A Regional History Of The Railways Of Great Britain South And West Yorkshire By David Joy

In the late nineteenth century, some of Britains leading main-line railway companies threw caution to the winds in an attempt to provide the fastest passenger express services between London and Scotland. These became known as the races to the north. There were two phases, in 1888 and 1895, and they spurred the building of new bridges across the Firth of Forth and Firth of Tay.David Wraggs gripping, detailed narrative tells the story of this epic engineering and commercial competition. He concentrates on the determination of the railway companies to see who could provide the fastest schedule between London and the main Scottish cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Dundee and Aberdeen.Casting aside their early policy of co-existence on these prestigious and lucrative routes, the West Coast and East Coast companies were drawn into a period of intense, highly publicized rivalry as they sought to dominate the market. David Wragg gives an insight into the conduct of the well-publicized highs and tragic lows of this dramatic story the extension of the lines to the far north, the building of the Tay and Forth bridges including the collapse of the first Tay bridge with 72 fatalities and the repeated bids by the companies to cut the journey times.While he describes the public side of this fascinating story, David Wragg fills in the background, which is no less interesting the pioneering engineering of the steam age, the massive construction projects, the cut-throat battle for passengers and freight and the deep inter-company rivalries that drove the rapid development of the railways during the Victorian period.

Railways played a key role in Britain's social, economic and industrial history. These companies have long since gone, but all over the country relics remain to remind us of that pioneering age. David Wragg's Historical Dictionary of Railways in the British Isles is a comprehensive, single-volume reference guide to the old railway companies and their heritage. He provides brief histories of the companies and their many-sided activities, and he gives biographies of the men who created the rail network. He covers what is now the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland as well as the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. His book is essential reading and reference for enthusiasts of every region and period of railway history.

To the early railway traveller, the prospect of travelling to places in hours rather than days hitherto was an inviting prospect, however a journey was not without its fears as well as excitement. To some, the prospect of travelling through a tunnel without carriage lighting, with smoke permeating the compartment and the confined noise was a horror of the new age. What might happen if we broke down or crashed into another train in the darkness? To others it was exciting, with the light from the footplate flickering against the tunnel walls or spotting the occasional glimpses of light from a ventilation shaft. To the directors of early railway companies, planning a route was governed by expense and the most direct way. Avoiding hills could add miles but tunnelling through them could involve vast expense as the Great Western Railway found at Box and the London and Birmingham at Kilsby. Creating a cutting as an alternative was also costly not only in labour and time, but also in compensation for landowners, who opposed railways on visual and social grounds having seen their land divided by canals. Construction involved millions of bricks or blocks of stone for sufficiently thick walls to withstand collapse. However, the entrance barely seen from the carriage window might be an impressive Italianate arch as at Primrose Hill, or a castellated portal worthy of the Middle Ages as at Bramhope. This book sets out to tell the story of tunnelling in Britain up to about 1870, when it was a question of burrowing through earth and rock with spade and explosive powder, with the constant danger of collapse or flooding leading to injury and death. It uses contemporary accounts, from the dangers of railway travel by Dickens to the excitement of being drawn through the Liverpool Wapping Tunnel by the young composer Mendelssoln. It includes descriptions from early railway company guide books, newspapers and diaries. It also includes numerous photographs and colored architectural elevations from railway archives.

Renowned for its express locomotive Mallard setting a world speed record (126mph) for steam locomotives that endures to this day, the London & North Eastern Railway was the second largest of the ‘Big Four’ railway companies to emerge from the 1923 grouping and also the most diverse, with its prestigious high-speed trains from King’s Cross balanced by an intensive suburban and commuter service from Liverpool Street and a high dependence on freight. Noted for its cautious board and thrifty management, the LNER gained a reputation for being poor but honest. Forming part of a series, along with The GWR Handbook, The LMS Handbook and The Southern Railway Handbook, this new edition provides an authoritative and highly detailed reference of information about the LNER.

The London Midland & Scottish Railway was the largest of the Big Four railway companies to emerge from the 1923 grouping. It was the only one to operate in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as having two short stretches of line in the Irish Republic. It was also the world's largest railway shipping operator and owned the greatest number of railway hotels. Mainly a freight railway, it still boasted the best carriages, and the work of chief engineer Sir William Stanier influenced the first locomotive and carriage designs for the nationalised British railways. Packed with facts and figures as well as historical narrative, this extensively illustrated book is a superb reference source that will be of interest to all railway enthusiasts.

It was to the south-west of Leeds that one of the key lines in the development of Britain’s railway network – the Middleton Railway – established the principle of seeking parliamentary sanction for the construction of a new form of transport. Five decades later in the early nineteenth century it was again the Middleton Railway that was at the forefront of the use of steam – rather than animal – power to move coal from colliery to market. From the early 1830s through until the early years of the twentieth century the local railway network continued to expand; indeed, if it had not been for the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 the area would have played host to one of the last first-generation main lines to be constructed with the Midland Railway planning – and partially constructing – a new main line north from Royston. In the event the line was never completed, consigning Bradford to be served by no more than glorified branch lines. Providing a largely illustrated account to the history of the railway development of the area, the book includes a fascinating selection of illustrations that focus on the evolution of the network in the almost eighty years since the end of the Second World War.

‘Hurry’ is an intrinsic component of modernity. It exists not only in tandem with modern constructions of mobility, speed, rhythm, and time–space compression, but also with infrastructures, technologies, practices, and emotions associated with the experience of the ‘mobilizing modern’. ‘Hurry’ is not simply speed. It may result in congestion, slowing-down, or inaction in the face of over-stimulus. Speeding-up is often competitive: faster traffic on better roads made it harder for pedestrians to cross, or for horse-drawn vehicles and cyclists to share the carriageway with motorized vehicles. Focusing on the cultural and material manifestations of ‘hurry’, the book’s contributors analyse the complexities, tensions, and contradictions inherent in the impulse to higher rates of circulation in modernizing cities. The collection includes, but also goes beyond, accounts of new forms of mobility (bicycles, buses, underground trains) and infrastructure (street layouts and surfaces, business exchanges, and hotels) to show how modernity’s ‘architectures of hurry’ have been experienced, represented, and practised since the mid nineteenth century. Ten case studies explore different expressions of ‘hurry’ across cities and urban regions in Asia, Europe, and North and South America, and substantial introductory and concluding chapters situate ‘hurry’ in the wider context of modernity and mobility studies and reflect on the future of ‘hurry’ in an ever-accelerating world. This diverse collection will be relevant to researchers, scholars, and practitioners in the fields of planning, cultural and historical geography, urban history, and urban sociology.