Railroads category: 1183 books

The Underground network in London has always held a fascination for historians and transport enthusiasts, from the early days of the steam operated system in the 1860s. Today's London Underground covers the network as it is today, with features on the different lines across the capital and the modern...

The Waverley Route ran from Edinburgh, through the Scottish Borders, to Carlisle. Opening in 1862, the line was closed in 1969 as a result of the Beeching Report; feelings ran so high when it closed that there were protests which delayed the last passenger service on the line by two hours, led to...

Liverpool has many railway ‘firsts’ in the world: an inter-city service, an electrified overhead railway, a large-scale marshalling yard, a deep-level suburban tunnel and one under a tidal estuary. In Britain it can boast of other firsts: an escalator in a railway station, conversion from steam...

Containing over 70 first-hand accounts, 'Voices from the Railways' gives fresh insight into the social changes brought about by our railways. The anecdotes gathered within this book include William Wordsworth's complaint about a proposed line through the Lake District, an engine driver's reward for transporting...

There have been passenger tramways in Britain for 150 years, but it is a rollercoaster story of rise, decline and a steady return. Trams have come and gone, been loved and hated, popular and derided, considered both wildly futuristic and hopelessly outdated by politicians, planners and the public...

Since the mid-nineteenth century the East Coast Main Line has been one of the major routes from London to northern England and to Scotland. It has seen some of the greatest achievements in the railways, most notably the 'Flying Scotsman' becoming, in 1934, the first locomotive in the world to exceed...

Sorely neglected by railway authors, the line between Bristol and Taunton was part of the Bristol & Exeter Railway. A fascinating line, it was built to serve a moribund coalfield and a grand harbour scheme which proved a dismal failure. The line had many interesting features: two short dock branches,...

The growth of railways was a major influence in transforming Britain's landscape. This book examines how they brought about physical changes to towns, the country and coast, and had a profound affect that is still visible today, especially on the shape and size of our towns and cities. In his...

For more than 100 years, steam locomotives were the most technologically advanced form of power and transport dominating the railways and were often described as the “heart-beat” of the UK. The earliest railways used horse-power to pull carts along the track, but the age of steam was just beginning...

Julian Holland's Dr Beeching's Axe 50 Years On is a unique memorial to all that was lost following the publication of the ‘Beeching Report’ on 27 March 1963. Uniquely, the author has tried to include every railway line that was closed as a result of the ‘Beeching Report’, and more. They are...

Never before has a comprehensive history been written of the track used by railways of all gauges, tramways, and cliff railways, in Great Britain. And yet it was the development of track, every bit as much as the development of the locomotive, that has allowed our railways to provide an extraordinarily...

London owes its origins to being a suitable site for settlement close to what was then the lowest bridging point of the Thames. There have been many factors that have caused it to become such a vast, diverse and dynamic organism. Transport and the railways in particular have played a vital part in...

The intercity electric railway industry in Canada, which began in 1887, ended in 1959. It was never a major industry but its role in the transition of Canadian land transportation from almost sole reliance on the steam railroad to dominance of the motor vehicle should not be overlooked. Professor...

Renowned for its express Mallard setting a world speed record (126mph) for steam locomotives that endures to this day, the LNER was the second largest of the 'Big Four' companies to emerge from the 1923 grouping and also the most diverse, with the express trains from King's Cross balanced by an intensive...