Last Train To Polmouth

South Devon, a thriving county with the sea, estuary and moorland for recreation, owes much of its success and vibrant economy to the railways that provide day return services, allowing people to travel freely to and from London and the North. Rail Operations Viewed From South Devon is a comprehensive exploration of the railways in and around South Devon, with chapters drawing on areas across the country such as Totnes, Carlisle and Bristol. Embracing a wide range of topics to help the reader understand how railway engineering reached its current state, this book aims to encourage discussion about the rail network as an entity. Chapters include the history of the sea and cliff issues associated with Dawlish, as well as how the Victorians built a congestion-free rail system around Bristol, with another chapter detailing the Cross Country timetables of 1925. This extensive insight into the railway also draws on the author’s personal experience of undertaking a rail tour to Carlisle and back to Totnes in 1999, following the re-privatisation of the rail network, in comparison to a previous excursion in 1961. Illustrated throughout with dozens of detailed maps and diagrams, as well as useful statistics, Rail Operations Viewed From South Devon will appeal to readers who are curious about railway history and the recent management of the rail networks.

No book exists specifically on the famous, popular ‘name’ trains that used to run on the New Zealand rail network. The Auckland-Opua Express once carried passengers to the Bay of Islands, the Onehunga Boat Train used to be part of the main route between Auckland and Wellington, and the Rotorua Limited enabled tourists and the well-to-do to take the waters in Rotorua. Later trains like the Silver Star and Northerner - even the Kaimai, Geyserland and Bay Expresses, withdrawn in 2001 - had a distinctive character too.Last Train to Paradise describes the halcyon days of New Zealand rail, some of which the author was fortunate enough to experience personally. The ‘name’ trains and journeys cover a considerable period of New Zealand’s history, from the late 1800s, through the ‘golden’ era of train travel (the first four decades of the 20th century), and conclude with the introduction of new services in the last half of the century. The railway lines described in the book cover every part of the country – and some that have almost been erased from popular memory. Almost everyone in the first half of the 20th century travelled by train – including royalty. In 1869 the first royal train journey from Lyttelton to Christchurch carried the Duke of Edinburgh; the first fully-fledged royal train carrying the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall (the future King George V and Queen Mary) plied the route of the Rotorua Limited and the South Island Express; in 1920 the Prince of Wales traversed the country by train with Lord Louis Mountbatten. In 1927 the Duke and Duchess of York (the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) travelled more than 1700 miles by royal train. Other distinguished visitors whose stories will be told in the book include the English comedian J.L.Toole and his company (1890), Australian poet Will Lawson, singers Dame Nellie Melba, Dame Clara Butt, Irish tenor John McCormack and Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin, Polish pianist Ignace Paderewski, ‘March King’ John Philip Sousa and his band, ballerina Anna Pavlova, the 17-year-old violinist Yehudi Menuhin, writers Rudyard Kipling, Zane Grey and George Bernard Shaw, and actors Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. The book will include a wide variety of fascinating and unfamiliar photographs, not just of the trains themselves but also of the people who travelled in them.

The story begins in a small Texas hill country town of Llano. The main character, Robert Rhodes, is the editor of the local newspapers and a member of the city council. He was a decorated World War l hero, which is the prime reason he was accepted by the cliquish citizens of the tiny berg. It had been eight years since he had been discharged after receiving the Purple Heart medal for being injured in the battle of Chatel-Chehery near the Argonne Forest. On a moonless summer night, a bronze statue, without any warning or fanfare, appeared on the town square while the town’s occupants slept. After the mysterious arrival of the nude life-size bronze lady holding an infant had manifested itself in between the turn-of-the-century county courthouse and the WWI doughboy statue erected in honor of the veterans from Llano County who gave their lives in Europe, the city government was left with little time to do anything else but to deal with the fury of their religious constituents. They, with their superstitions and religious prejudicial minds, were holding the city commission accountable for the sinful nude woman exposing herself shamelessly on the Town Square. The Llano city government consisted of a mayor and six council members, and each of their lives will be directly affected by the presence of the illicit statue blatantly displaying itself on the courthouse lawn. The unexplained visit by the statue of the naked young woman and child did more than ignite the anger of the religious community—it started the metamorphosis of each of the board members’ lives. Each member of the city council viewed the statue in a different light. As their lives took on a new beginning, it started in motion a change that would affect not only each member of the city commission but everyone they were connected to. The ripple of the rising tidal waters of social responsibility and reform were beginning to become apparent in the little hill country town and would soon be lapping on the pink granite steps of the Texas Capital Statehouse in Austin.

The Last Train Home uses a story line to take you on a journey through some of the various schemes of corruption that plagues the automobile industry on a daily basis; and talks about the greed that runs abound like a yellow fever with some of these shop owners. It continues to explain a few of their tactics which they use to exercise their self proclaimed license to steal from people and the insurance companies. It also mentions some of the dealings of the more reputable dealers. This book is an enjoyable read and closes with an ending that is neither foreseeable nor predictable.