Isambard Kingdom Brunel: Victorian icon, engineer, artist, architect, designer and visionary, entrepreneur and celebrity. His astounding feats changed the British landscape, and this new book tells the story of his awe-inspiring achievements and innovations as a railway engineer.New to the developing world of railways in the early 1830s, Brunel soon came to rival George and Robert Stephenson, as he embarked on what he called ‘the finest work in England’. The construction of the Gre...

Railway stations were a prominent feature of most towns and villages in Britain until post-war modernisation and closures swept many away. The largest and most imposing stations were in large towns and cities. Among the most impressive were the London termini such as King’s Cross, Liverpool Street, Paddington and Waterloo. They handled and (still handle) millions of long distance and commuter travellers every year. Elsewhere, larger cities like Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow often had ...

The most glamorous trains run by railway companies were the high-speed expresses, linking the major towns, cities and holiday destinations. They included overnight sleepers, fast mail trains, excursion specials and boat trains connecting with ocean liners. These premier trains were the fastest and most luxurious of their day. They generated much publicity, especially in the 1930s when they regularly broke speed records. The names of the most famous expresses still resonate with the public ...

Have you ever watched wagon after wagon of a goods train thunder past and wondered where it is heading, what it is carrying, and how it works its way between the passenger services?While goods services now tend to be shrouded in anonymity, in past times they were celebrated, prominently advertised, and in many cases were the raisons d'être for a rail route. Throughout the nineteenth and much of the twentieth century, goods trains were the lifeblood of the nation, t...

Isambard Kingdom Brunel contributed many groundbreaking features to the Great Western Railway. None was so unorthodox as the decision not to adopt the 'standard' track gauge of 4ft 8½in and instead introduce the new 'broad gauge' of 7ft ¼in.Describing the rationale behind the choice of broad gauge, and also the unique track and locomotives used, this beautifully illustrated introduction to broad gauge railways chronicles the building of the original GWR between Bri...

A brief history of the design and use of railway carriages in the UK, ideal for those interested in railway and social history.Evolving from the horse-drawn stage coaches that they soon eclipsed, railway carriages steadily grew in sophistication so that by the end of the nineteenth century the railway passenger travelled in comfortable rolling stock of a design familiar to many until the 1960s. While modern trains look different from those built more than a century...

Britain's towns and cities were famously transformed in the nineteenth century by the coming of the railways, turning their fortunes around and giving urban dwellers new opportunities to travel across the country – yet the effect on the rural population was arguably far greater. Whilst some of the initial trunk lines were designed to link major cities, the network of smaller cross-country and branch lines that followed opened up large tracts of previously remote countryside, providing new ...

ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL is famous for the engineering wonders he left behind - from the SS Great Britain to the delights of Paddington and Temple Meads stations, but much of what he designed has been lost. From the ships Great Western and Great Eastern to the majestic water towers of Crystal Palace, the Hungerford Bridge and the South Devon atmospheric railway, many of Brunel's achievements have been lost to rebuilding, fire, neglect and scrapping. What survives of some of these structures...

A charming history of one of the long closed rural branch lines on the Great Western Railway. The Lambourn Valley was one of the most quintessentially English branch lines in the days of steam.The Lambourn Valley Railway was born as an independent little railway that ran from Newbury up Berkshire's scenic Lambourn Valley to Lambourn. On the way it passed through 9 rural stations and ran through beautiful countryside.In this book we learn when the line was built and why. The...

A fascinating account of how the railways came to Surrey and the impact they had on the people who lived in the countyThe book the great days of the steam railways in the county. It shows how and why the lines were built, giving an account of the people who laid the lines and built the stations.

A biography of the nineteenth-century Englishman who was " one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history" ( Nature).Civil and mechanical engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel's accomplishments were extraordinary—involving the Great Western Railway, the SS Great Britain, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, prefabricated hospital buildings for use during the Crimean War, and more. Born in Portsmouth in 1806, he followe...

The branch lines of Devon were particularly numerous and this second volume on the county covers Plymouth, west and north Devon. They vary from the Turnchapel and Yealmpton commuter lines, to the Exeter and Barnstaple branch, which for many years of its life was a main line, becoming a branch line within the last forty years. One branch still open is the Plymouth to Gunnislake line, which remains because it offers the most direct route. Many of the branches have interesting histories. The ...