|
Books > Sport & Leisure > Transport: general interest > Trains & railways: general interest
After the Civil War, the building of the transcontinental railroad was the nineteenth century's most transformative event. Beginning in 1842 with a visionary's dream to span the continent with twin bands of iron, Empire Express captures three dramatic decades in which the United States effectively doubled in size, fought three wars, and began to discover a new national identity. From self--made entrepreneurs such as the Union Pacific's Thomas Durant and era--defining figures such as President Lincoln to the thousands of laborers whose backbreaking work made the railroad possible, this extraordinary narrative summons an astonishing array of voices to give new dimension not only to this epic endeavor but also to the culture, political struggles, and social conflicts of an unforgettable period in American history.
Crossroads of a Continent: Missouri Railroads, 1851-1921 tells the
story of the state's railroads and their vital role in American
history. Missouri and St. Louis, its largest city, are
strategically located within the American Heartland. On July 4,
1851, when the Pacific Railroad of Missouri began construction in
St. Louis, the city took its first step to becoming a major hub for
railroads. By the 1920s, the state was crisscrossed with railways
reaching toward all points of the compass. Authors Peter A. Hansen,
Don L. Hofsommer, and Carlos Arnaldo Schwantes explore the history
of Missouri railroads through personal, absorbing tales of the
cutthroat competition between cities and between railroads that
meant the difference between prosperity and obscurity, the
ambitions and dreams of visionaries Fred Harvey and Arthur
Stilwell, and the country's excitement over the St. Louis World's
Fair of 1904. Beautifully illustrated with over 100 color images of
historical railway ephemera, Crossroads of a Continent is an
engaging history of key American railroads and of Missouri's
critical contribution to the American story.
Howling down the tunnels comes a new collection showcasing the
greatest stories of strange happenings on the tracks, many of which
are republished here for the first time since their original
departure. Waiting beyond the barrier are ghostly travelling
companions bent on disturbing the commutes of the living, a subway
car disappearing into a different dimension without a trace, and a
man's greatest fears realized on the ghost train of a carnival. An
express ticket to unforgettable journeys into the supernatural,
from the open railways of Europe and America to the pressing dark
of the tube.
During the mid-19th Century, thousands of unknown workers from so
many countries toiled incessantly and under great danger during the
construction of the railroad that joined the Atlantic city of Colon
with the Pacific city of Panama, making it the world's first
transcontinental railway. This is its story. Bilingual text in
Spanish and English. Al mediados del siglo 19, miles de
trabajadores inc gnitos de tantos pa ses trabajaron sin descanso y
bajo gran peligro durante la construcci n del ferrocarril que uni
la ciudad caribe a de Col n con la ciudad de Panam en el pac fico,
convirti ndolo en el primer ferrocarril transcontinental del mundo.
Esta es su historia. Texto biling e en espa ol e ingl s.
This title features key facts and figures spanning over 150 years
of British railway history, from the early 1800s to the end of the
golden era of steam in the 20th century. It offers technical
specification tables for each class, including builder's name,
location and date, weight, driving wheel diameter, boiler pressure,
cylinders, valve gear, coal capacity, water capacity and tractive
effort. It features all the classic British steam locomotives,
including the 'Iron Duke' class, the D class, the 'Royal Scot'
class, the Q1 class, and many more. It is divided into sections
covering the four main eras: 1800-1885; 1885-1920; 1920-1940; and
1940-1960. It includes a glossary of key railway terms. Britain was
the pioneering force behind the birth of the steam locomotive. By
1829, George Stephenson and his son Robert had developed a fast,
revolutionary and light-weight steam engine: Rocket. This superbly
illustrated book celebrates the British steam locomotive legacy.
From the streamlined 'flyers' of the 1930s to freight workhorses
and dock tanks, the book profiles the variety of steam locomotives
that Britain has produced. With over 200 photographs covering 85
classes, as well as detailed information on each period and a
comprehensive glossary, the book covers the story of the first,
finest and fastest locomotives ever to run on rails.
The Great Northern Railway Through Time takes us on a tour of the
American Northwest-the last American frontier-from St. Paul,
Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington. The Great Northern opened up the
Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, the dramatic Cascade Mountains of
Washington and the Continental Divide at Marias Pass. President
James J. Hill intended the Great Northern to be a freight hauling
road, but tourists riding on the GN's premier passenger train, The
Empire Builder were delighted by the prairie, the farmland, the Big
Sky Country, the mountains, and Glacier National Park. The G.N.'s
reputation grew. Today, Amtrak's Empire Builder traverses the same
territory. The Great Northern Railway Through Time presents photos
taken over the course of seventy five years by photographers of the
era. The author has provided ample photo captions pointing out
features that have changed over the years and features that have
stayed the same. The early photos are fresh-never before published.
