The Great Western Railway in the First World War

Author: Sandra Gittins
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750962569
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Book Description
In August 1914 the GWR was plunged into war, the like of which this country had never experienced before. Over the years that followed life changed beyond measure, both for the men sent away to fight and the women who took on new roles at home. Not since 1922 has the history of the GWR in the First World War been recorded in a single volume. Using modern data-bases and enjoying greater access to archives, Sandra Gittins has been able to produce a complete history which traces the GWR from the early, optimistic days through the subsequent difficult years of the Great War, including Government demands for war manufacture, increased traffic and the tragic loss of staff. From GWR ships and ambulance trains to the employment of women, every part of the story is told, including the saddest of all, which is represented by a Roll of Honour.

Great Western Railway

Author: Andrew Roden
Publisher: White Lion Publishing
ISBN: 9781781310151
Category : Railroad companies
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Roden’s comprehensive new history of this remarkable railway company tells the story of nothing less than the opening-up of the isolated Southwest of England to the trade and tourism of the modern age. It has left us with soaring termini like Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads as well as glorious railway institutions like the Night Riviera overnight sleeper to Cornwall that endure to this day (not least thanks to the author’s own campaigning!). While the GWR’s green locomotives and chocolate and cream carriages may have given way to purple, anyone who wants to return to the golden age of the railways will find the company’s history an enthralling journey.

Great Western Railway Stations

Author: Allen Jackson
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1445670127
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 132

Book Description
A lavishly illustrated survey of a wide range of GWR stations.

First Great Western

Author: John Balmforth
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781781550045
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
This is the story of First Great Western, the train operating company whose performance rose from being the worst for a long distance operator in the UK to one of the best in a few years. Its passengers felt so disgruntled they even organized a fares strike. The Department for Transport became so disillusioned that it issued a remedial notice plan, the first step to a holder losing its franchise, before a new management team kick-started the franchise back into life. In First Great Western: Gateway to the West, author and renowned railway specialist John Balmforth discovers how this iconic and award-winning train operator survived after coming so close to losing its franchise. See photographs of the only Pullman Dining service and the Paddington, the Penzance sleeper train. Learn what goes on at one of its main traction maintenance depots and how new life was breathed into rolling stock old enough to be considered railway heritage. Also, find out how electrification of the Great Western Main Line will improve passenger services and cut journey times.

Through the Window

Author: Edwa Allhusen
Publisher: Old House Books
ISBN: 9781873590751
Category : England, Southern
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
This book was first published by The Great Western Railway in 1924 to enhance the enjoyment of their passengers on the 305 mile journey from Paddington to Penzance. Maps, line drawings and information about the towns and villages describe the glorious countryside of southern England that could be seen from the windows of The Cornish Riviera Express. This new edition includes 20 pages from Bradshaw's Railway timetables at the time this book was first published. Do you yearn for the days when train journeys were a pleasure? The creaking timbers of the carriages; the aroma of steam and smoke; the rattle and clank of points and the sudden sound of the whistle as you pass an unmanned crossing? This was when the sedate pace of the train, with windows held open by a thick leather strap, allowed time to watch the world go by. How much more you could see in those days! This book was published by The GWR to help their customers enjoy the experience. Each spread has a map and exquisite line drawings describing about six miles of the journey with charming descriptions of the 'long swift journey from London to Land's End that has about it a certain savour of romance, a spice of adventure, which no amount of familiarity of railway travelling can destroy'. We read of 'The Grand Junction Canal with bridges, barges and ducks all doing their best to make it picturesque'; crossing the Thames by the widest brick spanned bridge in the world and seeing the river crowded with punts and rowing boats; hurrying through Royal Berkshire where The River Kennet 'serpentines through a landscape too flat to offer any resistance to its whims and fancies'. Across 'the forbidding expanse of Salisbury Plain', beside The White Horse of Westbury and over the flat lands of Sedgemoor. A glimpse of Exeter Cathedral and the first sight of the sea! On beneath the rugged hills of Dartmoor to the 'tangled forest of shipping in Plymouth Sound'. Over Brunel's 'vast piece of imagination' the Royal Albert Bridge into Cornwall with palms on the platforms and viaducts over wooded valleys. Sandy beaches, rocky headlands and majestic St. Michael's Mount arriving at Penzance in time for tea. This beautifully written book describes more than a wonderful railway journey for it allows us a peep at the great swathe of southern Britain that was so well served by The Great Western Railway.

