The World S Last Steam Locomotives In Industry The 20th Century

A stunning collection of rare photographs documenting the last years of industrial steam around the world. This first volume focuses on scenes captured in the twentieth century.

A stunning collection of rare photographs documenting the last years of industrial steam around the world. This first volume focuses on scenes captured in the twenty-first century.

China was the last country in the world to manufacture and operate steam locomotives. By the early 1980s, there were an estimated 10,000 operational steam locomotives in the country, but by the 1990s, diesel and electric locomotives started to replace them on the main lines and the number in service reduced substantially as the millennium approached. The last steam locomotives were finally withdrawn from China Rail in 2003. After that, some continued to operate heavy freight trains on local railways for a short while, but most were deployed for use on the country’s industrial railways, mainly at coal mines and steel works. This trend continued into the first decade of the 21st century, but subsequently, the number of steam engines in service declined substantially and were confined to just a handful of industrial locations. Steam rail operations in China are now facing extinction. The modernization of the railways with the switch from steam to diesel, the closure of unsafe and loss-making collieries and China’s drive to reduce pollution and combat climate change from burning coal, have all conspired towards the demise of the industrial lines operating steam in China. This book looks at the last of the standard-gauge steam operations in China, including Sandaoling, the last steam-worked opencast coal mine in the world; Fuxin, a coal-mining city in Liaoning Province, which until recently, operated the largest surviving fleet of SY locomotives; Baiyin, in Gansu Province, which operated some of the last steam-hauled passenger trains in the world; and Wu Jiu, a remote coal-mining outpost in Inner Mongolia. Beautifully illustrated with over 120 color photographs and a description of the operations, this is a striking portrait of the last of the world’s operating steam trains.

Perfecting the American Steam Locomotive documents the role played by mechanical engineers in the development of locomotive design. The steam engine and the mechanical engineering profession both grew directly out of the Industrial Revolution's need for sources of power beyond that of men and animals. Invented in England when coal mining was being developed, the practical steam engine eventually found numerous applications in transportation, especially in railroad technology. J. Parker Lamb traces the evolution of the steam engine from the early 1700s through the early 1800s, when the first locomotives were sent to the United States from England. Lamb then shifts the scene to the development of the American steam locomotive, first by numerous small builders, and later, by the early 20th century, by only three major enterprises and a handful of railroad company shops. Lamb reviews the steady progress of steam locomotive technology through its pinnacle during the 1930s, then discusses the reasons for its subsequent decline.

Between 1900 and 1950, Americans built the most powerful steam locomotives of all time--enormous engines that powered a colossal industry. They were deceptively simple machines, yet, the more their technology was studied, the more obscure it became. Despite immense and sustained engineering efforts, steam locomotives remained grossly inefficient in their use of increasingly costly fuel and labor. In the end, they baffled their masters and, as soon as diesel-electric technology provided an alternative, steam locomotives disappeared from American railroads. Drawing on the work of eminent engineers and railroad managers of the day, this lavishly illustrated history chronicles the challenges, triumphs and failures of American steam locomotive development and operation.

Herrigel challenges the Chandlerian, Gerschenkronian, and Schumpetarian approaches to Germany's economic history.

Each of us can tell our personal story via a CV (curriculum vitae), so why not a nation? This is The National CV of Britain, a pioneering document which summarises the achievements of the Influential Islanders in a brief, upbeat and rigorous way, never before attempted. Britain has made a wildly disproportionate contribution to civilisation and this work celebrates the fact with verve and intellectual fireworks. The CV sets out to make the story of Britain easy and fun to access, for young and old alike, with a fully interactive format. Itself just 30 pages long, the CV comes with an inbuilt database over ten times as long. This is The National CVpedia of Britain. Click on a CV claim that seems to you improbable and you will be whisked to the evidence behind it. Browse, delve, imbibe, devour - whatever way you want to interact with the CV, you will find an abundance of facts, figures and delightful anecdotes to interest and astound. The National CV of Britain is a unique forward-looking history that has the Influential Islanders ‘Applying for the future’. This is a fully interactive book, and we recommend it to be used with a Kindle Touch, Kindle Fire or iPad.