America was made by the railroads. The opening of the Baltimore & Ohio line--the first American railroad--in the 1830s sparked a national revolution in the way that people lived thanks to the speed and convenience of train travel. Promoted by visionaries and built through heroic effort, the American railroad network was bigger in every sense than Europe's, and facilitated everything from long-distance travel to commuting and transporting goods to waging war. It united far-flung parts of the country, boosted economic development, and was the catalyst for America's rise to world-power status.

Every American town, great or small, aspired to be connected to a railroad and by the turn of the century, almost every American lived within easy access of a station. By the early 1900s, the United States was covered in a latticework of more than 200,000 miles of railroad track and a series of magisterial termini, all built and controlled by the biggest corporations in the land. The railroads dominated the American landscape for more than a hundred years but by the middle of the twentieth century, the automobile, the truck, and the airplane had eclipsed the railroads and the nation started to forget them.

In "The Great Railroad Revolution," renowned railroad expert Christian Wolmar tells the extraordinary story of the rise and the fall of the greatest of all American endeavors, and argues that the time has come for America to reclaim and celebrate its often-overlooked rail heritage.

In 1963 comic duo Flanders and Swann composed Slow Train - a lament for some of the many railway lines proposed for closure by Dr Beeching. Among the destinations listed in their song is the refrain from St Erth to St Ives . Constructed in 1877 as the last broad gauge line to be built in the UK, the St Ives branch did not close in the 1960s and survives to this day - now widely regarded as one of the most scenic railways in Europe. How did it escape closure, and how did it come to be built in the first place? Why did the war departments of the world have their eyes on St Ives in the years before the First World War? How did a town once renowned for the inescapable smell of fish become one of the most popular tourist resorts in the UK? Did the Great Western Railway invent the Cornish Riviera? Why was a heliport proposed for St Erth? Where did a 32-ton ballast digger end-up in 2008? And how did two young men find themselves four miles from the nearest station in 1860 ? Containing over 100 images, mostly in colour and many never published before, this book sets out to answer these and many more questions.

This new book is a personal reminiscence by retired railwayman John C Morgan, who has put together the very best of his own collection of stunning colour photographs to portray the life and times of the Southern Railway. At a time when the railway scene was changing forever, John was out and about around the network capturing all those changes on film - whether it is steam, diesel or electric, the result is a veritable feast of colour railway nostalgia

Turbocharging is the time-proven way to get more power out of an engine, especially smaller ones. With fuel prices increasing, its something more and more tuners need to know about. This is the book to turn to.The definitive resource on turbocharging--from ignition to intercooler, exhaust to EMS--this book tells you all you need to know, whether youre planning a scratch-built turbo engine, converting a non-turbo motor, or troubleshooting OEM turbo equipment. There's even a chapter for turbocharging diesel engines.Author Jeff Hartman offers thorough, clear, and useful information on every aspect of turbocharging. And, after discussing the components and processes in general terms, he presents a number of case studies that complete the picture, providing a real-world understanding of how these modifications actually work.