Kategoria BISAC: Transportation >> Railroads - History

In this vividly descriptive short study, Peter Ackroyd tunnels down through the geological layers of London, meeting the creatures that dwell in darkness and excavating the lore and mythology beneath the surface.
There is a Bronze Age trackway below the Isle of Dogs, Anglo-Saxon graves rest under St. Pauls, and the monastery of Whitefriars lies beneath Fleet Street. To go under London is to penetrate history, and Ackroyd's book is filled with the stories unique to this underworld: the hydraulic device used to lower bodies into the catacombs in Kensal Green cemetery; the door in the...

One of the most challenging engineering feats in railroad construction, the Chihuahua al PacIfico railroad of Mexico was conceived in the mid-19th century and opened in 1961. Photo-journalist Glenn Burgess covered the final construction for newspapers in Texas, exploring the engineering challenges and the possibilities for commerce. His black and white photographs taken with a 4x5 Speed Graphic camera provide an important record of this engineering wonder. Don Burgess adds both historical and personal context for the articles through notes and interviews. The collection is...

One of the most important parts of British heavy industry today is our railway system. Its constant appearances in news bulletins, its enormous appeal to fans or "enthusiasts," its permanent role in the lives of most of us, and its economic significance today, all underline its importance. Railway historians and enthusiasts will be surprised to learn that chemists played an important part in the development of the railway industry in Britain. Chemists themselves are well aware of the many and wide-ranging applications of their discipline, but the fact that their predecessors were involved...

Desde las entraNas de la tierra que siglos atrAs ocuparon las tribus Opatas en esta regiOn serrana de la geografIa de Sonora se forja su historia, que durante siglos estarA aleada al mineral que naturalmente la engendra. AsI lo expone el libro Nacozari de GarcIa, Tres siglos de historia y minerIa, una obra que proyecta una amplia panorAmica histOrica de Nacozari de GarcIa, en la que el lector verA cOmo los riquIsimos yacimientos de cobre matizan con su brillo metAlico el registro histOrico, y soplan vida a una comarca antes desierta. El serio y dedicado trabajo de investigaciOn de...

An international seaport and an industrial powerhouse, Duluth was a natural for streetcar service, but making it successful was a challenge. The city, some twenty-five miles long yet only three miles wide in most places, has the tallest and steepest hills in Minnesota and a harbor separating it from its sister city, Superior, Wisconsin. Twin Ports by Trolley charts the history of the streetcar system that met the unique difficulties posed by Duluth, from the Interstate Bridge that crossed the harbor to the Incline Railway that carried travelers more than five hundred feet above...

ArtIculos de prensa y fotografIas; de Glenn Burgess; editados por Don Burgess: El ferrocarril Chihuahua al PacIfico de MExico es una de las obras de ingenierIa que mAs retos ha presentado en la construcciOn de caminos y ferrocarriles: Concebido desde mediados del Siglo 19, no fue posible terminarlo e inaugurarlo sino hasta 1961. Glenn Burgess, fotoperiodista, realizO reportajes a lo largo de la construcciOn final, para periOdicos de Texas, explorando la zona desde Ojinaga hasta Topolobampo, conociendo los retos de ingenierIa y construcciOn, y las posibilidades que abrIa...

World War II marked the zenith of railway gun development. Although many of the railway guns initially deployed at the start of the conflict were of World War I vintage, Germany's ambitious development program saw the introduction of a number of new classes, including the world's largest, the 80cm-caliber Schwerer Gustav and Schwerer Dora guns, which weighed in at 1,350 tons and fired a huge 7-ton shell.

This book provides an overview of the types of railway guns in service during World War II, with a special focus on the German railway artillery used in France, Italy, and on the...

As rush hour came to a close on the evening of May 25, 1950, one of Chicago s new fast, colorful, streamlined streetcars known as a Green Hornet slammed into a gas truck at State Street and 62nd Place. The Hornet s motorman allegedly failed to heed the warnings of a flagger attempting to route it around a flooded underpass, and the trolley, packed with commuters on their way home, barreled into eight thousand gallons of gasoline. The gas erupted into flames, poured onto State Street, and quickly engulfed the Hornet, shooting flames two hundred and fifty feet into the air. More than half of...

Desperate for laborers to keep the trains moving during World War II, the U.S. and Mexican governments created a now mostly forgotten bracero railroad program that sent a hundred thousand Mexican workers across the border to build and maintain railroad lines throughout the United States, particularly the West. Although both governments promised the workers adequate living arrangements and fair working conditions, most bracero railroaders lived in squalor, worked dangerous jobs, and were subject to harsh racial discrimination.

Making matters worse, the governments held a percentage...

George Henry Atkinson (1819-89) was a son of New England who arrived in the Oregon Territory in 1848, sent by the American Home Missionary Society. Although his commission from the Society specified that his work was to be ecclesiastical and educational, he took an approach to that assignment which went well beyond his mandate. Well-informed and energetic, he made an impact on the Congregational churches of the Northwest, while using that base of action to spread his influence far beyond the churches that were his primary area of responsibility.

He believed that a successful future...

Significant Images of Railroading presents an overview of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art's collections. Of the nearly 200,000 images in those collections, 93 are presented here in vibrant color and rich, quadtone black-and-white. Those images come from 10 principal collections, including the work of Wallace W. Abbey, whose circa 1950 photograph from Chicago Union Station is featured on the cover. A preservation award from Trains magazine helped fund processing of the Abbey Collection. Other major holdings include the works of Fred M. Springer, John F. Bjorklund, and Ted Rose. In...