The Great Western Mainline

Author: Jamie Anderson
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1398115061
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 190

Book Description
A photographic historic record of the modern Great Western Railway mainline, and the variety it offers.

A Century of Great Western Stories

Author: John Jakes
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1250205905
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 740

Book Description
John Jakes, #1 New York Times bestselling author of such acclaimed historical novels as North and South and The Kent Family Chronicles compiled in one volume a century's worth of his favorite American Western fiction. To illustrate the evolution of the genre, Jakes has included such legendary authors as Owen Wister, Louis L'Amour, and Zane Grey along side their more contemporary peers such as Loren Estleman and Elmer Kelton. While the stories have changed over the years, certain timeless themes of Western fiction remain constant. At the heart of the stories are ideas that have become synonymous with the American dream--the frontier spirit, individual freedoms, and man's relationship with the land. A Century of Great Western Stories is essentially a retrospective of western writing over the past century, but Jakes also sets out to give readers a glimpse of what the future might hold for western fiction. While trends in publishing might not always be promising, the current crop of contemporary Western authors show that the old west will always have a place in the world of fiction. Like the American dream which it celebrates, Western fiction will persevere. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Great Western Railway of Canada

Author: David R.P. Guay
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1459732847
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Book Description
It was one of the great railways that opened up Canada, and played a huge role in the development of Hamilton, the site of its head offices. Yet the rise and fall of the Great Western Railway has been almost lost to memory. David R.P. Guay provides the authoritative book of a great Canadian railway that history forgot.

Americanism:The Fourth Great Western Religion

Author: David Gelernter
Publisher: Doubleday
ISBN: 0385522959
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 175

Book Description
What does it mean to “believe” in America? Why do we always speak of our country as having a mission or purpose that is higher than other nations? Modern liberals have invested a great deal in the notion that America was founded as a secular state, with religion relegated to the private sphere. David Gelernter argues that America is not secular at all, but a powerful religious idea—indeed, a religion in its own right. Gelernter argues that what we have come to call “Americanism” is in fact a secular version of Zionism. Not the Zionism of the ancient Hebrews, but that of the Puritan founders who saw themselves as the new children of Israel, creating a new Jerusalem in a new world. Their faith-based ideals of liberty, equality, and democratic governance had a greater influence on the nation’s founders than the Enlightenment. Gelernter traces the development of the American religion from its roots in the Puritan Zionism of seventeenth-century New England to the idealistic fighting faith it has become, a militant creed dedicated to spreading freedom around the world. The central figures in this process were Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson, who presided over the secularization of the American Zionist idea into the form we now know as Americanism. If America is a religion, it is a religion without a god, and it is a global religion. People who believe in America live all over the world. Its adherents have included oppressed and freedom-loving peoples everywhere—from the patriots of the Greek and Hungarian revolutions to the martyred Chinese dissidents of Tiananmen Square. Gelernter also shows that anti-Americanism, particularly the virulent kind that is found today in Europe, is a reaction against this religious conception of America on the part of those who adhere to a rival religion of pacifism and appeasement. A startlingly original argument about the religious meaning of America and why it is loved—and hated—with so much passion at home and abroad.

Great Western: Railway Gallery

Author: Laurence Waters
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1526707055
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
It could be argued that the great Western or 'Gods' Wonderful Railway' was for many years the most famous railway in England. Much of the railway that we see today was the work of one of the greatest engineers of his time, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The company was also served by locomotive engineers such as Gooch, Armstrong, Churchward, Collett and Hawksworth, who produced a series of locomotives that were well designed, elegant and powerful.Serving many holiday resorts of the south west, with trains such as 'The Cornish Riviera Express,' the publicity department exploited to great effect that the 'Great Western' was the 'Holiday Line.' It is probably true to say that in the years before the Second World War the company was producing some of the most effective publicity material in England.Using previously unpublished material from the extensive 'Great Western Trust' collection at Didcot Railway Centre, the book illustrates in both black and white and color many facets that made the Great Western 'Great"