The railway era began in Britain when steam was king. In the age of petrol and diesel, these once confident, rumbustious railways fell into decline, yet as their fortunes waned, the fascination for trains and all their works grew - and has if anything become more intense as congested roads and high-speed trains have sparked a revival in railway travel. In The Railways of Britain, Jack Simmons sympathetically tells the history of the railways and describes every major aspect of their equipment and operations: permanent way, buildings, locomotives, rolling stock, signalling and labour relations. He also makes journeys through the Pennines, Scotland, Essex and Southern England on which he acts as observer and guide. This third edition of one of the outstanding works of British railway literature has been substantially rewritten, revised and brought up to date. For the first time it has been fully illustrated in colour and black and white with more than 200 photographs, maps and engravings, many of them previously unpublished. Jack Simmons, late doyen of British railways historians, was Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Leicester. The Railways of Britain was first published in 1961 and is his best-known work. His other books include St Pancras Station, The Railway in England and Wales, 1830-1914, Transport Museums in Britain and Western Europe and The Railway in Town and Country as well as two volumes in the 11-volume Visual History of Modern Britain, of which he was General Editor.

This book explores how the Erie Railway, in developing a series of sophisticated travel guides, made significant contributions to nineteenth-century visual culture and shaped the social life of Americans. The Erie Railway emerged during a time in which a societal response to the production of landscape paintings and prints led to a concurrent development of tourism. The era promoted a visual culture that encouraged scenic thinking in which closely viewed scenes and deep prospects became the basis for engaging physical landscapes and their representations. Revealing how visual culture apprehends aspects of reality that texts only partially grasp, the Erie guides became an important part of the commentary on the role of landscape in nineteenth-century American life. Their images and texts are worth our attention as annotations on the production of culture.

When it first opened on October 27, 1904, the New York City subway ran twenty-two miles from City Hall to 145th Street and Lenox Avenue--the longest stretch ever built at one time. From that initial route through the completion of the IND or Independent Subway line in the 1940s, the subway grew to cover 722 miles--long enough to reach from New York to Chicago.

In this definitive history, Clifton Hood traces the complex and fascinating story of the New York City subway system, one of the urban engineering marvels of the twentieth century. For the subway's centennial the author supplies a new foreward explaining that now, after a century, "we can see more clearly than ever that this rapid transit system is among the twentieth century's greatest urban achievements."

The seminal and pioneering London Underground is more than a mass transportation network - it is a style icon, its history involving some of the most important architects and artists of their time. Exploring Frank Pick's vision through the development of Metroland to Holden's innovative designs, David Long expertly weaves the story of the Underground - its abundance of characters (some good, some not so good), design firsts and brand identity - with Jane Magarigal's atmospheric photography. From suburban expansion to Blitz bombings and Soviet adulation, this book celebrates what remains a magnificent engineering and aesthetic achievement while providing an affectionate if slightly elegiac portrait of a London which is now gone for good.

Sunday Times History Book of the Year 2015 Currently filming for BBC programme Full Steam Ahead Britain's railways have been a vital part of national life for nearly 200 years. Transforming lives and landscapes, they have left their mark on everything from timekeeping to tourism. As a self-contained world governed by distinctive rules and traditions, the network also exerts a fascination all its own. From the classical grandeur of Newcastle station to the ceaseless traffic of Clapham Junction, from the mysteries of Brunel's atmospheric railway to the lost routines of the great marshalling yards, Simon Bradley explores the world of Britain's railways, the evolution of the trains, and the changing experiences of passengers and workers. The Victorians' private compartments, railway rugs and footwarmers have made way for air-conditioned carriages with airline-type seating, but the railways remain a giant and diverse anthology of structures from every period, and parts of the system are the oldest in the world. Using fresh research, keen observation and a wealth of cultural references, Bradley weaves from this network a remarkable story of technological achievement, of architecture and engineering, of shifting social classes and gender relations, of safety and crime, of tourism and the changing world of work. The Railways shows us that to travel through Britain by train is to journey through time as well as space.

This new book is the third by Wolfgang Sawodny on German armored trains in World War II, and presents all new information not previously discussed in his first two highly successful volumes. The main emphasis here is on the operational history of German armored train units on the Russian front, and includes many previously unpublished photographs.

