Lost Railway Journeys from Around the World by Anthony Lambert w/ DJ

Description: RailroadTreasures offers the following item: Lost Railway Journeys from Around the World by Anthony Lambert w/ DJ Lost Railway Journeys from Around the World by Anthony Lambert Hard Cover w/ dust jacket 208 pages Copyright 2018 CONTENTS 6 Introduction EUROPE 12 Salzkammergut-Lokalbahn (Austria) 16 The Orient Express (Europe) 22 Nice-Colomars-Grasse-DraguignanMeyrargues (France) 26 CF de Petite Ceinture (France) 30 Pau-Canfranc-Tardienta via Somport Tunnel (Spain) 36 Sarajevo-Belgrade (Yugoslavia) 42 Tebay-Darlington over Stainmore Summit (Great Britain) 48 Waverley Route: Edinburgh-Carlisle (Great Britain) 54 Somerset & Dorset Railway (Great Britain) 60 Callander & Oban Railway (Great Britain) 66 Listowel & Ballybunion Railway (Ireland) ASIA 74 Patiala State Monorail Trainway (India and Pakistan) 78 Bostan-Fort Sandeman (now Zhob) (India and Pakistan) 82 Surabaya Steam Tram (Indonesia) 86 The Hejaz Railway (Jordan and Saudi Arabia) AUSTRALASIA 94 The Ghan: Central Australia Railway (Australia) 100 Walhalla Railway (Australia) 106 Otago Central Railway (New Zealand) 112 Rimutaka Incline (New Zealand) THE AMERICAS 118 Passage to Patagonia (Argentina) 124 Ferrocarril Transandino (Argentina and Chile) 130 Madeira-MamorRailway (Brazil) 136 Estrada de Ferro Cantagalo/Leopoldina Railway (Brazil) 142 Asunci(Paraguay) 148 Kettle Valley Railway (Canada) 154 Canadian Pacific: the Big Hill near Field, BC (Canada) 160 Milwaukee Road's Pacific Extension (USA) 166 Colorado-Denver & Rio Grande (USA) 172 Virginia & Truckee Railroad (USA) 178 Florida East Coast Railway (USA) AFRICA 186 Massawa-Agordat (Eritrea) 192 Port Elizabeth-Avontuur (South Africa) 198 Bulawayo-Livingstone (Zambia and Zimbabwe) 204 Bibliography 205 Index INTRODUCTION ANYONE REMOTELY INTERESTED in railways will have read of a remarkable line, or gazed along a trackbed winding through an idyllic landscape, and wished that they could still take a train over it. Numerous books have been published of railway walks down closed lines, and strolling along one it is impossible not to wonder about the men who built and operated them, about the countless people who travelled over them, the reasons for their journeys, the conversations between strangers, the emotions of meetings and partings on now overgrown platforms. Closed railways, as Rose Macaulay said of ruins, invite 'self-projection in the past'. The 33 journeys in this book have been chosen for their fascinating history, outstanding engineering, the enthralling sights and sounds they once offered, and the landscapes through which they passed - and often for a combination of all four. They wouldn't all be part of any pantheon of great railway journeys had they survived, though many traversed spectacular landscapes. No one could pretend that the original Ghan in Australia wouldn't have taxed the endurance of even the most ardent railway buff. An early passenger wrote: 'Hour after hour, the train jogs steadily along over plains as stony as a badly mended country road. Not a blade of grass is to be seen. The vegetation consists of salt-bush and other salsolaceous bushes, with scrub and perhaps a line of gum-trees marking the course of a distant creek, the shingly bed of which is usually dry.' Hardly copy for a travel brochure. Yet the story of the railway to Alice Springs is typical of the way railway engineers had to overcome the physical challenges of the terrain, which affected both what they built and how they built it. The challenge of keeping huge workforces fed and watered in inhospitable climates was itself a logistical nightmare on many projects, never mind how stone and iron for structures would be delivered to where they were needed. The indomitable spirit that overcame these obstacles seemed to be passed on to those who came after and ran the railway. Railwaymen - and until recently they were all men - the world over took pride in keeping services running when the elements were against them. For well over a century the railway was the lifeline of communities and commerce, the railway station a focal point of local life. What was written of a Yorkshire village station could stand for rural stations the world over, details aside: The waiting room was quite a social centre. As people gathered to await the arrival of the train they would meet friends and enquire about the anticipated journey...the newsagent could be there, also the local fishmonger and the other tradesmen waiting to collect their wares from the train. In the event of a breakdown or bad weather, arrangements would be made by the stationmaster for a good fire to be burning and...the wife of the stationmaster would bring hot tea for the delayed passengers...the skill and devotion of the staff gained the station garden many first and second prizes for the best kept station on the line. Railway travel is sociable and inclusive, helping to create and cement