Author: Colin MaggsPublisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1445625830
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 277
Book Description
The story of a fascinating railway line
Author: Colin MaggsThe World's First Railway System
Author: Mark CassonPublisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191570419
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 560
Book Description
The British railway network was a monument to Victorian private enterprise. Its masterpieces of civil engineering were emulated around the world. But its performance was controversial: praised for promoting a high density of lines, it was also criticised for wasteful duplication of routes. This is the first history of the British railway system written from a modern economic perspective. It uses conterfactual analysis to construct an alternaive network to represent the most efficient alternative rail network that could have been constructed given what was known at the time - the first time this has been done. It reveals how weaknesses in regulation and defects in government policy resulted in enormous inefficiency in the Victorian system that Britain lives with today. British railway companies developed into powerful regional monopolies, which then contested each other's territories. When denied access to existing lines in rival territories, they built duplicate lines instead. Plans for an integrated national system, sponsored by William Gladstone, were blocked by Members of Parliament because of a perceived conflict with the local interests they represented. Each town wanted more railways than its neighbours, and so too many lines were built. The costs of these surplus lines led ultimately to higher fares and freight charges, which impaired the performance of the economy. The book will be the definitive source of reference for those interested in the economic history of the British railway system. It makes use of a major new historical source, deposited railway plans, integrates transport and local history through its regional analysis of the railway system, and provides a comprehensive, classified bibliography.
Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain
Author: Donald J. GrantPublisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1788037685
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 664
Book Description
The Directory of British Railway Companies of Great Britain is a record of all the companies who sought to build a railway in Great Britain, both successful and unsuccessful. The Directory contains a full list of every company that obtained an Act of Parliament for the construction of a railway. If a railway was built without an Act of Parliament and played a part in the greater picture of Great Britain’s railway system, it is also included, which gives a fascinating glimpse into Great Britain’s colourful public transportation history. Readers will learn about each railway’s origin, opening, route, gauge and growth and its amalgamation with others, and find out which grouping company it finally ended up in. In an interesting additional section, the routes that unfinished railways and railways that never came to fruition would have taken are also included. The Directory of British Railway Companies of Great Britain has been meticulously researched, and as a result includes all railways, built or not, in the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and Scottish Islands. Also included are brief descriptions of the most pertinent Acts relating to railways in Great Britain, providing readers with an insight into the complicated legal processes involved in the creation of a railway. The Directory of British Railway Companies of Great Britain is an all-in-one, easy to access and invaluable reference source. It will appeal to historians and transportation enthusiasts alike, as well as those who have always wondered how Great Britain’s railways came to be.
Author: G. A. Pryer
Author: 
Author: John JacksonFour-Coupled Tank Locomotive Classes Built by the Great Western Railway
Author: David MaidmentPublisher: Pen and Sword Transport
ISBN: 1399022598
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 202
Book Description
This book is a comprehensive history of all twenty-six classes of four coupled tank engines commissioned by the Great Western Railway or built at their Wolverhampton and Swindon Works, from the Broad Gauge 2-4-0 and 4-4-0 tanks of the 1840s and 1850s to the well known Collett 0-4-2 branch line engines of classes 48XX (later renumbered 14XX) and 58XX of the 1930s. As well as the Broad Gauge engines, the strange looking âCovertiblesâ of William Dean, a number of experimental âone-offâ designs, the numerous Wolverhampton 0-4-2Ts of the â517â class and the Swindon built â2-4-0 âMetro Tanksâ are described with â where known â their allocation and operation. The book includes twenty weight diagrams and nearly 300 photographs, over 50 in color. The four-coupled tank engines absorbed by the Great Western from other companies at or before 1923 will be featured in a separate volume to follow.
Author: Great Western Railway (Great Britain)
Author: A. J. Dicks