British railway enthusiasm

British railway enthusiasm PDF Author: Ian Carter
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526129744
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Book Description
Now available in paperback, this is the first academic book to study railway enthusiasts in Britain. Far from a trivial topic, the post-war train spotting craze swept most boys and some girls into a passion for railways, and for many, ignited a lifetime’s interest. British railway enthusiasm traces this post-war cohort, and those which followed, as they invigorated different sectors in the world of railway enthusiasm – train spotting, railway modelling, collecting railway relics – and then, in response to the demise of main line steam traction, Britain’s now-huge preserved railway industry. Today this industry finds itself riven by tensions between preserving a loved past which ever fewer people can remember and earning money from tourist visitors. The widespread and enduring significance of railway enthusiasm will ensure that this groundbreaking text remains a key work in transport studies, and will appeal to enthusiasts as much as to students and scholars of transport and cultural history.

Railway Enthusiasm in Twenty-First Century Britain

Railway Enthusiasm in Twenty-First Century Britain PDF Author: Joseph Rogers
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1398116696
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Book Description
Profusely illustrated throughout, this is a fascinating insight into rail enthusiasm in modern Britain.

The Railways

The Railways PDF Author: Simon Bradley
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847653529
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 607

Book Description
Sunday Times History Book of the Year 2015 Currently filming for BBC programme Full Steam Ahead Britain's railways have been a vital part of national life for nearly 200 years. Transforming lives and landscapes, they have left their mark on everything from timekeeping to tourism. As a self-contained world governed by distinctive rules and traditions, the network also exerts a fascination all its own. From the classical grandeur of Newcastle station to the ceaseless traffic of Clapham Junction, from the mysteries of Brunel's atmospheric railway to the lost routines of the great marshalling yards, Simon Bradley explores the world of Britain's railways, the evolution of the trains, and the changing experiences of passengers and workers. The Victorians' private compartments, railway rugs and footwarmers have made way for air-conditioned carriages with airline-type seating, but the railways remain a giant and diverse anthology of structures from every period, and parts of the system are the oldest in the world. Using fresh research, keen observation and a wealth of cultural references, Bradley weaves from this network a remarkable story of technological achievement, of architecture and engineering, of shifting social classes and gender relations, of safety and crime, of tourism and the changing world of work. The Railways shows us that to travel through Britain by train is to journey through time as well as space.

Great British Railway Journeys

Great British Railway Journeys PDF Author: Charlie Bunce
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007413211
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
The Sunday Times Bestseller A glorious insight into Britain over the last 150 years - its history, landscape and people - from the window of Britain’s many and magnificent railway journeys.

A Privileged Journey

A Privileged Journey PDF Author: David Maidment
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473859492
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
A Privileged Journey, Volume 1 1940–1962 is a personal and individual account of the author' youthful enthusiasm for trains and the travels he undertook in Great Britain and on the European continent as a student and management trainee of British Railways. It is illustrated by over 140 black and white photos, mostly taken by the author himself as a boy and student. The chapters cover the emergence of the young boy's interest in steam locomotives in particular, through his 'trainspotting' days to his numerous journeys in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with many accounts of locomotive performance supported by an extensive appendix of train 'logs'. Some of the chapters are much extended narratives from articles serialised in the UK enthusiast magazine, 'Steam World' over the last decade and are also based on ten hours of verbal interviews recorded by the UK National Railway Museum at York as part of their 'Oral History' archives supported by a UK National Lottery Grant.The second volume, to be published at a later date, covering the period from 1962 to the current time, will describe his continuing interest and records while pursuing his career as stationmaster, area manager, train planner, Regional operating manager and finally Head of Safety before his retirement in 1996 and subsequent career as an international railway safety consultant.

British Rail

British Rail PDF Author: Christian Wolmar
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241456215
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 261

Book Description
The authoritative and fascinating history of the rise and fall of the state-owned British Rail 'Wolmar's book is impeccably organised and makes a fast, enjoyable read' THE TIMES Literary Supplement________ British Rail wasn't how we're asked to remember it . . . From ancient rolling stock to patchy service, stale sandwiches to the wrong kind of snow, British Rail - our last great state-owned organisation to be privatised - has received a terrible press. But after its controversial 1948 creation, British Rail was actually an innovative powerhouse that over five decades transformed the UK, creating one of the fastest regular rail services in the world. Award-winning journalist Christian Wolmar takes us from promise to punchline, exploring British Rail's birth into post-war austerity, the many battles and struggles to evolve what many considered to be a dinosaur, and how, at the height of its success, the service was misunderstood and unfairly maligned, ruthlessly broken up and privatised._______ Praise for Christian Wolmar 'Wolmar is the high priest of railway studies' Literary Review 'The greatest expert on British trains' Guardian 'Our most eminent transport journalist' Spectator 'If the world's railways have a laureate, it is surely Christian Wolmar' Boston Globe 'Christian Wolmar is in love with the railways. He writes constantly and passionately about them. He is their wisest, most detailed historian and a constant prophet of their rebirth . . . if you love the hum of the wheels and of history, then Christian Wolmar is your man' Observer

Fire and Steam

Fire and Steam PDF Author: Christian Wolmar
Publisher: Atlantic Books
ISBN: 1848872615
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Book Description
Now in paperback, Fire and Steam tells the dramatic story of the people and events that shaped the world's first railway network, one of the most impressive engineering achievements in history. The opening of the pioneering Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830 marked the beginning of the railways' 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 network to emerge. The rise of the steam train allowed goods and people to circulate around Britain as never before, stimulating the growth of towns and industry, as well many of the facets of modern life, from fish and chips to professional football. From the early days of steam to electrification, via the railways' magnificent contribution in two world wars, the checkered history of British Rail, and the buoyant future of the train, Fire and Steam examines the social and economical importance of the railway and how it helped to form the Britain of today.

The Railway and Modernity

The Railway and Modernity PDF Author: Matthew Beaumont
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9783039110247
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
Most research and writing on railway history has been undertaken in a way that disconnects it from the wider cultural milieu. Authors have been very effective at constructing specialist histories of transport, but have failed to register the railway's central importance in the representation and understanding of modernity. This book brings together contributions from a range of established scholars in a variety of disciplines with the central purpose of exploring the railway less as a transport technology than as a key signifier of capitalist modernity. It examines the complex social relations in which the railway became historically embedded, identifying it as a central problematic in the cultural experience of modernity. It avoids the limitations of both the close-sighted empiricism typical of many transport historians and the long-sighted generalizations of cultural commentators who view the railway merely as a shorthand for the concept of progress over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book draws on a diverse range of materials, including literary and historical forms of representation. It is also informed by a creative application of various critical theories.
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