Christian Wolmar

an illustrated history of the railroad

The iron road

The Trans-Siberian Railway, stretching nearly 6000 miles between Moscow and Vladivostok is the world's longest railway line, and was one of the most ambitious projects of the 19th century. Christian Wolmar tells the story from its conception and construction under Tsar Alexander III to its continued success as a vital artery joining the countries of the former Soviet Union.

The Story of the Trans-Siberian Railway

To the Edge of the World

The epic story of the British construction of the railways in India, as told by Britain's bestselling transport historian. 'Christian Wolmar is Britain's foremost railway historian.' The Times 'Our leading writer on the railways' Guardian 'Christian Wolmar is in love with railways... He is their wisest, most detailed historian' Observer India joined the railway age late: the first line was not completed until 1853 but, by 1929, 41,000 miles of track served the country. However, the creation of this vast network was not intended to modernize India for the sake of its people but rather was a means for the colonial power to govern the huge country under its control, serving its British economic and military interests. Despite the dubious intentions behind the construction of the network, the Indian people quickly took to the railways, as the trains allowed them to travel easily for the first time. The Indian Railways network remains one of the largest in the world, serving over 25 million passengers each day. In this expertly told history, Christian Wolmar reveals the full story of India's railways, from its very beginnings to the present day, and examines the chequered role they have played in Indian history and the creation of today's modern state.

How the Age of Steam Transformed India

Railways and The Raj

The Untold Story of How American Engineering and Ingenuity Won World War II

Liberation Line

Subterranean Railway

the history of trains in America

The great railroad revolution

Blood, Iron And Gold

Pre-order the authoritative and enthralling history of of the rise and fall of the state-owned British Rail. You think you know British Rail. From the sandwiches to the inefficiency to the violent yellow livery, we haven't looked kindly on this, the last of our great state-owned organizations to be privatized. But you don't know the whole story. From its creation after the Second World War, through its fifty-year lifetime, British Rail was an innovative powerhouse that transformed our transport system, uniting disparate lines into a highly competent organization - heralding 'The Age of the Train' and for a time providing one of the fastest regular rail services in the world. Born into post-war austerity, traumatized, impoverished and exploited by a hostile press, the state-owned railway was dismissed as a dinosaur unable to evolve, and swept away by a government hellbent on selling it off. Now, award-winning writer Christian Wolmar provides a new perspective on national loss in a time of privatization. British Rail is ripe for a new history. Praise for Christian Wolmar The greatest expert on British trains' - The Guardian 'Our most eminent transport journalist' - The Spectator 'If the world's railways have a laureate, it is surely Christian Wolmar' - Boston Globe 'Christian Wolmar is in love with the railways. He writes constantly and passionately about them. He is their wisest, most detailed historian and a constant prophet of their rebirth . . . if you love the hum of the wheels and of history, then Christian Wolmar is your man' - Observer

British Rail

Sarah Baxter

History is everywhere, and is never as complete as when it can be accessed on a part of history itself. The locomotive is one of the great steps in progress of civilisation that undoubtably connects us to land and history that was shaped by the machine itself. Although a basic form of railway, or rutway, did exist in Ancient Greek and Roman ......

History of the World in 500 Railway Journeys

The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830 marked the beginning of the railways' vital role in changing the face of Britain. This work celebrates the vision and determination of the Victorian pioneers who developed this transport system and the navvies who cut through the land to enable a countrywide network to emerge.

A New History of the Railways in Britain

Fire and Steam

Since the Victorian era, London's Underground has had played a vital role in the daily life of generations of Londoners. In The Subterranean Railway, Christian Wolmar celebrates the vision and determination of the nineteenth-century pioneers who made the world's first, and still the largest, underground passenger railway: one of the most impressive engineering achievements in history. From the early days of steam to electrification, via the Underground's contribution to twentieth-century industrial design and its role during two world wars, the story comes right up to the present with its sleek, driverless trains and the wrangles over the future of the system. The Subterranean Railway reveals London's hidden wonder in all its glory and shows how the railway beneath the streets helped create the city we know today.

