - Highlands Circuit; France - The Vivarais Line: Along the Rhone Valley from Tournon to Lamastre; Germany - Along The Rhine: Cologne via Mainz Circuit; Switzerland - The Glacier Express: Zermatt to St Moritz; Spain - El Transcantabrico: Across Northern Spain; Al Andalus: Seville - Andalucia Circuit; Norway - The Flam Railway: Myrdal to Flam; Across Europe and Asia - The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express: Venice to London; and, Trans-Mongolian & Siberian Expresses: Beijing to Moscow & Moscow to Vladivostok. It also includes: Pakistan - The Khyber Pass: From Lahore via Peshawar to the Khyber Pass; India - The Darjeeling Himalayan: New Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling, The Royal Orient Express: Delhi - Rajasthan & Gujarat Tour; Malaysia - The Eastern & Oriental Express: Singapore via Penang to Bangkok; China into Vietnam - Beijing to Hanoi; Australia - The Ghan: Adelaide to Alice Springs; The Indian Pacific: Sydney to Perth; New Zealand - The TranzAlpine: Christchurch across the Alps to Greymouth; Africa - Blue Train: Pretoria to Cape Town; and, Pride of Africa: Cape Town to Dar Es Salaam.

The Crosville bus company served large areas of the North West and North Wales and is still fondly remembered today. Enjoy nostalgic views of Crosville buses of years gone by plying their routes in towns and villages in Cheshire, Liverpool and the Wirral, Manchester, Lancashire, and parts of Derbyshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire, contrasted with present-days views of the same places today.

Shown are Soviet armored trains as used during the Russian Revolution, the Russian Civil War, and World War II.

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.

First published in 1985, this Atlas uses over 50 specially drawn maps to trace the rise and fall of the railways' fortunes, and is supported by an interesting and authoritative text. Financial and operating statistics are clearly presented in diagrammatic form and provide a wealth of information rarely available to the student of railway history. Freeman and Aldcroft provide the basis for a new understanding of the way in which the railways transformed Britain by the scale of their engineering works, by shrinking national space and reorganising the layouts of urban areas. Maps show the evolution of early wagon routes into the first railway routes, the frenetic activity of the 'Railway Mania' years, and the consolidation of these lines into a national network. This exciting presentation of railway development will interest the enthusiast as well as the more general student of British transport history.

As the world speeds up, as technology takes over, it is worth remembering how we used to live. This three-book series is a nostalgic hymn to an era when life was slower: a meandering ramble through the British countryside by bicycle, automobile and train. Take an amble across the countryside with this book, which celebrates a time when our railway network was more than a permanently delayed omnishambles of overcrowded and overpriced trains. Country stations and lonely halts, milk churns and coal yards, enamelled signs and platform clocks - these are the fragments of a more leisured age, from a time when the local station was a well-loved institution at the heart of so many communities. Here are gas-lit rural stations, oil lamps on level crossing gates, enamelled signs, waiting room fires, timetables and luggage labels. Less a clattering, steamy ride into the past than a touchstone for joyous memories of such a vital and well-loved institution, The Slow Train harks back to a more measured, considered era.

Join Thomas for an adventure on the Island of Sodor in this delightful new picture book! This action-packed story is filled with diggers, mud and lots of engine fun! Alfie the digger just wants to be a part of the team and help get Sodor ready for a big fair. But he is too little and nobody needs a digger. That is until Thomas gets himself stuck in the mud! Alfie must rush to the rescue to make sure Thomas gets to the fair on time. Thomas has been teaching children lessons about life and friendship for over 75 years. He ranks alongside other beloved characters such as Paddington Bear, Winnie-the-Pooh and Peter Rabbit as an essential part of our literary heritage.

In the 1870s, people traveling west of the Mississippi were still venturing into the wild. Loud, smoke-belching trains might have cut across the rough terrain, but harsh weather, rigid seats, and short breaks for bad food in the middle of nowhere showed the West was by no means won. Entrepreneur Fred Harvey had an eye for such problems and a nerve for the impossible. In 1876, he began establishing high-quality dining rooms along the Santa Fe Railroad, and his Harvey Houses helped change the entire picture of the American West. Recapture the spirit of the first western railway excursions with The Harvey House Cookbook. Its 200-plus vintage recipes, numerous period photos, and fascinating stories will take readers back to one of America's legendary experiences in the Old West.

Founded in Philadelphia in 1831 by Matthias Baldwin, the Baldwin Locomotive Works became the premier manufacturer of 2-8-2 Mikado locomotives, along with many unique designs built in small numbers for specific clients, such as a Cab Forward 4-8-8-2. From 1831-1956, Baldwin Locomotive Works built 70,541 quality locomotives used by some of the most famous railways in North America, including the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, along with far flung railroads in Haiti, England, France, India, and Egypt. Captured here in hundreds of detailed etchings and diagrams are ten years of this illustrious firm's locomotives, complete with detailed descriptions of the locomotives, parts, and construction direct from the company that produced them. This book is a treasure for everyone with a passion for the Age of Steam and this historic locomotive works.