human relations in ways impossible in the alien and insular world of the motor car or lorry. The severing of those bonds within the railway community, and between it and the public, has been regretted in numerous books and articles. Libby Purves wrote that 'any railway, working properly, is a marvel of civilised co-operation,' and as that poet of industrial-age transport, L.T.C. Rolt, put it, 'a great railway system is perhaps the most elaborate and delicate, yet at the same time one of the most successful, feats of organization ever evolved by man. The loss of the railway was much more than a transport inconvenience to countless communities, more than the destruction of something that brought people together. When one looks at the quality of stonework in a bridge abutment, its supported span long gone, it can only be seen as an appalling waste. The railway builders of the nineteenth century generally over-engineered structures to err on the side of caution, given the absence of sophisticated stress calculations that today allow greater precision. Consequently their bridges and viaducts can still carry trains at speeds unimagined by their builders. During the decades when railways were seen by too many governments as part of the past rather than the future, hundreds of thousands of miles of still valuable and serviceable railway were abandoned with little thought to the needs of future generations or the welfare of the planet. But there is a darker side to the closures than lack of foresight. In many countries there is overwhelming evidence that politicians, civil servants and even railway officials deliberately took decisions that would undermine the economic and social case for maintaining a line. Talking to railwaymen in Britain during the 1960s and 70s, it was rare to find one without detailed knowledge of unnecessary expenditure or Machiavellian ways in which passenger and freight traffic had been reduced in order to support the case for closure. That determination was carried through into the indecent haste with which bridges were blown up or removed to block any attempt at reopening. Some of those responsible stood to gain personally from railway closures through their financial interests in road building or haulage. This skulduggery would be quite reprehensible enough, but the consequences of those closures are little short of criminal. Railway travel is statistically much safer than road journeys: in many countries not a single passenger dies on a railway for years on end, while thousands are killed on the roads every year. By increasing road traffic at the expense of rail, those decision-makers have been responsible for the deaths of countless numbers, at great economic cost, let alone the personal aspects. The scale is huge: globally, 1.25 million died on the roads in 2013, and it is estimated that during the twentieth century 60 million people died in road crashes, about the same number as in the Second World War. These numbers take no account of those who died prematurely through traffic pollution, or the millions disabled or seriously injured in crashes. The reopening of railways across the world is proof enough that the closures went too far and were ill-considered. Greater environmental awareness, partly through court cases against governments that fail to take meaningful action to reduce traffic pollution, has translated into rising passenger numbers in many countries, with correspondingly fewer young car owners and drivers. So Sir John Betjeman's prediction, made in 1963, has been proved correct: 'Railways are bound to be used again. They are not a thing of the past and it's heartbreaking to see them left to rot, to see the fine men who served them all their lives made uncertain about their futures and their jobs. What's more it's wrong in every way, when we all of us know that road traffic is increasingly hellish on this overcrowded island...' Few of the railways in this book are remotely candidates for reopening, leaving us free to self-project into the past, whether or not we have even been to the country they are in. But as the writer Ian Jack perceptively observed: 'Importantly, as I realise from my own childhood admiration for the Caledonian Railway's locomotives in their beautiful livery of light blue, we don't need to have witnessed the real thing to feel nostalgic for it. It often helps if we haven't. All pictures are of the actual item. There may be reflection from the lights in some photos. We try to take photos of any damage. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us. Shipping charges US Shipments: Ebay will add $1.25 each additional items, there are a few exceptions. Ebay Global shipping charges are shown. These items are shipped to Kentucky and forwarded to you. Ebay collects the shipping and customs / import fees. 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Price: 15 USD

Location: Talbott, Tennessee

End Time: 2025-02-06T18:54:16.000Z

Shipping Cost: 6 USD