Britain From The Rails

Britain from the Rails Guide - discover Britain from the rails, travel tips on British train travel and what to see from the comfort of your carriage. Covering England, Wales and Scotland, including the new Borders Railway, plus local history, practical advice, top ten railways, secret railways, branch lines, food and restaurants, hotels and B&Bs.

"Including the nation's best-kept-secret railways"--Cover.

A brand new book from the author of the acclaimed Britain from the Rails. Entertaining, eccentric, informative, inspirational and only very occasionally trainspotter-ish, Scotland from the Rails is the perfect guide to some of the most romantic rail journeys not just in Britain but the worldScotland's rail network boasts the highest mainline summits in Britain; the longest bridge; the longest and boldest spans; the most famous railway bridge of all (the Harry Potter one; some of the friendliest staff and the most lovely - and downright quirky - station buildings, many lovingly maintained or restored. And for icing on the cake, or rather cream on the Cranachan (a Scottish pudding best enjoyed with a wee dram) - some utterly charming and fascinating preserved lines, steam centres and luxury excursion trains which cruise through this magnificent land.

There have been passenger tramways in Britain for 150 years, but it is a rollercoaster story of rise, decline and a steady return. Trams have come and gone, been loved and hated, popular and derided, considered both wildly futuristic and hopelessly outdated by politicians, planners and the public alike. Horse trams, introduced from the USA in the 1860s, were the first cheap form of public transport on city streets. Electric systems were developed in nearly every urban area from the 1890s and revolutionised town travel in the Edwardian era.A century ago, trams were at their peak, used by everyone all over the country and a mark of civic pride in towns and cities from Dover to Dublin. But by the 1930s they were in decline and giving way to cheaper and more flexible buses and trolleybuses. By the 1950s all the major systems were being replaced. Londons last tram ran in 1952 and ten years later Glasgow, the city most firmly linked with trams, closed its network down. Only Blackpool, famous for its decorated cars, kept a public service running and trams seemed destined only for scrapyards and museums.A gradual renaissance took place from the 1980s, with growing interest in what are now described as light rail systems in Europe and North America. In the UK and Ireland modern trams were on the streets of Manchester from 1992, followed successively by Sheffield, Croydon, the West Midlands, Nottingham, Dublin and Edinburgh (2014). Trams are now set to be a familiar and significant feature of twenty-first century urban life, with more development on the way.

A delightful romp around the British Isles searching out the mad marquess, the eccentric earl, the barmy baron, and the daft duke and gathering a fair collection of crackpot inventors, weird adventurers and fascinatingly and not to mention insanely curious customs along the way. All of which make this rainy little island home to that remarkable breed of individual - the British eccentric.This expanded book still doesn't tell you where Stonehenge is, but it does tell you where ten spookier stone circles are where there will be no crowds, no admission charges and no parking problems... This is a book for the intelligent, humorous, curious tourist who doesn't go with the crowd. It is also a great armchair read that has been known to have readers weeping with mirth at the weird ways of the British.

An epic and revelatory narrative of the most important transportation technology of the modern world In his wide-ranging and entertaining new book, Tom Zoellner—coauthor of the New York Times–bestselling An Ordinary Man—travels the globe to tell the story of the sociological and economic impact of the railway technology that transformed the world—and could very well change it again. From the frigid trans-Siberian railroad to the antiquated Indian Railways to the Japanese-style bullet trains, Zoellner offers a stirring story of this most indispensable form of travel. A masterful narrative history, Train also explores the sleek elegance of railroads and their hypnotizing rhythms, and explains how locomotives became living symbols of sex, death, power, and romance.