Title: The Modern Railway Directory

Editor: Ken Cordner

Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing

Price: £20.00

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: British Railways

Category: The Railways

Launched in 2006, "The Modern Railway" is the indispensable guide to the UK Railway Industry. It guides its readers through the sometimes complex structure of today's railway, and is therefore popular with rail managers and staff, investors, regular travellers and the informed observer. This innovative annual publication details all parties involved in the operation, maintenance, manufacture, supply and management of the UK rail industry and gives an overview of developments in Europe. Edited by Modern Railways' Ken Cordner with contributions from Roger Ford, Howard Johnston, John Gough and other members of the team, "The Modern Railway Directory 2008" examines all aspects of: policy and finance; infrastructure maintenance and renewal; train operation (passenger and freight); Civil Engineering; Rolling Stock manufacture and maintenance; signal & telecommunications; rail innovations & exhibitions; and light rail & metro systems.

Title: Fire & Steam

Author: Christian Wolmar

Publisher: Atlantic Books

Price: £19.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: British Railways

Category: The Railways

The opening of the pioneering Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1830 marked the beginning of the railway network's vital role in changing the face of Britain. "Fire and Steam" celebrates the vision and determination of the ambitious Victorian pioneers who developed this revolutionary transport system and the navvies who cut through the land to enable a country-wide railway to emerge. As Christian Wolmar's wide-ranging history shows, the rise of the steam train allowed Britain as never before, stimulating the growth of towns and industrialisation, as well as many of the facets of modern life, from fish and chips to professional football.

Title: Liverpool & Manchester

Author: Bob Pixton

Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing

Price: £14.95

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: British Railways

Category: The Railways

The name John Muir has come to stand for the protection of wild land and wilderness in both America and Britain. Born in Dunbar in 1838, Muir is famed as a pioneer of American conservation and his passion, discipline and vision still inspire. Combining acute observation with a sense of inner discovery, Muir's writings of his summer in what would become the great national park of Yosemite in California's Sierra valley raise a close awareness of nature to a spiritual dimension. His journal provides a unique marriage of natural history, lyrical prose and amusing anecdote, retaining a freshness, intensity and brutal honesty which will amaze the modern reader.

Title: Railways of Britain: Norfolk and Suffolk

Author: Colin McCarthy

Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing

Price: £19.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: British Railways

Category: The Railways

Each volume in this new series will include 40 maps updated and revised from Colonel Cobb's originals. The maps show the railway network in terms of those lines still open, those open for freight traffic only, lines which have been preserved and those closed completely. Alongisde the railway lines, the book also includes an outline of the road network in simplified form to allow the inter-relationship between railways and roads to be clearly identified. In addition to mapping, each volume will also include a detailed historical sketch outlining the development of the area's railway network, a representative selection of photographs as well as a detailed index and a gazetteer of stations with opening and, where appropriate closure dates. As such, each volume in the series becomes a detailed reference book on the area featured.

Title: London Transport in the 1930s

Author: Michael H. C. Baker

Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing

Price: £15.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: British Railways

Category: The Railways

The author recounts how the London Passenger Transport Board was established in 1933 and how it evolved during these years. The changing nature of the LPTB's vehicle fleet is also discussed. Alongside the author's entertaining and pertinent text, the book includes some 175 mono illustrations that portray the great variety of scenes visible on London's roads and rails during this fascinating period.

Title: The Grand Experiment

Author: Stuart Hylton

Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing

Price: £19.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: British Railways

Category: The Railways

Between 1800 and 1850 Britain underwent a revolution, not in the political sense, but a social and economic one. The Industrial Revolution when, for a few short decades, Britain became the 'Workshop of the World' was one of the defining eras of modern history. The country's economy moved from one based upon agriculture to one where trade and industry dominated. Many factors played their part in bringing about this radical change in the national condition but one of the most significant was the revolution in transport without which the other elements which made up by the Industrial Revolution would not have been possible or would have occurred much more slowly. It was the coming of the railway that, for the first time, truly knitted the country together, bringing as it did uniform time across the country for the first time in history. Detailed in its analysis and comprehensive in its coverage "The Grand Experiment: The Birth of the Railway Age 1820-1845" will become the definitive account of this vital period in Britain's transport and economic history. It will be required reading for all historians of the period as well as the growing number fascinated with the history of the Industrial Revolution.

Title: Brunel's Timber Bridges and Viaducts

Author: Brian Lewis

Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing

Price: £24.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: British Railways

Category: The Railways

Drawing upon the records of the GWR held by such bodies as the National Archives and the National Railway Museum and in various county record offices, the book shows how prevalent the use of wooden bridges and viaducts was across the entire Great Western Railway and its satellite companies. Traditionally associated with Cornwall, wooden structures designed by Brunel could be found almost anywhere on the broad gauge, from the Home Counties through to the Cotswolds. Illustrated throughout, with both contemporary engineering drawings and photographs of the structures in use this title represents a detailed study into this important and often overlooked facet of Brunel's work.

Title: Red for Danger

Author: L. T. C. Rolt

Publisher: Sutton

Price: £14.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: British Railways

Category: The Railways

Railway disasters are almost always the result of human fallibility - a single mistake by an engine-driver, guard or signalman, or some lack of communication between them - and it is in the short distance between the trivial error and its terrible consequence that the drama of the railway accident lies. First published in 1955, and the result of Rolt's careful investigation and study of the verbatim reports and findings by HM Inspectorate of Railways, this book was the first work to record the history of railway disasters, and it remains the classic account. It covers every major accident on British railways between 1840 and 1957 which resulted in a change in railway working practice, and reveals the evolution of safety devices and methods which came to make the British railway carriage one of the safest modes of transport in the world. This edition uses the last text produced by Rolt himself in 1966 and includes a new introduction by his friend and fellow railway historian Professor Jack Simmons.

Title: Yesterday's Railways

Author: Peter Herring

Publisher: David & Charles

Price: £14.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: British Railways

Category: The Railways

Many still recall when the train was their principal means of travel, whether to school or work, to visit friends and relatives, or to go on holiday. And it wasn't just people that went by rail: so did the coal that heated homes, the food that filled them and the bricks that built them. They also served the great ports, conveying everything from thousand-ton loads of iron to baskets of racing pigeons. It was a time when a train journey remained an adventure, and when the steam locomotives that made that journey possible were a source of awe and fascination. This era is recalled in Yesterday's Railways, which includes a comprehensive history of Britain's railways from the ground-breaking years of the 1900s to the day in August 1968 that the fires were put out for the last time.

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