Amberley imprint: 2705 books

With a foreword by the Duke of Edinburgh, who travelled to the Antarctic on the maiden voyage of the RRS John Biscoe, this is the story of the ship’s final voyage in the Antarctic to the British Antarctic Survey bases. Illustrated with fabulous photographs by the author, the book tells the story of the most famous of British Antarctic Survey vessels, the RRS John Biscoe.

A smuggler ...'honest thief ' or 'wretch'? Opinion was divided some two hundred years ago when smuggling was in its heyday and known as 'that infamous traffick'. Charles Lamb, the essayist, was in favour when he wrote in the early 1800s, 'I like a smuggler; he is the only honest thief.' The great...

The Class 58s were introduced in 1983, and were a significant departure from normal build standards. The fifty members were built by BREL at Doncaster Works, and were built to a modular design: BR had one eye on the export market with this class of loco. They were fitted with a Ruston Paxman 12RK3ACT...

This class of AC electric locomotive comprised 100 members, built from 1965 onwards. The first forty locos were built by British Rail at their Doncaster Works, and the other sixty were built by English Electric at their Vulcan Works. They were built for West Coast services, which had been electrified...

This is a pictorial tribute to the British Rail workhorse, the Class 31. Over 260 of these locos were built by Brush at Loughborough from 1958 onwards, and they would work on most regions for the next forty years, with a few examples still working today. Working both passenger and freight trains,...

The Class 08/09 was to become the main diesel shunter of the British Railways era. Just over a thousand of the two classes were built from 1952 onwards at five different British Rail workshops over a ten-year period. Just about every corner of the UK would be home to one or more of these shunting...

In the 1950s, British Railways set upon the Modernisation Plan, which would set out the way British Rail would operate in the future. It was decided to replace steam with diesel, and so the idea of the diesel multiple unit was born. From the mid-1950s onwards, thousands of power and trailer cars were...

Italy is dominated by its national operator Trenitalia. With most of the country bordered by the Mediterranean, there is little scope for cross-border traffic, although there are a couple of famous crossings, most notably at Brenner to the north-west and Chiasso to the north. The busiest part of the...

With its size, France is home to a huge number of locomotives. The country can basically be split in two, with the northern half running on AC traction, and the southern half on DC traction. A vast number of locomotives are dual-powered, and so can run all over the country. Locomotives can be found...

Being situated in the centre of the UK, the West Midlands have always been the hub of the railway network. From InterCity workings from London Euston, to CrossCountry trains from the North East to the South West, there has always been plenty of variety on these passenger services, and most points...

This is a pictorial tribute to the Class 20 locomotive. 228 of these single-cab locos were built from 1957 onwards by English Electric and Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns. They were part of the BR modernisation plan to replace steam. There are two different front-end designs, the first carry headcode...

Class 50s are probably among the best-loved diesel locomotives that have run on British Rail. Fifty of these powerful, English Electric-powered locomotives were built by EE at their Vulcan foundry from 1967 onwards. They were ordered to work express passenger workings on the northern end of the West...

The Class 43 locos were first constructed from 1975 onwards at Crewe Works. At the time, the design was revolutionary, and it would go on to become the most iconic of British Rail locomotives. Their sleek design would become world famous and, when introduced, they were known as the High Speed Train,...

Loadhaul, Mainline and Transrail were formed in 1994, when British Rail decided to concentrate its freight operations in the three companies. BR decided to split the country into three regions, with Loadhaul in the north-east, Transrail to the west, and Mainline to the south and east. The three companies...