Railway disasters are almost always the result of human fallibility--a single mistake by an engine-driver, guard, or signalman, or some lack of communication between them--and it is in the short distance between the trivial error and its terrible consequence that the drama of the railway accident lies. First published in 1955, and the result of Rolt's careful investigation and study of the verbatim reports and findings by H. M. Inspectorate of Railways, this book was the first work to record the history of railway disasters, and it remains the classic account. It covers every major accident...

This book contains 15 tales of the supernatural from L.T.C. Rolt, author of 'Landscape with Machines' and 'Narrow Boat'. Stories include 'The House of Vengeance', 'The Garside Fell Disaster', 'The Mine', and 'Mountaineer'.

Established by Act of Parliament in 1865 and unaffected by mergers and nationalisation, the Talyllyn Railway is now the oldest surving railway of its kind in the world. Rolt presents an account of how amateurs managed to preserve this unique line.

L.T.C. Rolt's fame was born from his unique ability to produce works of literature from subject matter seemingly ill suited to such treatment - engineering, canals, railways, steam engines, agricultural machinery, vintage cars - such as in his classic biographies of Brunel, Telford, Trevithick and the Stephensons, and in his superbly written volumes of autobiography. In this, the first part of his autobiography, Rolt tells of his childhood in Chester, on the Welsh border near Hay-on-Wye and in Gloucestershire; of an engineering apprenticeship and career which took him from a farm in the Vale...

L.T.C. Rolt's fame was born from his unique ability to produce works of literature from subject matter seemingly ill suited to such treatment - engineering, canals, railways, steam engines, agricultural machinery, vintage cars - such as in his classic biographies of Brunel, Telford, Trevithick and the Stephensons, and in his superbly written volumes of autobiography. In Landscape with Machines Rolt told the story of his youth and his subsequent training as an engineer. That book ended with the fulfilment of his dream to convert the narrow boat Cressy into a floating home in which he could...