The more recent shots were made by twenty of America's finest rail
enthusiast photographers.
In 1710 an obscure Devon ironmonger Thomas Newcomen invented a
machine with a pump driven by coal, used to extract water from
mines. Over the next two hundred years the steam engine would be at
the heart of the industrial revolution that changed the fortunes of
nations. Passionately written and insightful, A Brief History of
the Age of Steam reveals not just the lives of the great inventors
such as Watts, Stephenson and Brunel, but also tells a narrative
that reaches from the US to the expansion of China, India and South
America. Crump shows how the steam engine changed the world.
The story of an engineering marvel of the twenty-first century, from Britain's bestselling railway writer.
In autumn 2019, Europe's biggest infrastructure project – a state-of-the-art cross-London railway – will finally come to fruition. From Reading and Heathrow in the west, the Elizabeth line will extend to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, including 42 kilometres of new tunnels dug under central London.
Crossrail, first conceived just after the Second World War in the era of Attlee and Churchill, has cost more than £15bn and is expected to serve 200 million passengers annually. The author sets out the complex and highly political reasons for Crossrail's lengthy gestation, tracing the troubled progress of the concept from the rejection of the first Crossrail bill in the 1990s through the tortuous parliamentary processes that led to the passing of the Crossrail Act of 2008. He also recounts in detail the construction of this astonishing new railway, describing how immense tunnel boring machines cut through a subterranean world of rock and mud with unparalleled accuracy that ensured none of the buildings overhead were affected.
A shrewdly incisive observer of postwar transport policy, Wolmar pays due credit to the remarkable achievement of Crossrail, while analysing in clear-eyed fashion the many setbacks it encountered en route to completion.
Andrew Grant Forsyth's impressive catalogue of previously
unpublished photographs portrays the work of locomotives from all
parts of the former LNER territories between 1947 and 1958. On
trips to sheds and stations across eastern England, he photographed
a wide variety of stock, including the former Hull and Barnsley
Railway tanks, North Eastern Railway 'Q' Classes, Nigel Gresley's
Class A3 and A4, and the Arthur Peppercorn 'Pacifics'. From
Newcastle to north London, East and North Eastern Steam is a
valuable collection that provides a unique insight into the
changing scene of locomotive power in the mid-twentieth century.
Rails Under the Mighty Hudson tells a story that begins in the
final years of the nineteenth century and reaches fulfillment in
the first decade of the twentieth: namely, the building of rail
tunnels under the Hudson River linking New Jersey and New York.
These tunnels remain in service today-although one is temporarily
out of service since its Manhattan terminal was under the World
Trade Center-and are the only rail crossings of the Hudson in the
metropolitan area.Two of the tunnels were built by the Hudson and
Manhattan Railroad, a company headed by William Gibbs McAdoo, a man
who later served as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and even mounted
a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination at one point.
McAdoo's H&M remains in service today as the PATH System of the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.The other tunnel was
opened in 1910 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, led to the magnificent
Penn Station on Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street, and remains in daily
service today for both Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. The author
has updated this new edition with additional photographs, a
concluding chapter on recent developments, and a Preface that
recounts the last trains of September to the World Trade Center
Terminal.
Is any disaster really forgotten? It is never forgotten by the
survivors who lived through the trauma. It is never forgotten by
the emergency services who tried to save the day. It is never
forgotten by the relatives of those who never came home. Britain's
Lost Tragedies Uncovered is a look at the tragedies and disasters
that may not have stayed in public memory, but are no less terrible
than their more famous counterparts. From a late-nineteenth-century
family massacre in London to two separate fatal crashes at Dibbles
Bridge in Yorkshire, and the worst-ever aviation show crash in
post-war Farnborough to the horrifying Barnsley Public Hall
disaster - here are twenty-three accounts of true devastation and
stunning bravery. They are tales that deserve to be remembered.
