Download or read book Last Trains written by Charles Loft and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2013-03-27 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The debate about Dr Richard Beeching will rage until the Second Coming – and probably beyond. But in Charles Loft's careful examination of the Beeching Report, we have as fine a study as we are going to possess in the meantime." – Peter Hennessy "Loft's great strength is his judiciousness. He understands the political processes and assesses them fair-mindedly. And his verdict will, I suspect, hold up better than any of Beeching's judgements." – Matthew Engel, Financial Times "Prepare to be impressed, shocked and saddened ... This is undoubtedly one of the best books of the year – a riveting read." – Railways Illustrated "Lucid, to the point, thought-provoking at every turn, Last Trains is a volume that everyone should read before making judgements about the rail closures of the Sixties." – Heritage Railway "Thoughtful and well-researched analysis." – Edinburgh Evening News *** During the course of the 1950s England lost confidence in its rulers and convinced itself it must modernise. The failing steam-powered local railways, run by Colonel Blimp, symbolised everything that was wrong with the country – surely the future lay in motorways and high-speed express trains? Along came Dr Beeching with his diagnosis, and suddenly branch-line Britain was gone for ever. The debate about the Beeching cuts has raged ever since. In this superbly researched examination, Charles Loft exposes the political failures that bankrupted the railways and lays bare the increasing alienation of bureaucrats from the public they were trying to serve. The result is a fascinating study of a nation grappling to come to terms with modernity.

Download or read book The Kingdom by the Sea written by Paul Theroux and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2011-10-27 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As mentioned in The Times Travel Book Club 2020 Award winning writer Paul Theroux embarks on a journey that, though closer to home than most of his expeditions, uncovers some surprising truths about Britain and the British people in the '80s in The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around the Coast of Great Britain. Paul Theroux's round-Britain travelogue is funny, perceptive and 'best avoided by patriots with high blood pressure...' After eleven years living as an American in London, Paul Theroux set out to travel clockwise round the coast and find out what Britain and the British are really like. It was 1982, the summer of the Falklands War, the ideal time, he found, to surprise the British into talking about themselves. The result makes superbly vivid and engaging reading. 'A sharp and funny descriptive writer. One of his golden talents, perhaps because he is American and therefore classless in British eyes, is the ability to chat up and get on with all sorts and conditions of British. . . Theroux is a good companion' The Times 'Filled with history, insights, landscape, epiphanies, meditations, celebrations and laments' The New York Times 'Few of us have seen the entirety of the coast and I for one am grateful to Mr Theroux for making my journey unnecessary. He describes it all brilliantly and honestly' Anthony Burgess, Observer American travel writer Paul Theroux is known for the rich descriptions of people and places that is often streaked with his distinctive sense of irony; his other non-fiction titles, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Happy Isles of Oceania, Sunrise with Seamonsters, The Tao of Travel, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, The Old Patagonian Express, The Great Railway Bazaar, Dark Star Safari, Fresh-air Fiend, Sir Vidia's Shadow, The Pillars of Hercules, and his novels and collections of short stories, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize winner The Mosquito Coast are available from Penguin.

Download or read book Great Western Castle Class 4 6 0 Locomotives The Final Years 1960 1965 written by David Maidment and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2023-02-16 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author’s second volume about the Great Western’s classic express locomotives covers their final six years in British Railways service. In 1960 the Castles, many now modernized with double chimneys and 4-row superheaters, were still in charge of most of the Western Region’s expresses, but by the summer of 1963 their regular express work was limited to the London – Worcester route. Their declining numbers in the last couple of years covered special summer and relief trains, parcels and freight work, deputizing for failed or unavailable diesels and a flurry of excursions and railtours where their prowess could still be demonstrated. The author worked and lived alongside them in these years and the book includes much of his own personal experience on the footplate, on their trains and on shed. The book recaps briefly their first 25 years and covers their history, operation and performance in their final years and is copiously illustrated including over 100 color photographs.

Download or read book A Soldier s Odyssey written by Frank W. Maresca and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-08 with total page 1001 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the author adapted to his new surroundings. The drama wrapped around the six hour pass obtained at Shanks to go home to see his folks. The trip across the tempestuous North Atlantic, and the nine days sick at sea! Time spent in a dingy campsite on a bleak coast of Wales, UK. Suffered from a nameless fear aboard the ill fated Leopoldville. Transported in 40/8s. In Lieges railyards was attacked by Buzz Bombs. Slept in a private home for the night. Marched nearly all of the next day. His company was hit by its own artillery (friendly fire) with devastating consequences.

