From the atmospheric age of steam to today s high powered electric vehicles, "The Train" takes readers on a visually stunning ride through history. Much more than a collection of models, this volume offers insight into the way trains have shaped the modern age. It looks at train design (including New York Central s sleek Twentieth Century Limited, France s high-speed TGV, and Japan s Shinkansen bullet ); the splendid architecture of the top train stations; and the important role trains played in movies. Rail enthusiasts, as well as anyone interested in modern social history, will find this an irresistible journey."

St. Paul Union Depot was among the busiest and best-known places in the city--one of the largest depots in the nation and St. Paul's link to the world. It had nine platforms, twenty-one tracks, and well over 140 trains coming and going each day. At its peak in the 1920s, the Union Depot processed more than twenty million pieces of mail each year. Construction of the new depot began in 1917, among the burned remains of the previous depot, and was finally finished in 1926 as both a monument to St. Paul's urban growth and its gateway to the Northwest.

Practical rather than pretentious, the Union Depot served St. Paul for more than fifty years--complete with a restaurant, drugstore, infirmary, and playrooms for children. Millions of people bought tickets and walked through its lobby and concourse to board waiting trains. It sent children to summer camps and schools, and young men and women to wars. The depot hosted U.S. presidents and presidents-to-be, international royalty, famous authors, movie stars, and the rich and famous--but it also sheltered the homeless and the troubled seeking a warm place on a cold night. Though it closed in 1971 after years of declining passenger rail service, today the St. Paul Union Depot is once again being revived as a Twin Cities transit and commercial hub, just as rail travel throughout the United States experiences a renewal.

In St. Paul Union Depot, John W. Diers brings to life the sights and sounds and the behind-the-scenes inner workings of what was in its time the most important rail passenger station west of Chicago. He captures an era when competing railroad companies came together and agreed that one depot was better than nine. Of more interest, though, St. Paul Union Depot is about the people--the stationmasters, gatemen, switchmen, ticket clerks, mail handlers, train directors, locomotive engineers, and others who were employed there, as well as the millions of passengers who passed through its doors.

For nearly two centuries, through vast upheavals and enormous change, railroads have remained crucial to North American transportation. And always setting the pace have been the mighty American locomotives in all their ever-evolving forms. This collection traces the development of steam, electric, and diesel locomotives from the early nineteenth century right up to the present. More than 250 photographs are accompanied by detailed captions identifying the locomotives and explaining their roles in the history of American motive power. Together, the photographs depict well over 75 locomotive types and reflect the grand geographic and technological breadth of North American railroading.

Thousands of commuters south of the Thames use the railway daily, but how many know the fascinating history of the Southern Railway, created in 1923 from four smaller companies? Colin Maggs, one of the country's foremost railway historians, tells the story of the London & South Western Railway, the London Brighton & South Coast Railway, the South Eastern Railway and the London, Chatham & Dover Railway (also known as the London, Smash 'em & Turnover Railway due to its poor safety record) in comprehensive detail. In addition to the company's history, he covers the railway's cross-Channel shipping enterprise and the creation of Southampton Docks for ocean-going vessels. From its Victorian beginnings, the golden age of steam, diversification, Edwardian amalgamation through nationalisation and to the present day, Colin Maggs tells the gripping story of one of the country's proudest railway firms. Illustrated with over 100 photographs and period posters, many in colour.

-- A Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club
-- A finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Awards
-- Appeared on the San Francisco Chronicle and Wordstock bestseller lists

Learn all about the companies that built diesel locomotives and the American railway system through Stanley W. Trzoniec's breathtaking photography and thorough research.

Over eight decades after their invention, diesel locomotives are still the backbone of the American railroad system. Five principal companies have built diesel locomotives--EMD, General Electric, Alco, Baldwin, and Fairbanks Morse--and the most popular vintage and modern types of all five are covered in painstaking detail in Vintage & Modern Diesel Locomotives. From General Electric 44-Tonners to Alco RS5s, all of the most important models are included. Stanley W. Trzoniec's stunning photography gives these behemoths of the modern age their due in beautiful full-color images.

Enthusiasts of diesel locomotives will not want to be without Vintage & Modern Diesel Locomotives in their collection.

The Duchesses tells the story of the Princess Coronation class of locomotives -the streamlined embodiments of raw, bulked-up muscle and formidable power that any enthusiast will tell you were the finest steam engines in Britain.

Conceived of by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway to rival the LNER s illustrious A4 Pacifics , these trains heralded in the last golden age of steam. Designed by the great William Stanier, theirs is a story of grand beginnings, a slow trajectory of decline and a recent, celebrated rebirth. Today, there are two Duchesses still in existence: Duchess of Hamilton and Duchess of Sutherland are now restored to their original streamlined appearance.

As The Duchesses beautiful cover illustration suggests, these Coronation locomotives were beautiful to behold; truly majestic feats of engineering. Andrew Roden s book tells the story of their time in British Railways service; the class decommissioning in the 1960s; the extraordinary saga of two trains unlikely preservation by Billy Butlin at his holiday camps; and their eventual return to steam on the main line.

The Duchesses completes a trilogy of railway books from Aurum, joining Mallard - the story of the world s fastest steam locomotive - and Flying Scotsman that of the world s most famous.

These days, a subway is an integral part of a city's heritage and a key feature of the urban landscape used by passengers, but subways are also full of history and art. They reflect a city's personality and its past and future, and are worthy of exploration, even for those not boarding a train. It's safe to say that a great many subways have overcome their past reputation for unpleasant shadiness.

Subways revolutionized urban transport, moving people from crowded streets to efficient underground tunnels. This book has two parts: the first tells the stories of six major subways: London, Paris, Moscow, New York, Berlin, Tokyo. It describes their histories, the circumstances of their construction, and many anecdotes from what were invariably political, financial, engineering and architectural marathons. As well, deadly accidents, scarce funds and corruption set construction off the rails more often than not.

The second half of the book is a stunning photo gallery of some of the most surprising subway stations around the world. They include examples from the six systems covered historically plus stations whose architecture reflects the cities and the people that they serve.

They include:

Szent Gell rt, Budapest -- One of the world's oldest subways, spiral patterns take riders on an intergalactic trip of misleading perspectives and concrete interlacing.

Puhung, Pyongyang, North Korea -- This dictator's showcase is one of only two stations, open but two hours a day, and apparently, a mandatory activity for tourists.

Beitucheng, Beijing -- Echoes of ancient blue and white porcelain are rendered contemporary, even in the subway maps.

R dhuset, Stockholm -- Where Franciscan monks prayed in the 15th century, artist Sitgvard Olsson has created an organic cave, its rough walls lit in red like volcanic magma.

New York City -- The vaulted tile ceiling of New York's City Hall "ghost station" is unfortunately rarely seen.

Toledo, Naples -- Seen on this book's jacket, it is one of Europe's most magnificent stations..

Concorde Station, Paris -- Tiled walls form a word search puzzle of the Declaration of the Rights of Man.