World leading motorsport home entertainment
4.8
Locomotion Two Century of Train Travel Book

Locomotion Two Century of Train Travel Book

    £20.00

    Sold Out.

    Product code: S25906Released: 10 October 2002

    Product description

    This anthology celebrates 200 years of railway history and railway writing. The compiler has made a fascinating selection from fact and fiction to illustrate the attractions of train travel and the human side of running a railway. He includes memorable extracts describing rail travel in Britain, continental Europe, Canada, the USA and India which gave a vivid impression of the development and diversity of railways since the pioneering days of the eearly 1800s. The quotations have been chosen for their inherent historical interest and insight, the quality of the writing and for the extraordinary events they record. His collection makes fascinating reading for railway enthusiasts and for everyone who knows the charm of travelling by train.

    Famous authors feature in the collection - Charles Dickens, John Masters, L.T.C. Rolt - but there are also many evocative, well-written accounts from less distinguished rail travellers. The subject matter is equally diverse - Richard Trevithick's Penydarren locomotive of 1804, the first steam intercity railway between Liverpool and Manchester, an unforgettable description of the working life of a Victorian signalman, Brunel's evidence to the Gauge Commissioners in 1845, a coast-to-coast journey across the USA in 1881, the narrow gauge Festiniog railway of 1863, the local lines of central France in the 1950s, a trip on the footplate in British India and a train journey through a wilderness fire in northern Canada. Also featured are tales of innovative engineering, wartime railways, narrow gauge railways, railway disasters and heroism, speed records, diesel development and the determination of the railway preservation movement.

    The broad scope of the author's anthology and his perceptive interpretive text ensure that the book offers a graphic insight into the world of trains and rail travel.

    Hardback. 215 pages.

    Reviews