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to the Postcolonial Novel written by Ato Quayson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Companion provides an engaging account of the postcolonial novel, from Joseph Conrad to Jean Rhys. Covering subjects from disability and diaspora to the sublime and the city, this Companion reveals the myriad traditions that have shaped the postcolonial literary landscape.

Download or read book A Comprehensive Guide to Railway Request Stops written by Anthony Hart and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2022-03-10 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rail By Request is an enthusiast’s personal story and tells how the author visited, photographed, and spent time at every request stop on mainland Britain. It also explains where his love of railways is rooted, why he began this odyssey and how it became a very different and important experience to him. Journeying across the whole railway map to capture these often ignored stops – not just for posterity, but for the journey. The lure of request stops and the practicalities of completing the journey to discover them, is the core of the story. Researching every request stop in Britain and planning how to get there and overcoming any difficulties, became a source of great satisfaction. Every stop is described and has at least one illustration. Some historical context to the stops is included, with current statistics. The story also shows how, he ticked off each stop, but unexpectedly found himself passing the time engaged in a form of railwayana mindfulness – allowing the world to rush past whilst being alive in the moment. It shows a calmer slower world does exist.

Download or read book Daniel Defoe s Railway Journey written by Stuart Campbell and published by Sandstone Press Ltd. This book was released on 2017-07-20 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daniel Defoe's Railway Journey describes the odyssey undertaken by two eccentric pensioners as they travel on every mile of railway track in the UK. Surreal and poignant by turns, Stuart Campbell describes the people they meet and the unwanted adventures that befall them. He is aided and abetted by the ghost of Daniel Defoe, writer, soldier, businessman and spy who completed his own journey in the 1720s.

Download or read book On The Slow Train written by Michael Williams and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A trip back in time' DAILY TELEGRAPH A love of railways, a love of history, a love of nostalgia. ______________________________ Get ready to board the slow train to another era, to a time when travel meant more than hurrying from one place to the next. On the Slow Train will reconnect you with that long-missed need for escape, and reminds us to lift our heads from the daily grind and remember that there are still places in Britain where we can take the time to stop and stare. This book is a paean to another age: before milk churns, train porters and cats on seats were replaced by security announcements and Burger King wrappers. These 12 spectacular journeys will help free us from what Baudelaire denounced as 'the horrible burden of time.' ___________________________________ 'Captivating' SUNDAY EXPRESS 'Deep in our soul, the railways represent an idyll that we love' INDEPENDENT 'A magical world, barely changed since the golden age of rail' DAILY MAIL 'Superb' RAILYWAY MAGAZINE 'Memory lane . . . An intriguing social snapshot' HERITAGE RAILWAY

Download or read book The Little Book of Carmarthenshire written by Dr Russell Grigg and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2015-03-02 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fast-paced and fact-packed, this compendium revels in Carmarthenshire's rich heritage and what makes it special in areas such as culture, landscape, wildlife, food and sport. This whistle-stop tour through the 'Garden of Wales' covers both celebrated characters and murky pasts, taking in the county's breathtaking castles, nature reserves and famous landmarks along the way. From the county gaol and asylum to school strikes and industrial riots, this is a book you won't want to put down.

Download or read book A Llanelli Chronicle written by and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book C P Lewis The Champion Cricketer of South Wales written by Bob Harragan and published by Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. This book was released on 2009-05-01 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Prytherch Lewis (1853-1923), quick bowler and hard hitting batsman, played an important part in the rise of Welsh cricket, despite his background in rural Carmarthenshire, away from big towns and cities. From Llandovery he went on to play for Oxford University, in 1876, at a time when that ancient institution supplied top cricketers, athletes and footballers (in two codes), to the world. He took seven for 35 in his first-ever first-class match, and was one of the first Welshmen to play for Oxford. Returning to Llandovery, he enthused cricketers and rugby players, and built up the College into a formidable sporting force. He himself played for the South Wales Cricket Club, Glamorgan’s predecessor, and represented Wales in several early international rugby matches. Later, he brought his skills as a lawyer to bear on the organisations running those two games. And long after his skills had declined, he ‘turned out’ for Carmarthenshire in Minor Counties championship cricket. Using material from a range of sources, Bob Harragan and Andrew Hignell, two specialists in Welsh cricket history, bring together – for the first time – a full tale of one of the big men in Welsh cricket and rugby.

