|
|
Books > Sport & Leisure > Transport: general interest
This book collects together about sixty drawings of fishing boats
at Arbroath Harbour, completed between 1989 to 1995. There are also
fifteen drawings of the harbour at Montrose, and of other Scottish
harbours relevant to Arbroath, in the same period. The author's
viewpoint is that of an interested spectator who likes fishing
boats. While drawing, he gained valuable background information
from the local people, including some fishermen, that he met as he
worked. His notes on the harbours he draws, and on the boats and
people within them, are written in the hope that everyone reading
the book will 'feel close to the sea'. The main story unfolds
gradually, starting in 1989 and running through to 1995. It begins
with a bird's eye view of Arbroath Harbour, 'so that even if you
have never been to Arbroath, you will soon know your way around'.
At the end of the book there is a map that show the positions of
all the Scottish harbour towns mentioned in the text. 'I have
written not just for Arbroath people, or just for Scottish people,
or even just for British people. I have written the book for people
everywhere. The call of the sea is universal.'
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
Mysterious ghost stations forgotten beneath the cities of Paris and
London; desolate grand rail hubs in the Pyrenean mountains; metro
stations in China that terminate in a wasteland; Abandoned Train
Stations looks at some of the thousands of disused station
buildings, platforms, lines, tunnels, and rail yards left behind by
modernity. Organised by continent, this book takes the reader to
every corner of the globe. Explore Canfranc International Railway
Station, once a busy mountain hub of international travel between
France and Spain; see the eerily empty platform at Kings Cross
Thameslink, London, today a service tunnel following the station's
closure in the early 2000s; examine the grandiose Michigan Central
Train Station in Detroit, an historic Amtrak rail depot, and once
the tallest rail station in the world; marvel at the dusty,
overgrown shell of Abkhazia's once beautiful railway station in
Psyrtskha, a physical legacy of the former Soviet era in the
Caucasus; see the disused Tiwanaku train station, situated almost
4,000 metres above sea level in the Bolivian Andes; or learn about
the fascinating Istvantelek Train Yard, in the Hungarian capital of
Budapest, better known as the 'Red Star train graveyard' because of
its many Soviet-era engine wrecks. Illustrated with more than 200
photographs, Abandoned Train Stations provides a fascinating
pictorial journey through the little-known remnants of rail
transport infrastructure from every part of the world.
A place of absolute significance during Italy's golden age of
hillclimbing has to go to the Bologna-Raticosa. As well as the
pioneering first event way back in 1926, the hillclimb was at its
peak from 1950 until 1969. Its winners included Bracco, Cabianca,
Palmieri, Castellotti, Govoni, Herrmann, Moioli or Noris, Ortner
and Venturi. And the cars they drove included Ferraris, OSCAs,
Maseratis and Abarths. So along its more than 43 km route - it was
reduced to not much more than 32 km from 1962 - raced some of the
greatest drivers of the period. Then, after a long silence, the
Bologna made its comeback in 2001, first as an invitation race and
then as a round in the Italian Vintage Car Speed Championship. The
man who tells the story of this great classic is Carlo Dolcini,
author of a number of books on the Mille Miglia, who covers again
this historic event, and Francesco Amante, the tireless organiser
and promoter of the most recent Bologna events. So for the first
time, the entire story of the Bologna-Raticosa is told in a book
that boasts a wealth of historic and modern illustrations as well
as the complete results of the hillclimb.
The Pony Express has a hold on the American imagination wildly out
of proportion to its actual contribution to the history and
development of the West. It lasted less than eighteen
months—about the amount of time it took author Scott Alumbaugh to
plan and ride the route—and utterly failed by every measure of
success attributed to it. The only reason it did not fade out of
public consciousness, as did the far more successful Butterfield
mail, is publicity. In the Pony’s case, a thirty-year campaign of
publicity mounted by Buffalo Bill Cody, who mislead the public by
claiming to have been a Pony Express rider, and lied outright by
claiming to have made the longest Pony Express run. More than
anyone, Buffalo Bill kept the legend alive by including a Pony
Express segment throughout the run of his Wild West show. But while
the Pony Express may be among the least significant developments of
its era, it is the most iconic. One can’t really understand the
Pony Express—what it stood for, what it accomplished, why it came
about at all—without understanding the far more interesting
historical milieu from which it grew: Three wars (Mexican, Utah,
and Paiute); two gold rushes (California and Pike’s Peak); the
overland emigration of hundreds of thousands to Oregon and
California; the exodus of tens of thousands of Mormons to Utah. On
the Pony Express Trail: One Man's Bikepacking Journey to Discover
History from a Different Kind of Saddle recounts the author’s
experience bikepacking the Pony Express Trail over five weeks
during June and July 2021, and uses the trail as a prism through
which to survey a wide spectrum of mid-1800s historical events.
Sixty-two-year-old Alumbaugh rode the Pony Express Bikepacking
Route from St. Joseph, MO to Salt Lake City, UT, over 1,400 miles,
mostly off-road, sometimes through very remote territory. The
narrative follows his day-to-day experiences and impressions: the
challenges, the sites he visited, the country he rode through, and
interactions with the people he met.
|
|