From a Flying Scotsman poster to a USA Railways magazine plate, a range of stunning images to suit any vintage train or travel ...

Most people are under a misapprehension: the Rocket was not the first steam engine. Quite a few were built before it, but Stephenson`s engine was the first successful steam locomotive. Colin Maggs tells the history of the steam engine from pre-Rocket days to British Railways building Evening Star, the last main line locomotive, through to the preservation movement & even new build locomotives of extinct classes such as the Tornado. This is also the story of the rolling stock, the `train`. The early first-class coaches were based on a stagecoach design, while some second-class coaches had no glass in the windows & passengers wore fine-gauge goggles to avoid getting cinders in their eyes. Third-class coaches were merely open trucks
- after all, why not travel in the open as passengers had done on the outside of a stagecoach?
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Map No. 118, Steamboat Springs
- Rabbit Ears Pass in Colorado, in an extensive series of GPS compatible, contoured hiking maps
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The Steamboat Springs Adventure Map is a waterproof, topographic trail map (lat/long, UTM grids) that

Includes::

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Paddlewheel riverboat, showboat, sternwheeler: in all its myriad forms, the steamboat revolutionized American travel in the 1800s, taking millions of people inland & helping to settle & develop the vast territories beyond the original colonies. It was an era in which young boys dreamed of becoming steamboat pilots & Mark Twain immortalized the ”floating palaces” that travelled up & down the Mississippi River. In this fascinating history, Sara Wright explains the factors that made the era perfect for the development of the steam engine & paddle boat, taking the reader far beyond the romantic image & revealing the steamboat as a vital & essential force in the development of the nation. ...

This nostalgic book looks back to the glorious final years of Steam on the British railways in the 1950s & 1960s. Featuring 33 routes covering the entire country, this guide is a fascinating combination of meticulously researched railway history & more than 350 rarely-seen images from Britain`s leading railway photographers. ...

This lavish new volume explores Britain`s extensive railway heritage, offering a comprehensive history of their construction, use & subsequent preservation. The book outlines the development of Britain`s railways from the coming of steam through to the first age of the train, the `big four`, wartime service, the nationalisation of the network & the advent of diesels & electrification. It incorporates evocative photographs & artworks from the extensive archives of the National Railway Museum. Examples of steam preservation lines featured in the book include the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, North Norfolk Railway, Bluebell Railway, Nene Valley Railway, Severn Valley Railway & Paignton & Dartmouth Railway, which are presented in a useful appendix, with contact details & opening times for attractions. ...

In the seven decades since the darkest moments of the Second World War it seems every tenebrous corner of the conflict has been laid bare, prodded & examined from every perspective of military & social history. But there is a story that has hitherto been largely overlooked. It is a tale of quiet heroism, a story of ordinary people who fought, with enormous self-sacrifice, not with tanks & guns, but with elbow grease & determination. It is the story of the British railways &, above all, the extraordinary men & women who kept them running from 1939 to 1945. Churchill himself certainly did not underestimate their importance to the wartime story when, in 1943, he praised `the unwavering courage & constant resourcefulness of railwaymen of all ranks in contributing so largely towards the final victory.` & what a story it is. The railway system during the Second World War was the lifeline of the nation, replacing vulnerable road transport & merchant shipping. The railways mobilised troops, transported munitions, evacuated children from cities & kept vital food supplies moving where other forms of transport failed. Railwaymen & women performed outstanding acts of heroism. Nearly 400 workers were killed at their posts & another 2, 400 injured in the line of duty. Another 3, 500 railwaymen & women died in action. The trains themselves played just as vital a role. The famous Flying Scotsman train delivered its passengers to safety after being pounded by German bombers & strafed with gunfire from the air. There were astonishing feats of engineering restoring tracks within hours & bridges & viaducts within days. Trains transported millions to & from work each day & sheltered them on underground platforms at night, a refuge from the bombs above. Without the railways, there would have been no Dunkirk evacuation & no D-Day. Michael Williams, author of the celebrated book On the Slow Train, has written an important & timely book using original research & over a hundred new personal interviews. This is their story. ...

Map No. 1033, Steckborn, in the topographic survey of Switzerland at 1:25, 000 from Bundesamt für Landestopographie (swisstopo), covering the whole country on 247 small format sheets, with special larger maps published for popular regions including some titles now available in hiking versions. Highly regarded for their superb use of graphic relief & hill shading, the maps give an almost 3-D picture of Switzerland`s mountainous terrain. Contours are at 10 m intervals, with 20m intervals in the mountainous areas. All the maps have a 1-km grid for Swiss national coordinates (datum CH 1903). * Small format sheets (Nos. 1011
- 1374)* Map legend in the language of the area covered by the map. Additional margin ticks show latitude & longitude in steps of 2`. The area covered by each map is 17 x 12 km (11 x 7 miles approx). * Special larger sheets (Nos. from 2501 onwards) – STANDARD editions:* No map legend is included but a separate leaflet can be provided instead. The area covered by each map is 25 x 17 km (15 x 11 miles approx).* Special larger sheets (Nos. from 2501 onwards) – HIKING editions:* An overprint highlights hiking, mountain & alpine paths, including regional & national long-distance trails. The maps also show bus routes with bus stops, plus inns in remote locations. The area covered by each map is 25 x 17 km (15 x 11 miles approx).
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Topographic survey of France at 1:25, 000 in IGN`s excellent TOP25 / Série Bleue series. All the maps are GPS compatible, with a 1km UTM grid plus latitude & longitude lines at 5’ intervals. Contours are at 5m intervals except for mountainous areas where the maps have contours at 10m intervals, vividly enhanced by hill shading & graphics for rocky terrain. Colouring with graphics indicates different types of vegetation or land use (deciduous or coniferous forests, moors, orchards, vineyards, etc). PLEASE NOTE: coverage of France at this scale is currently being revised – the format & the presentation of each title are indicated by the letters at the end of its Sheet Reference number (e.g. 0416ET, 3531ETR, 1923SB, etc.)MAPS WITH FULL TOURIST OVERPRINT & AN ENGLISH MAP LEGEND: all TOP25 maps & the SB editions of Série Bleue have an overprint highlighting waymarked walking trails including long-distance GR routes &, where appropriate, ski routes. Symbols indicate campsites, gîtes d’etape, refuges, equestrian centres & other recreational facilities or sites, tourist information centres, cultural heritage, etc. Towns & locations of particular interest are highlighted.- ET or OT = single-sided TOP25 map covering approx. 29x 21 km / 18x 13 miles.- ETR or OTR = waterproof & tear resistant TOP25 map covering the same area as the corresponding ET or OT number, but double-sided, printed on a smaller size sheet with a good overlap between the sides.- SB = Série Bleue map with full tourist overprint; these maps, first introduced in summer 2014, each cover approx. 29x 24km / 18x 15 miles.SÉRIE BLEUE maps with numbers ending in E (Est) or O (Ouest): most editions now indicate the GR routes, but do not show any other tourist information. Map legend is in French only. Each map covers approx. 14x 20km / 9x 12 miles. ...