How the London Underground was Built and How it Changed the City Forever

The Subterranean Railway

On The Wrong Line: How Ideology and Incompetence Wrecked Britain&#39;s Railways

A fascinating journey through the history of the railroad, packed with first-hand accounts of innovation, triumph, and tragedy. From the earliest steam engine to the high-speed bullet trains of today, A Short History of the Railroad reveals the hidden stories of railroad history across the world - the inspired engineering; the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the construction of the tracks; the ground-breaking innovations behind the trains that travelled along them; and the triumphs and tragedies of the people who made the railway what it is. Chart the history of the Trans-Siberian railway, the Orient Express, and Maglev trains and the impact of world events on the development of trains and the railway. Explore the pioneering railway lines that crossed continents, the key trains of each era, and the locomotives that changed the world. A riveting narrative packed with photographs, diagrams, and maps to illustrate and illuminate, this is the biography of the machines that carried us into the modern era.

A Short History of the Railroad

The opening of the world's first railroad in Britain and America in 1830 marked the dawn of a new age. Within the course of a decade, tracks were being laid as far afield as Australia and Cuba, and by the outbreak of World War I, the United States alone boasted over a quarter of a million miles. With unrelenting determination, architectural innovation, and under gruesome labor conditions, a global railroad network was built that forever changed the way people lived. From Panama to Punjab, from Tasmania to Turin, Christian Wolmar shows how cultures were enriched, and destroyed, by one of the greatest global transport revolutions of our time, and celebrates the visionaries and laborers responsible for its creation.

How the Railways Transformed the World

Blood, Iron, and Gold

Wolmar's entertaining polemic sets out the many technical, legal and moral problems that obstruct the path to a driverless future, and debunks many of the myths around that future's purported benefits.

Driverless Cars: On a Road to Nowhere?

Reissued in a new paperback package to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the London Underground.

How the London Underground Was Built and How It Changed the City Forever

Christian Wolmar's acclaimed Broken Rails charted the disastrous privatisation of the British railway system in the mid-1990s. Now, in an updated and expanded version of the book, Wolmar highlights the failure of New Labour to get to grips with the legacy it inherited. The railways now absorb more taxpayers' money than ever before, while performance has reached an all-time low. Wolmar suggests that the railways may soon be under threat from a massive round of cuts and closures - or that debts, already at USD10bn, will mount up with catastrophic effect. But he argues that there is a third option: a return to a rational railway in which the disparate pieces are reassembled into a functioning network.

How Ideology and Incompetence Wrecked Britain's Railways

On the Wrong Line

How Privatisation Wrecked Britain's Railways

Broken Rails

Christian Wolmar, one of the UK's leading transport journalists, analyzes the troubled history of Britain's railways, reveals how they have reached the current state of disarray, and suggests ways to make the necessary improvements.

To the Edge of the World is an adventure in travel—full of extraordinary personalities, more than a century of explosive political, economic, and cultural events, and almost inconceivable feats of engineering. Christian Wolmar passionately recounts the improbable origins of the Trans-Siberian railroad, the vital artery for Russian expansion that spans almost 6,000 miles and seven time zones from Moscow to Vladivostok. The world's longest train route took a decade to build—in the face of punishing climates, rampant disease, scarcity of funds and materials, and widespread corruption. The line sprawls over a treacherous landmass that was previously populated only by disparate tribes and convicts serving out their terms in labor camps—where men were regularly starved, tortured, or mutilated for minor offenses. Once built, it led to the establishment of new cities and transformed the region's history. Exceeding all expectations, it became, according to Wolmar, “the best thing that ever happened to Siberia.” It was not all good news, however. The railroad was the cause of the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War, and played a vital—and at times bloody—role in the Russian Revolution and the subsequent Civil War. More positively, the Russians were able to resist the Nazi invasion during the Second World War as new routes enabled whole industries to be sent east. Siberia, previously a lost and distant region, became an inextricable part of Russia's cultural identity. And what began as one meandering, single-track line is now, arguably, the world's most important railroad.

Christian Wolmar

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