Kategoria BISAC: Transportation >> Railroads - History

Flying Scotsman is probably the most famous railway locomotive in the world. When it was new in 1923 it caused a sensation for its beauty and its speed, and the engine found itself at the center of media attention that continued throughout the decade and made it a household name - to see it was the ambition of every young trainspotter.

But The Flying Scotsman was also a train. Since 1862 the 10am departure from London Kings Cross and Edinburgh Waverley had been the fastest and most comfortable way of travelling the length of the nation, and in 1923 it was officially titled The...

Sixty years after a disparate group of railway enthusiasts came together in a remote corner of rural Wales to run a train service - a true story that inspired the Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt - 'heritage railways' are a serious matter, bringing visitors, employment and a sense of local identity to regions throughout Britain. Bob Gwynne tells the story of this phenomenon and looks at the range of challenges that have been overcome to create the vibrant world of the Heritage railway that we enjoy today. The book ranges from the origins of railway preservation through to 'new build'...

Central to the prompt delivery of the nation's mail is its efficient transit throughout the country. From 1830, the Post Office relied increasingly on the overland rail network to achieve this. Railway Post Offices, Sunday Sorting Tenders and District Sorting Carriages were amongst the services introduced.

More important lines carried the famous 'Night Mails'; rarely seen by the public, unless seeking out the late night facility of posting directly into the side of a mail train. These were supplemented by additional services enabling even rural locations to enjoy a 'next day' service...

For the majority of the British public in the Victorian period the railways were the only way to travel. In 1880 the population of Britain and Ireland took 518 million railway journeys, and by the turn of the century this number had risen to just over 1.1 billion. Therefore, for anyone trying to get anywhere before 1914, the process of checking the timetable, buying a ticket and taking a seat, was central to their work and leisure activities. However, how people travelled in 1830 had changed radically by the time of the First World War, and the basic services of the early railway been...

This is the story of an industry that began in the North of England, with small engineering concerns building engines that powered early railways like the Stockton and Darlington and Liverpool & Manchester. Once railway companies had become firmly established, the industry expanded dramatically as they set up their own engineering workshops to build and maintain not only locomotives, but also carriages, wagons and all manner of other items of equipment.

Locations like Crewe, Derby, Doncaster, Eastleigh and Swindon soon became famous as 'Railway Towns' with new communities growing up...

The fascinating story of the British steam locomotive

Britain was the birthplace of the steam locomotive and even today, the world speed record for steam remains with a British locomotive, Mallard. The steam locomotive went through several distinct phases during its long life, which came to an end on regular service in the late 1960s. There was the early phase, then the trend for large single driving wheels, compound locomotives with connected driving wheels once steel became strong enough for the connecting rods, tanks engines that could run equally well forwards and...

"The Great Northern Railway, in the eventful year of 1941, met every requirement made of it as the Nation hurriedly prepared for war." So Great Northern's president spoke of the Minnesota railroad that transported the tanks and airplanes, materiel and troops, that were critical to America's military success. This illustrated volume offers an enlightening--and irresistibly entertaining--look at Minnesota railroads from that shining moment, near the end of the romantic era of steam locomotives and luxury passenger lines, to the reemergence of railroads as one of the few profitable...