North West Railways in the 1970s and 1980s


Book Description

With previously unpublished photographs John Carlson takes a new look at the north-western rail scene.




Chicago & North Western Railway


Book Description

By the time it was merged into the Union Pacific in 1995, the Chicago & North Western was one of the nations oldest surviving railroads, a testament to the Midwestern stoicism with which it had gone about its business since 1859. This illustrated history chronicles how C&NW emerged from a collection of regional carriers to become a strategic link between eastern railroads and the West. Author Tom Murray traces the railroads expansion as it extended secondary lines throughout the Midwest. He also explores C&NWs joint ownership of UP passenger trains and describes how the railroad answered challenges from regional rivals with the "400" series of passenger trains. As fascinating as the story are the hundreds of accompanying illustrations--historical photographs, archival images, route maps, and period print ads. The result is an entertaining and informative history of an iconic Midwestern railroad--a narrative that spans the decades from the 1850s to the 1990s and takes in steam and diesel motive power, freight and passenger operations, and all the key characters, events, and deals that figured in the Chicago & North Westerns rise and eventual demise.




British Rail Scene


Book Description

Taking railway photographs and capturing an age of impressive locomotives and atmospheric stations is a pastime that the age of steam passed down through generations, even after its own decline in favour of diesel and electric traction. It was certainly one that avid teenage trainspotter Andy Sparks sought to take up, emulating the work of prized 1960s railway photographer Colin T. Gifford. But by the 1970s, when Andy's camera was at the ready and after Beeching's axe had come down on the British railway network, modernisation and rationalisation were rapidly sweeping away the vestiges of the previous age, and dereliction and decay intertwined much of what could be seen. Desperate to capture the scene, Andy took thousands of photographs from 1972 until the early 1980s, and his images beautifully convey the nostalgic, gritty years of that era of change on Britain's railways. From his lens to the pages of this book, this is a unique look at an oft-overlooked period of British railway history.




Reckoning with Homelessness


Book Description

"It must be some kind of experiment or something, to see how long people can live without food, without shelter, without security."—Homeless woman in Grand Central StationKim Hopper has dedicated his career to trying to address the problem of homelessness in the United States. In this powerful book, he draws upon his dual strengths as anthropologist and advocate to provide a deeper understanding of the roots of homelessness. He also investigates the complex attitudes brought to bear on the issue since his pioneering fieldwork with Ellen Baxter twenty years ago helped put homelessness on the public agenda.Beginning with his own introduction to the problem in New York, Hopper uses ethnography, literature, history, and activism to place homelessness into historical context and to trace the process by which homelessness came to be recognized as an issue. He tells the largely neglected story of homelessness among African Americans and vividly portrays various sites of public homelessness, such as airports. His accounts of life on the streets make for powerful reading.




London Voices, London Lives


Book Description

London Voices, London Lives addresses a question of great current importance for urban policy: what kind of a place is London in the 21st century, and how does it differ significantly from other parts of urban Britain? It addresses these questions in a unique way: over one hundred ordinary Londoners provide their answers in their own voices.




The Railways of Glasgow


Book Description

The city of Glasgow, formerly one of the largest industrial centres in the world, was once responsible for building about one-quarter of the world's railway locomotives. This was complemented by a massive urban railway network: the second largest in the UK. However, the Beeching Report of 1963 inevitably took its toll on Glasgow. This book examines the changing face of Glasgow's railways ever since, starting with the period of rationalisation and industrial decline that followed. It also explores the revival enjoyed in the latter half of the twentieth century, with lines re-opened and modern rolling stock being introduced. And with Glasgow hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games, we take a look at the emphasis being placed on the railway as further development work takes place.







British railway enthusiasm


Book Description

Now available in paperback, this is the first academic book to study railway enthusiasts in Britain. Far from a trivial topic, the post-war train spotting craze swept most boys and some girls into a passion for railways, and for many, ignited a lifetime’s interest. British railway enthusiasm traces this post-war cohort, and those which followed, as they invigorated different sectors in the world of railway enthusiasm – train spotting, railway modelling, collecting railway relics – and then, in response to the demise of main line steam traction, Britain’s now-huge preserved railway industry. Today this industry finds itself riven by tensions between preserving a loved past which ever fewer people can remember and earning money from tourist visitors. The widespread and enduring significance of railway enthusiasm will ensure that this groundbreaking text remains a key work in transport studies, and will appeal to enthusiasts as much as to students and scholars of transport and cultural history.




Work Identity at the End of the Line?


Book Description

Work Identity at the End of the Line? tells the story of workplace culture and identity in the railway industry before during and after privatization in the mid-1990s. It combines rich interview material from workers and managers involved in the privatisation process with a fascinating background detail of nationalization. The book will be of interest to sociologists, cultural and economic historians as well as those studying culture change in business. Work Identity at the End of the Line? has been shortlisted for the British Sociological Association's Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2005. It is one of only four titles to be shortlisted.




North American Railroad Family Trees


Book Description

The history of railroading in North America is as much a story of boardroom intrigue as it is a story of the brute force that stamped thousands of miles of train track across a rugged continent. Today’s nine U.S. and Canadian Class I railroads are the result of well over a century of convoluted bankruptcies, mergers, acquisitions, and expansions. North American Railroad Family Trees marks the first time in book form that this major aspect of railroad history has been presented in a clear, graphic format, helping the railfan make sense of the many smaller train lines that shaped North American rail as it is today. In these pages, renowned rail author Brian Solomon takes a visual and chronological approach, presenting 50 “family trees” in the style of human lineages. The story begins with the railroads of the “Golden Age” (1890–1930), continuing through the second wave of consolidations between the World Wars, the merger mania of the 1950s through the 1970s, the creation of major passenger networks, and the megamergers of the last three decades that have left railroading close to its current incarnation. Solomon even offers a selection of maps tracing the evolution of the North American rail system and diagrams proposing what-if scenarios for the industry’s future. Including chapter-by-chapter narrative overviews of key eras, along with a selection of rare photography and period advertising to lend historical context, North American Railroad Family Trees provides an unprecedented retrospective of the continent’s iconic rail network.