Acclaimed travel writer Anthony Lambert presents his selection of train journeys with real character, sublime scenery, a sense of history, a well-appointed train, or even the opportunity to enjoy a meal with proper napery, silver and glass...
Some journeys are well known, such as the Glacier or Orient Expresses, which combine glamour, outstanding cuisine and service and colorful history. Others less so: The Sunset Limited traverses through the quintessential Wild West country of New Mexico; or the coast-to-coast journey through the chestnut- and pine-clad mountains of Corsica, crossing one of Gustave Eiffel's glorious viaducts of gossamer steel. From the modest line of the Alaska Railroad to the Trans-Siberian; from a narrow-gauge web of lines in the Harz Mountains to the train that crosses Australia's barren Nullarbor Plain in a dead-straight 478km, Lambert's is an unmissable selection for any lover of travel that is as delightful as the destination.
In the summer of 2000, David Haward Bain and his family left their home in Vermont and headed west in search of Americaas past. From Omaha to San Francisco, Bain and his family retraced the entire route of the first transcontinental railroad. Following abandoned railroad tracks and the traces of old wagon trails, cruising down back roads and main streets, they discovered the deep, restless, uniquely American spirit of adventure that connects our past to our present.
A superb writer and an exacting researcher, Bain conjures up the marvelous sense of coming unstuck in time as he lingers in the ghost towns and battlegrounds, prairies and river ports, train yards, museums, and diners that line the old emigrant routes of the railroad and the Lincoln Highway. As he cruises west to California, Bain encounters a fascinating cast of characters, both historic and contemporaryafrom Willa Cather to Marlon Brando, from pathfinder John FreAmont to naturalist Terry Tempest Williams. Here, too, are memories of Bainas own grandparents and the journeys that shaped his own heritage.
Writing in the tradition of William Least Heat-Moon and Ian Frazier, yet with an engaging warmth and a deep grasp of history all his own, Bain has fashioned a quintessentially American journey.
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.
This original, deeply researched history shows the transcontinentals to be pivotal actors in the making of modern America. But the triumphal myths of the golden spike, robber barons larger than life, and an innovative capitalism all die here. Instead we have a new vision of the Gilded Age, often darkly funny, that shows history to be rooted in failure as well as success.
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.
