Firing the Flying Scotsman and Other Great Locomotives

Author: Ken Issitt
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752490478
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 191

Book Description
Remembering the romance of a bygone era, with all the dirt, grime and risks the job entailed! Fast train fireman Ken Issitt worked on the footplate from the late 1940s to 1960, experiencing firing some of the greatest locomotives from the Flying Scotsman to Coltimore and Blink Bonney. The work was hard and conditions were tough but little did Ken know at the time that he was experiencing the last years of steam; he would never have imagined the romantic associations the period evokes today. Through a number of short accounts the past comes vividly to life, via short stories about train crashes, pea-soup fogs, and fires going out. From the beginning of a shift, donning overalls and making up a packing, and from shunting in the marshalling yard to flying along with an express train at 80mph, Ken Issitt describes what life on the footplate was like across the final years of steam, his tales beautifully brought to life by Chris Bates's charming pen and ink illustrations.

The Flying Scotsman

Author:
Publisher: Old House Books
ISBN: 9781908402080
Category : Express trains
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Trains & Railways.

Flying Scotsman

Author: Andrew Roden
Publisher: Aurum Press
ISBN: 9781781316139
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
The incredible biography of the most famous steam locomotive in the world. Think of the Golden Age of Steam and one train leaps to mind above all others: the Flying Scotsman, Nigel Gresley’s elegant masterpiece of a locomotive. She broke the world speed record in 1934 and has enthralled millions with her beauty and power. Uniquely, her post-war career has been even more varied and exciting than her early triumphs. Now Andrew Roden tells the Scotsman’s remarkable story, from her construction and the glory days between the wars through the decline of steam and her rollercoaster fortunes in the subsequent years: nearly abandoned on a tour of the United States after the money ran out, crossing the Australian interior, then put up for sale yet again when the company that owned her went bankrupt in 2003. A massive public campaign saved her for the nation and the Flying Scotsman’s restoration began in 2005 at the National Railway Museum. With the aid of numerous interviews with those involved with the Scotsman over the years, Roden brings her story memorably to life. Above all, he asks: why do grown men risk their life savings to own her? Why do thousands of people still line the trackside when she’s due to race past? And just what is the eternal appeal of the Flying Scotsman?

Amazing and Curious Railway Tales

Author: Colin G. Maggs
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750997818
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Book Description
Who won in a race between a train and a pigeon? How can you warn bats to leave a railway tunnel? Before the era of the car, which railway company carried the most prisoners? Colin G. Maggs has collected all of these answers – and more! – in Amazing and Curious Railway Tales, a compendium of stories, curiosities and little-known facts about Britain's railways.

Mallard

Author: Don Hale
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750992913
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 203

Book Description
Just over eighty years ago on the East Coast main line, the streamlined A4 Pacific locomotive Mallard reached a top speed of 126mph – a world record for steam locomotives that still stands. Since then, millions have seen this famous locomotive, resplendent in her blue livery, on display at the National Railway Museum in York. Here, Don Hale tells the full story of how the record was broken: from the nineteenth-century London–Scotland speed race and, surprisingly, traces Mallard's futuristic design back to the Bugatti car and the influence of Germany's nascent Third Reich, which propelled the train into an instrument of national prestige. He also celebrates Mallard's designer, Sir Nigel Gresley, one of Britain's most gifted engineers. Mallard is a wonderful tribute to one of British technology's finest hours.

Flying Scotsman

Author: Philip Atkins
Publisher: Haynes Publishing UK
ISBN: 9781844257065
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
The legendary '4472' - better known as the Flying Scotsman - receives the famous Haynes Manual treatment with the full co-operation of the National Railway Museum. Here is a unique perspective on what is involved in maintaining, operating and restoring this Class A3 Pacific, the first steam locomotive to achieve 100mph. This highly detailed manual, based around 4472's recent overhaul and subsequent return to main-line operation, also looks in detail at every aspect of its engineering and construction, providing a feast of information and insight.

Stephen Biesty's Incredible Cross-Sections

Author: Stephen Biesty
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0744020735
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 50

Book Description
This children's book explores the innermost workings of some extraordinary buildings and machines. From helicopters to submarines, skyscrapers to coal mines, open up a fascinating world packed with unique and detailed cutaway drawings. Whether it's a Spanish galleon or a medieval castle, each cross-section slice or exploded view reveals what's going on inside. See the people swarming inside the Empire State Building, the workers busy backstage at the opera house, and where the crew sleeps on a jumbo jet. Included also are two impressive foldouts showing an ocean liner and a steam train. There are lots of fun facts to be discovered, and curious details are highlighted and explained. Did you know one of the funnels of the Queen Mary liner was fake and used for storing deckchairs? And in almost every scene, there's the challenge to find a man on the toilet! With more than a million copies sold, Stephen Biesty's award-winning illustrated book is as fascinating today as it was when first published in 1992. Incredible Cross-Sections is the ultimate way to see how things work.

Fire and Steam

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.

Flying Scotsman, and the Story of Gresley's First Pacific Locomotives

Author: Tim Hillier-Graves
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1399059564
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
Herbert Nigel Gresley’s first Pacifics, though notable in their day, were made universally famous by one of their number – 4722 Flying Scotsman. Throughout her life she has been feted and glamorised far more than any of her sisters and yet when appearing from the LNER Works at Doncaster in 1923 she was just another member of the class, but at some stage, early in her career, she acquired star status and to this day has not lost it. But why is this so and why do people care so deeply about this locomotive even though her deeds were easily exceeded by Gresley’s A4 Pacifics? Was it her styling, her name, her performance or simply the work of very talented purveyors of slick PR? Or was it an amalgam of all these issues? As Flying Scotsman reaches 100 ‘not out’ it is fascinating to reflect on these questions. But to do so we must consider how the Class came about, how they were developed, the impact they made on society as it was then, how they were sold to a waiting public and much more. From all this we may be able to understand why 4472 rose above the others and became an icon that still graces our lives today. It is, the author believes, a story without parallel in railway history.

The Great Railway Bazaar

Author: Paul Theroux
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 054752515X
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 406

Book Description
The acclaimed author recounts his epic journey across Europe and Asia in this international bestselling classic of travel literature: “Compulsive reading” (Graham Greene). In 1973, Paul Theroux embarked on a four-month journey by train from the United Kingdom through Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. In The Great Railway Bazaar, he records in vivid detail and penetrating insight the many fascinating incidents, adventures, and encounters of his grand, intercontinental tour. Asia's fabled trains—the Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the Frontier Mail, the Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, the Mandalay Express, the Trans-Siberian Express—are the stars of a journey that takes Theroux on a loop eastbound from London's Victoria Station to Tokyo Central, then back from Japan on the Trans-Siberian. Brimming with Theroux's signature humor and wry observations, this engrossing chronicle is essential reading for both the ardent adventurer and the armchair traveler.