Chartered in 1827 as the country's first railroad, the legendary Baltimore and Ohio played a unique role in the nation's great railroad drama and became the model for American railroading. John W. Garrett, who served as president of the B&O from 1858 to 1884, ranked among the great power brokers of the time. In this gripping and well-researched account, historian Kathleen Waters Sander tells the story of the B&O's beginning and its unprecedented plan to build a rail line from Baltimore over the Allegheny Mountains to the Ohio River, considered to be the most ambitious engineering feat of its time. The B&O's success ignited "railroad fever" and helped to catapult railroading to America's most influential industry in the nineteenth century. Taking the B&O helm during the railroads' expansive growth in the 1850s, Garrett soon turned his attention to the demands of the Civil War. Sander explains how, despite suspected Southern sympathies, Garrett became one of President Abraham Lincoln's most trusted confidantes and strategists, making the B&O available for transporting Northern troops and equipment to critical battles. The Confederates attacked the B&O 143 times, but could not put "Mr. Lincoln's Road" out of business. After the war, Garrett became one of the first of the famed Gilded Age tycoons, rising to unimagined power and wealth. Sander explores how-when he was not fighting fierce railroad wars with competitors-Garrett steered the B&O into highly successful entrepreneurial endeavors, quadrupling track mileage to reach important commercial markets, jumpstarting Baltimore's moribund postwar economy, and constructing lavish hotels in Western Maryland to open tourism in the region. Sander brings to life the brazen risk-taking, clashing of oversized egos, and opulent lifestyles of the Gilded Age tycoons in this richly illustrated portrait of one man's undaunted efforts to improve the B&O and advance its technology. Chronicling the epic technological transformations of the nineteenth century, from rudimentary commercial trade and primitive transportation westward to the railroads' indelible impact on the country and the economy, John W. Garrett and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is a vivid account of Garrett's twenty-six-year reign.

The year 1963 will always be remembered as the one when the Sixties really started to swing. The Beatles and Rolling Stones were topping the charts while the mini-skirt and the Mini car had become the latest fashion accessories. For those with an interest in railways however, 1963 was memorable for the publication by Her Majesty's Stationery Office of Part 1 of the report 'The Reshaping of British Railways' by Dr Richard Beeching, then chairman of the British Railways Board. The term 'reshaping' was somewhat of a euphemism as the Report envisaged a radical reduction in the national rail network. Hundreds of stations were to be closed to both freight and passenger traffic, along with thousands of miles of track, while several thousand staff would be made redundant. This book is intended as a record of how the proposals affecting passenger services in the Wessex Area were ruthlessly implemented over a ten year period. Since then, despite the introduction of modern high-speed rolling stock and much track rationalisation, the extent of our rail network has remained basically the same. Train services in Wessex today are therefore still very much Dr Beeching's Legacy. In addition he bequeathed to the nation a linear network of derelict land which could be put to other purposes, including that of heritage railway. The area covered by this book include sections of the counties of Avon, Somerset, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset and Gloucestershire.

This is the definitive story of the men who built the railways the unknown Victorian labourers who blasted, tunnelled, drank and brawled their way across nineteenth-century England.

Preached at and plundered, sworn at and swindled, this anarchic elite endured perils and disasters, and carved out of the English countryside an industrial-age architecture unparalleled in grandeur and audacity since the building of the cathedrals.

Self-propelled carriages were a major innovation at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the GWR was quick to develop a large number of steam motor cars to link farms and scattered villages across the South West to the new branch lines. Their steam motor cars ran from 1903 to 1935, stopping during the war, and were so effective at making rural areas accessible they became victims of their own success. Wagons brought in to meet the high demand proved too heavy for the carriages and they struggled on hills. Soon the steam rail motor services were in decline. After its cancellation all ninety-nine steam carriages were eventually scrapped. Engineer Ken Gibbs reveals the unique GWR carriages, a window into early twentieth-century transport, and the modern replica he helped build, now the only way of viewing these charming historic vehicles.

To assist the modeller, both experienced and beginners, Jeremy English presents his second instalment in this popular series continuing basically as before but with the additional emphasis on EMUs, signalling, sample layouts and lineside structures. As before, prototype plans are included as well as examples of some of the best Southern models and layouts of recent years. A wealth of photographs, in both colour and black and white, compliment what will be a 'must have' modelling title for the enthusiast.

In its more than 50 route miles the Central Line provides a wide variety of locations both in 'tube' and in the open air, and after more than a century of operation not surprisingly there are many 'past and present' contrasts. This title includes the preserved section now operated by the Epping Ongar railway.

Do you know what's under your feet? The London Underground was the very first underground railway - but it wasn't the first time Londoners had ventured below ground, nor would it be the last. People seem to be drawn to subterranean London: it hides unsightly (yet magnificent) sewers, protects its people from war, and hosts its politicians in times of crisis. But the underground can also be an underworld, and celebrated London historian Fiona Rule has tracked down the darker stories too - from the gangs that roamed below looking for easy prey, to an attempted murder-suicide on the platform of Charing Cross. Underneath London is another world; one with shadows of war, crime and triumph. London's Labyrinth is a book that no London aficionado should be without.