This book celebrates the British railway station hotel. It focuses on those hotels built or acquired by the railway companies themselves rather than on the many railway or station hotels built by local entrepreneurs as speculative ventures up & down the country. It traces the success & failure of some of the early railway hotels but at its heart are those, such as Glasgow`s Central Hotel, the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras or the Royal Victoria Hotel in Sheffield, which survived the first century of Britain`s railways to become part of the Hotels Executive on the nationalisation of the railways in 1948 &, later, the British Transport Hotels group. Many of those built by the railway companies during the Victorian era have survived & continue to prosper into the twenty-first century. In this book, Michael Patterson uses a wonderful collection of photographs to share with the reader the grand architecture of many of the station hotels, the beauty of their decoration & the vaulting ambition behind their construction. ...

The National Railway Museum at York houses Britain’s unique collection of railway posters. In this fifth volume in a series, we take a journey from London to the Isle of Wight, using many previously unseen images. The result is a stunning guide to the region & its railway poster heritage. ...

Railway Map of the British Isles: Grouping System 1923 from the Old Book House, wallmap format
- size 68 x 85.5cm / 27 x 33.5
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Railway Map of the British Isles: Grouping System 1923 from the Old Book House, folded format, presents the railway network of the United Kingdom & the Irish Republic as it stood on 1923 following the Railways Act of 1921. Within Great Britain the Act led to the formation of the ...

Railway Posters is the story of train travel through the posters of American & European railway companies. The inventive graphics created by the poster artists convey the excitement & nostalgia that accompany today`s perceptions of train travel; taking the reader on a journey from their first experience of trains as miniature sets in their family home to the necessity of train travel in their adult life. This large-format book showcases the beautiful posters in all their splendour as well as providing an historical commentary. Features posters by artists including Cassandre, Alesi, Dorival, Otto Ernst, Fix-Masseau, Villemot & Zenobel. ...

The National Railway Museum in York has a large & varied collection of railway art & artefacts; this books shows over 200 of the best posters dating from the railways` heyday prior to nationalization. In this period, renowned poster artists of the calibre of Edward Mc Knight Kauffer, Tom Purvis & Cassandre were commissioned by the railway groups to promote not only their lines but also the most beautiful & appealing cities & towns in their areas for tourists to visit. The railway companies virtually invented the ”package tour”, & promoted it intensively not only in the UK but also in the USA. The introduction explains the history of the companies during the period covered, & examines their attitudes to poster advertising. The book is then divided into four sections, one for each of the railway groups: the resulting selection makes an analysis of poster art in the UK in its ”golden age” of the Twenties & Thirties. Extended captions explain the context of the works, & information about the artists is provided. The authors are on the curatorial staff of the National Railway Museum, York. ...

Sixty years after a disparate group of railway enthusiasts came together in a remote corner of rural Wales to run a train service
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Celebrate the days when trains were trains, individual expresses had their own character, serving their passengers in style in restaurant car, & connecting services ran over picturesque branch lines that were a very part of the countryside they served. Railway Season by David St John Thomas whose Country Railway sold an astonishing 170, 000 copies, captures all our railway yesterdays with panache. This is indeed a railway book like no other, a portfolio of word portraits by an enthusiast who knows his subject intimately & is never at a loss for a telling example. From his imaginary but life-like ' Day in the life of a country terminus' to the ground-breaking stuff of the natural history of railways, & from the colourful history of excursions to a poignant reminder of what traffic used to be like on peak Summer Saturdays, an evocation of watching trains & a reminder of Christmases past, the book rolls irresistibly along.. .and that only mentions a fraction of the chapters. Though this is not specifically a book about the country side inevitably it looms large since even intercity trains run through it.. .as demonstrated in the chapter 'A country journey like no other', which also emphasizes the author's West Country background. But whatever your interest in railways & wherever your favourite part of the countryside, there is much here for you. The chapter on railways for pleasure perhaps sums it all up. ...

Jeff Vinter, Consultant to the BBC`s ” Railway Walks” series, provides comprehensive details of every disused railway line in Wales that is now a public walk or cycle trail. He covers everything from the earliest tram-roads to recently closed colliery lines
- all set against the magnificent backdrop of the Welsh landscape & offering an insight into the country`s industrial past. From the tunnels of Saundersfoot Railway on the Pembrokeshire coast to the long slog of the Brecon & Merthyr Railway`s famous Seven Mile Bank, there is plenty here to delight both railway enthusiasts & walkers looking for unfamiliar views. Richly illustrated, this book is replete with photographs of the surrounding landscape & detailed guides on the history of each branch line from the Rhondda Railway to Snowdonia. Jeff Vinter takes us on a fascinating journey through the remote landscapes of Wales, past old tracks & ancient viaducts to discover hidden treasures. There are notes on the best & most convenient pubs en route, & local public transport is summarised for the benefit of those who want to walk one way & ride the other.” Railway Walks: Wales” is a must-have guide for anyone interested in Welsh railway heritage, or for all those who love to explore the hidden landscape of Wales.
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Jeff Vinter, consultant to the BBC`s popular ” Railway Walks” series, here guides the walker along ten of the best railway paths in the south of Engl&, ranging from the Camel Trail in scenic north Cornwall to the densely wooded tracks of the Forest of Dean, & taking in the Downs Link across the rolling countryside of West Sussex & Surrey, as well as the Plym Valley Railway Path & Cycle Route on the southern slopes of Dartmoor. The detailed description of each walk

Includes:: OS grid references, helpful maps & illustrations, as well as comprehensive transport & refreshments information. For those walkers who wish to explore more, further walks, preserved railways & museums are suggested, which shed light on the area`s industrial past. The `armchair walker` is also catered for, with a full historical description of each line & a resume of its regeneration after closure. Together with ” Railway Walks: GWR & SR”, all you will need are a map & a pair of stout boots
- & some reasonable weather
- in order to enjoy this fascinating & rather different aspect of the English countryside.



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