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.

Join Thomas and the Fat Controller on a very special journey in this beautiful picture book! The Fat Controller has been invited to London to be given an award by the Queen! Thomas must take him to his destination, but they are faced with many obstacles along the way. They even meet a shiny royal engine named Duchess, who is also in a big hurry! Will Thomas get The Fat Controller to London's Victoria Station on time? Accompanied by stills from the upcoming TV special, The Royal Engine, and a cover illustrated in the Awdry tradition, this brand new adventure is bound to thrill fans of the little blue engine.

'Masterful.' - The Economist The Congo-Ocean railroad stands as one of the deadliest construction projects in history. It was completed in 1934, when Equatorial Africa was a French colony. African workers were conscripted at gunpoint, separated from their families and subjected to hellish conditions as they hacked their way through dense tropical foliage; excavated by hand thousands of tonnes of earth in order to lay down track; blasted their way through rock to construct tunnels; or risked their lives building bridges over otherwise impassable rivers. In the process, they suffered disease, malnutrition and rampant physical abuse, likely resulting in at least 20,000 deaths. Drawing on exhaustive research in French and Congolese archives, a chilling documentary record and eye-opening photographic evidence, J. P. Daughton tells the epic story of the Congo-Ocean railroad, and in doing so reveals the human costs and contradictions of modern empire.

The Snowdon Mountain Railway is one of the great narrow gauge railways of North Wales, with thousands of visitors travelling to the summit of Mount Snowdon along the line each year. This book covers the history of this historic and interesting line from its beginnings in the 1890s through to the present day. The author Peter Johnson has been writing about narrow gauge railways for many years and has a deep knowledge of the lines in North and Mid Wales. The Snowdon Mountain Railway is an important part of the tourist industry in North Wales and plays a vital part in providing transport in this popular and much visited area. This volume looks at the narrow gauge railway's history and development, taking in the present and future development of this fascinating line's operation.

Railway Memories No.33 reveals a whole treasure chest of inspirational railway scenes throughout North West England that are no longer there to be appreciated in real life. Steam era scenes predominate but there are also vintage electric trains for which the North West has a notable place in history. The 260 black and white photos range from steam trains on the long lost branch lines of the Lancashire coalfield and the great termini of Manchester and Liverpool to steam-hauled London-Glasgow expresses fighting their way up to Shap summit in the Cumbrian fells. A few classic diesels are included but no picture is later than the British Rail era.

Between 1900 and 1950, Americans built the most powerful steam locomotives of all time-enormous engines that powered a colossal industry. They were deceptively simple machines, yet, the more their technology was studied, the more obscure it became. Despite immense and sustained engineering efforts, steam locomotives remained grossly inefficient in their use of increasingly costly fuel and labor. In the end, they baffled their masters and, as soon as diesel-electric technology provided an alternative, steam locomotives disappeared from American railroads. Drawing on the work of eminent engineers and railroad managers of the day, this lavishly illustrated history chronicles the challenges, triumphs and failures of American steam locomotive development and operation.

This book is a gallery of more than two hundred photographs, including a colour section, featuring a selection of Great Western Railway/British Railways (Western) branch lines and similar services taken between 1900 and 1965\. The emphasis is pictorial rather than factual with the aim of using photographs provided by two transport charities as well as the author, all of which are unlikely to have appeared previously in print or on the Internet. Generally, images depict working trains surrounded by recognisable infrastructure, often with station nameboards visible. Such pictures should be of particular interest to railway modellers as well as invoking nostalgia for the older generation who were pursuing their hobby around the time the pictures were taken. Most of the branch lines covered were victims of the 1960s "Beeching Axe", with closure to passengers or complete closure coming even earlier in some cases. Most of the services depicted are steam operated although a few GWR and BR diesel railcars/multiple units are included. All the scenes seem to reflect a more leisurely way of life than exists today.

Renowned for its express locomotive Mallard setting a world speed record (126mph) for steam locomotives that endures to this day, the London & North Eastern Railway was the second largest of the 'Big Four' railway companies to emerge from the 1923 grouping and also the most diverse, with its prestigious high-speed trains from King's Cross balanced by an intensive suburban and commuter service from Liverpool Street and a high dependence on freight. Noted for its cautious board and thrifty management, the LNER gained a reputation for being poor but honest. Forming part of a series, along with The GWR Handbook, The LMS Handbook and The Southern Railway Handbook, this new edition provides an authoritative and highly detailed reference of information about the LNER.

With 187 top quality, mainly 1950s, photographs and eleven drawings, "Railway Memories No.18" lavishly illustrates the diverse railways that once wove their way around the hills, dales and spectacular coastline of Cleveland, Yorkshire's north east corner. As well as the busy line threading its way through the mass of iron, steel and chemical plants along the south bank of the Tees from Thornaby to Middlesbrough and the seaside resorts of Redcar and Saltburn, this new book also recalls the four different routes that once linked Teesside with Whitby, taking us to such places as Guisborough, Stokesley, Skinningrove, the Esk Valley and Whitby itself. "Railway Memories No.18" not only shows us the steam trains that once served both heavy industry and rural communities but features stations, depots, signal boxes and a wealth of operational information. It includes detailed introductory text, track layouts and operating instructions.

London's Underground is one of the best-known and most distinctive aspects of the city. Since Victorian times, this remarkable feat of engineering has made an extraordinary contribution to the economy of the capital and played a vital role in the daily life of generations of Londoners. Stephen Halliday's informative, entertaining, wide-ranging history of the Underground celebrates the vision and determination of the Victorian Pioneers who conceived this revolutionary transport system. His book records the scandal, disappointments, and disasters that have punctuated the story and the careers of the gifted, dedicated, sometimes corrupt individuals that have shaped its history. It also gives a fascinating insight into the neglected, often unseen aspects of this subterranean system - the dense network of tunnels, shafts and chambers that have been created beneath the city streets.

Bringing together around 5,000 square miles of land, the West Midlands region boasted a diverse system of railways. These ranged from the main lines connecting the north and south of Britain to small branches, as well as cross-country routes and local lines. The Last Years of West Midlands Steam records this area in the 1948-1967 period - using nearly 250 superb colour and black-and-white images - when the days of steam reached their peak. The book covers the smaller West Midlands county, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Several cities in the area appear: Birmingham, Coventry, Hereford, Lichfield, Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton and Worcester. There are also a number of large towns included, such as: Burton-upon-Trent, Dudley, Kidderminster, Leamington Spa, Nuneaton, Rugby, Shrewsbury, Stafford, Stourbridge, Tamworth, Uttoxeter, etc. With lines formerly operated by the London Midland & Scottish Railway and Great Western Railway, many locomotives of these companies are present, alongside the Standard Classes of British Railways. With a rich industrial heritage in the region, a number of privately owned locomotives appear at work on several sites, such as breweries and collieries. The West Midlands was a bustling and vibrant place for steam enthusiasts to observe and record locomotives at work. In doing so, a lost era has been captured and this collection has been assembled to celebrate those bygone days.