Download or read book The Railway Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 1204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Shropshire Railways written by Geoff Cryer and published by Crowood. This book was released on 2014-03-31 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of four hundred years of railways in Shropshire, from the primitive wagonways of the pre-railway age to the county's current rail network and services. Fully illustrated with almost two hundred monochrome and colour photos, Shropshire Railways is an ideal resource for anyone with an interest in this county with its rich railway history, and home to one of Britain's top heritage railways. Including detailed route maps and a survey of timetables over the years, the book covers the pre-railway age and the coming of the main lines, with the opening of the Shrewsbury and Chester railway in 1848; the 'grouping' of the railway companies from 1923 - the Great Western Railway (GWR) and London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) era in the county; the British Railways period from 1948-1994 - nationalization and modernization, passenger and freight trains, and locomotive sheds; the minor lines, the industrial railways and the heritage railways; privatization and the current main line scene. Illustrated with 205 colour and black & white photographs and maps.

Download or read book West from Paddington written by Stuart Cole and published by Etica Press Ltd. This book was released on 2007 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: West from Paddington is the essential companion for every traveller on First Great Western Railway. Packed with information on all the landmarks, railway history, geographical features and places of interest that can be seen from your window as your journey unfolds, this indispensable guide covers three great routes - Paddington to Bristol; Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Carmarthen. A route map for each section of the journey highlights the features described, and the book includes hundreds of specially commissioned colour photographs giving a 'traveller's-eye' view. Each entry indicates on which side of the train the place or item of interest described can be found. Written by lifelong railway enthusiast and Professor of Transport, Stuart Cole, and with a Foreword by pop impresario and railway devotee Pete Waterman OBE, West from Paddington will turn your journey into a voyage of discovery.

Download or read book Government the Railways and the Modernization of Britain written by Charles Loft and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-09-27 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work explains the background to, and politics behind, the infamous Beeching Report, which recommended the closure of a third of Britain's railways.

Download or read book The Berlin Shadow written by Jonathan Lichtenstein and published by Little, Brown Spark. This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deeply moving memoir that confronts the defining trauma of the twentieth century, and its effects on a father and son. In 1939, Jonathan Lichtenstein's father Hans escaped Nazi-occupied Berlin as a child refugee on the Kindertransport. Almost every member of his family died after Kristallnacht, and, upon arriving in England to make his way in the world alone, Hans turned his back on his German Jewish culture. Growing up in post-war rural Wales where the conflict was never spoken of, Jonathan and his siblings were at a loss to understand their father's relentless drive and sometimes eccentric behavior. As Hans enters old age, he and Jonathan set out to retrace his journey back to Berlin. Written with tenderness and grace, The Berlin Shadow is a highly compelling story about time, trauma, family, and a father and son's attempt to emerge from the shadows of history.

Download or read book An Indian Summer of Steam written by David Maidment and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-01-30 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Indian Summer of Steam' is the second volume of David Maidment's 'railway' autobiography, following his first book 'A Privileged Journey.' David was a railway enthusiast who made the hobby his career. After management training on the Western Region, between 1961 and 1964, he became a stationmaster in a Welsh Valley, an Area Manager on the Cardiff Swansea main line and radiating valleys, the South Wales Train Planning Officer, the Head of Productivity Services for the Western Region and subsequently the British Railways Board, before four years from 1982 as Chief Operating Manager of the London Midland Region, the BRB's first Quality & Reliability Manager in 1986, and finally British Rail's Head of Safety Policy after the Clapham Junction train accident, until privatisation. This experience led to a number of years as an international railway safety consultant, and, as a result of an encounter on an Indian railway station during a business trip abroad, to found the 'Railway Children' charity to support street children living on the rail and bus stations of India, East Africa and the UK, described in 2012 by an officer of the United Nations Human Rights Commission as the largest charity in the world working exclusively for street children. All this is the background to the descriptions the author gives of the last years of steam and his many journeys and experiences during his training in South Wales and the South West, his travels all over BR from 1962 until the end of steam in 1968, his search for steam in France, East and West Germany and China and the steam specials in Britain, France, Germany and China after the demise of regular steam working. The book includes over 100 black and white and 100 colour photos, most taken by the author during his travels, and nearly forty pages of logs of locomotive performance in Britain and the continent. All royalties from the book are being donated by the author to the charity he founded, a brief description of which is included in the last chapter of the book.