For nearly thirty years, John Haining (under the pen name 'Countryman's Steam') contributed a vast range of designs and constructional articles to the pages of Model Engineer magazine. These covered all types and sizes of engine:- steam traction engines for the road and field and standing engines, and the way they worked with ploughs, cider mills, elevators and threshing machines. The articles were always popular with those seeking steam experiences away from the railways, and as a result the author built up an authoritative reputation for the extent of his knowledge in this area. As a technical consultant to Model Engineer, the author built up an enviable reputation for the extent of his knowledge and the immense trouble he took to reply fully and clearly to readers' queries and problems. This book was originally written in 1982 to expound on some of the problems encountered by engine owners, both in full size and in small scale. It places particular emphasis on design and construction, and the care of steel boilers, with formulae and data used by the top firms. A new and enlarged edition was extended to cover more fully the design, construction and care of steel boilers in general, with formulae and data used by firms of repute. An extra chapter was included covering the author's designs of three vertical boilers, the Sentinel, the Caradoc and a 3 inch scale version.

Although a great deal has been published on the economic, social and engineering history of nineteenth-century railways, the work of historical geographers has been much less conspicuous. This overview by David Turnock goes a long way towards restoring the balance. It details every important aspect of the railway's influence on spatial distribution of economic and social change, providing a full account of the nineteenth-century geography of the British Isles seen in the context of the railway. The book reviews and explains the shape of the developing railway network, beginning with the pre-steam railways and connections between existing road and water communications and the new rail lines. The author also discusses the impact of the railways on the patterns of industrial, urban and rural change throughout the century. Throughout, the historical geography of Ireland is treated in equal detail to that of Great Britain.

The railways of Britain were battered and bruised after the First World War. Over 20,000 miles of track were owned and operated by 120 companies, and the government decided the country could no longer support so many inefficient, diverse and, in some cases, overlapping operations. To stem the mounting losses and regulate the system, the 1921 Railways Act, also known as the Grouping Act, became law on 1 January 1923. Just four large companies remained, nicknamed the 'Big Four': the LMS (London, Midland and Scottish Railway); the LNER (London and North Eastern Railway); the SR (Southern Railway); and the GWR (Great Western Railway). Remembering the Big Four looks back at the Big Four railway companies, 100 years after they were drawn together. Complete with contemporary images of the locomotives inherited and built by each company, it is essential reading for any railway enthusiast.

During much of his early career, from 1944 through to the early 1960s, Richard Hardy took hundreds of pictures of life on the railways and the men he knew and worked with on a daily basis, using his trusty Brownie 620 box camera. These unique behind the scenes images form a fascinating and hugely evocative portrayal of Britain at the height of the era of steam, during the time of the 'Big Four', and after 1947 when the sprawling nationalised network known as British Railways came of age. The second edition contains many new unseen photos which capture the railways in wartime, providing a valuable social record of the nation at war. In addition there is a sequence of rare photographs of French engines, railways and railwaymen, offering a superb contrast to the British rail network (it quickly becomes evident that the British rail system ran on tea, whereas the French system ran on wine). Great characters are the unifying theme of the pictures, and they include famous figures associated with the railways, such as the poet John Betjeman. This wonderfully illustrated book sets Richard's personal photographs and text alongside a carefully collated selection of ephemera, artworks and photographs drawn from the National Railway Museum in York. Collectively these images and artefacts tell the stories of the great brotherhood of railwaymen, brilliantly evoking the speed, heat and dust of the footplate.

The birth of the railway in the early 1830's revolutionized the way the world waged war. From armored engines with swiveling guns, to the practice of track sabotage, to the construction of tracks that crossed frozen Siberian lakes, the "iron road" facilitated conflict on a scale that was previously unimaginable. It not only made armies more mobile, but widened fighting fronts and increased the power and scale of available weaponry; a deadly combination.

In "Engines of War," Christian Wolmar examines all the engagements in which the railway played a part: the Crimean War; the American Civil War; both world wars; the Korean War; and the Cold War, with its mysterious missile trains; and illustrates how the railway became a deadly weapon exploited by governments across the world.

Great Britain not only invented the main-line railway but has also led the way in it's preservation - not just locomotves and carriages but also the buildings and structures that bear witness to the confidence of railway developers, architects and engineers. This book defines the nature of the railway heritage - from signalboxes, viaducts, tunnels and locomotive depots - and then discusses priorities and the best practice for it's conservation. The subject is a strongly topical one due to current concern over privatization, the effects of planned high-speed rail links and lively debates concerning the role of the enthusiast in railway preservation.