In Great Britain there existed a practice of naming steam railway
locomotives. The names chosen covered many and varied subjects,
however a large number of those represented direct links with
military personnel, regiments, squadrons, naval vessels, aircraft,
battles and associated historic events. Memorably the Southern
Railway (SR) created a Battle of Britain class of Light Pacific
locomotives, which were named in recognition of Battle of Britain
squadrons, airfields, aircraft and personnel. The Great Western
Railway (GWR) re-named some of its express passenger Castle Class
engines after Second World War aircraft. Names were displayed in
varying styles on both sides of the locomotives, additionally some
nameplates were adorned with ornate crests and badges. Long after
the demise of mainline steam, rescued nameplates are still much
sort after collectors' items, which when offered for sale command
high prices. This generously illustrated publication highlights the
relevant steam locomotives at work and explains the origins of the
military names.
For this second book in the Transport Philately series on public
transport issues featured on postage stamps, once again the author
will combine two of his life-long hobbies as he looks at railways
around the world on standard gauge tracks that encompasses the
majority of the western worlds major railway arteries. The book
will also illustrate railways on other, similar gauges of track
where they constitute a countrys major arteries, but it is not an
exhaustive survey encompassing every country and every issue for
that one needs to refer to major catalogue issues by such
well-known authorities as Stanley Gibbons Plc. There have been many
and varied reasons why postal authorities have issued stamps
featuring railway subjects, varying from major anniversaries to
national pride, the latter often from the former Eastern-bloc
countries but that is not by all means. The Royal Mail in the UK
has certainly not ignored railways, especially in later years, and
the author will visit probably more of his native country's stamps
than most other countries, but hes biased. The author often looks
in his albums to try to understand why a particular country will
sometimes be represented by bulging sections, whilst others are
represented by but one or two stamp. And so, the book follows the
story around the world in roughly an eastern journey, learning
about some of the national histories on the way and admiring the
attentions of some extremely accomplished artists that mean
philatelists and rail-lovers alike can enjoy many beautiful
miniature works of art.
The Poster to Poster series is a nine-volume definitive collection
of British railway posters which showcases many of the railway
posters from the National Railway Museum at York and other museums
and galleries. Each volume is a mixture of travel documentary,
geographical and historical study, graphic artists' reference and
poster database - all interlinked using the central theme of
railway posters. This 9th volume, takes a journey from around the
USA from the east to the west coast. The result is a stunning
artistic guide to North American destinations and railway poster
heritage. This is a high quality production and is fully
illustrated with beautiful and memorable posters. it is a stunning
book that should appeal to everyone, not just railway enthusiasts.
Robert A. Van Wyck, mayor of the greater city of New York, broke
ground for the first subway line by City Hall on March 24, 1900. It
took four years, six months, and twenty-three days to build the
line from City Hall to West 145th Street in Harlem. Things rarely
went that quickly ever again. The Routes Not Taken explores the
often dramatic stories behind the unbuilt or unfinished subway
lines, shedding light on a significant part of New York City's
history that has been almost completely ignored until now. Home to
one of the world's largest subway systems, New York City made
constant efforts to expand its underground labyrinth, efforts that
were often met with unexpected obstacles: financial shortfalls,
clashing agendas of mayors and borough presidents, battles with
local community groups, and much more. After discovering a copy of
the 1929 subway expansion map, author Joseph Raskin began his own
investigation into the city's underbelly. Using research from
libraries, historical societies, and transit agencies throughout
the New York metropolitan area, Raskin provides a fascinating
history of the Big Apple's unfinished business that until now has
been only tantalizing stories retold by public-transit experts. The
Routes Not Taken sheds light on the tunnels and stations that were
completed for lines that were never fulfilled: the efforts to
expand the Hudson tubes into a fullfledged subway; the Flushing
line, and why it never made it past Flushing; a platform underneath
Brooklyn's Nevins Street station that has remained unused for more
than a century; and the 2nd Avenue line-long the symbol of dashed
dreams-deferred countless times since the original plans were
presented in 1929. Raskin also reveals the figures and
personalities involved, including why Fiorello LaGuardia could not
grasp the importance of subway lines and why Robert Moses found
them to be old and boring. By focusing on the unbuilt lines, Raskin
illustrates how the existing subway system is actually a Herculean
feat of countless political compromises. Filled with illustrations
of the extravagant expansion plans, The Routes Not Taken provides
an enduring contribution to the transportation history of New York
City.
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.
Over the last few years the UK rail network has been going through
a transformative period, changing rail travel for many different
people. New train operators and new trains have revolutionised the
way we travel. In this book Adam Head utilises a number of
previously unpublished images to illustrate the many changes that
have affected the UK rail network, including the introduction of
new operators and demise of others, the network's latest trains,
and livery changes from the around the country. A wide variety of
operators and rolling stock are featured here, as Britain's rail
scene faces new challenges on the tracks and in stations.
|
|