To the people of Great Britain World War II was the deadliest & bloodiest war in history. Never before or since have so many people made such a personal sacrifice in the line of duty. Raiders tells the extraordinary true stories of six of the most daring special operations ever undertaken in warfare & the heroism of the people behind them. Operation Chariot was the most ambitious amphibious raid ever mounted by the British Forces. Attacking the heavily fortified dry dock at St Nazaire in German occupied France an elite group of commandos battered their way through a maelstrom of bullets & incendiaries. Their boat is punctured by over a hundred shell holes the dead & wounded lie all around them on the decks but still their guns are blazing & still they press on... Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees all others". (Winston Churchill)." ...

The trench raid came to typify the aggressive & close-combat nature of warfare on the Western Front. Inevitably successful raiding had a significant psychological effect on the enemy & was a powerful way of exerting local domination in what was otherwise a static military situation. Equally raiding had an effect on the morale of friendly troops but as the author of this in-depth study reveals not always a positive one. Successful raids buoyed spirits but unsuccessful ones could be detrimental because of the casualties sustained for no territorial gain & frequently provoked shelling from enemy artillery or mortars or tit-for-tat retaliation. Raids came to be the epitome of all-arms operations combining individual weapons skills with tactical sense & requiring cooperation with artillery & mortar batteries for success. Yet a raiding party was an ad hoc combat team put together & trained for one specific operation. In the early days of raiding the raiders were always volunteers but the steady toll of experienced soldiers led to participants being detailed for the task like any other. Raiding on the Western Front can claim to be the first book to look at how raids were carried out the successes the failures the consequences of raiding their effect on morale & their contribution to military operations on the Western Front. It contains exciting accounts of actions & many examples of great bravery leadership & sacrifice. As such it is not only an excellent read but will be an important addition to the library of any Great War enthusiast. ...

The OPC Rail Atlas of Great Britain & Ireland was first published in 1977 & has over the years proved itself to be one of the most successful railway titles ever published. The book portrays the railway network on the British Isles differentiating between passenger & freight lines as well as between single & multi-track sections. It also shows preserved lines freight terminals LRT schemes passenger stations lines under construction proposed lines depots etc. As such the book is an essential work of reference for both enthusiasts & professionals. This new edition is fully updated to reflect the developments in railway & LRT infrastructure due for completion by 2013 as well as those schemes currently under development. It

Includes:: the fruits of the current Network Rail investment plan including the proposed electrification of the ex-GWR main line to Bristol & South Wales the completion of the first phase of the Edinburgh LRT scheme the continued extension of the LRTs in Greater Manchester & Nottingham & indications as to the proposed HS2 high-speed line from London to the Midlands.

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The long-established passenger railway map covering the whole of Europe is complemented by a separate map of Great Britain & Irel&. Both are compiled & updated by the famous Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable" team Passenger railway map of Europe fully color-coded for ease of use with principal ferry routes & scenic rail routes high-lighted the perfect companion to the European Rail Timetable." ...

By popular request this fourth volume in our acclaimed Irish Railway Photographers series looks at the operations & rolling stock of Northern Ireland Railways in the period 1975 to 2005. In this his first book Sam Somerville takes us on a trip on the Provinces rail network using his Rail Runabout rambler ticket. We visit Londonderry Castlerock & Portrush before heading south to the Larne & Bangor lines. The former GNR (I) Antrim branch from Lisburn is visited on our journey from Belfast to Dundalk via Portadown. For fans of NIR diesel trains this book is a must with 60+ photographs of MEDs MPDs 70 class 80 class & 450 class DEMUs all in a variety of liveries Hunslet Metro-Vick & General Motors locomotives & a new CAF C3K railcar. Even the odd CIE engine puts in an appearance on freight & weedkilling trains. ...

This pictorial album illustrated in colour from the 1960s to the present is a portrait of the Limerick to Sligo railway line in its Indian Summer. The colour photography of Barry Carse allows the line to come to life on these pages reviving memories for the lines users for local people & others with an interest in this unique & picturesque railway. Now at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century a century after the GSWR took over the lines operation the Western Rail Corridor as it is often identified is a display of its own history. At the south end a busy & well used passenger service operates with modern trains over well maintained track; in the middle renewal work is under way or planned & at the northern end all is quiet save for the birds in the trees which grow between the rails. ...

On board the moletrain Medes Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt. The giant mole bursting from the earth the harpoonists targeting their prey the battle resulting in ones death & the others glory are extraordinary. But no matter how spectacular it is travelling the endless rails of the railsea Sham cant shake the sense that there is more to life. Even if his philosophy-seeking captain can think only of the hunt for the ivory-coloured mole shes been chasing -- ever since it took her arm all those years ago. When they come across a wrecked train at first its a welcome distraction. But the impossible salvage Sham finds in the derelict leads to considerably more than hed bargained for. Soon hes hunted on all sides: by pirates trainsfolk monsters & salvage-scrabblers. & it might not be just Shams life thats about to change. It could be the whole of the railsea. Praise for China Mieville: Fiction of the new century Neil Gaiman Mievilles work is thrillingly imaginative.. .immensely witty & utterly unforgettable Scotland on Sunday One of the most imaginative young writers around in any kind of fiction Guardian Mievilles imagined societies may be fantastic but they are utterly coherent... wonderfully infectious Daily Telegraph ...

On board the moletrain Medes Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt. The giant mole bursting from the earth the harpoonists targeting their prey the battle resulting in one's death & the other's glory are extraordinary. But no matter how spectacular it is travelling the endless rails of the railsea Sham senses that there's more to life. Even if his captain can think only of her obsessive hunt for one savage mole. When they find a wrecked train it's a welcome distraction. But the impossible salvage Sham finds there leads to trouble. Soon he's hunted on all sides: by pirates trainsfolk monsters & salvage-scrabblers. & it might not be just Sham's life that's about to change. It could be the whole of the railsea. Praise for China Mieville: ' Fiction of the new century' Neil Gaiman ' Mieville's work is thrillingly imaginative.. .immensely witty & utterly unforgettable' Scotland on Sunday ' One of the most imaginative young writers around in any kind of fiction' Guardian ' Mieville's imagined societies may be fantastic but they are utterly coherent.. .wonderfully infectious' Daily Telegraph ...

There is an undoubted fascination both with railway atlases & with the ' Then & Now' approach to railway history. Unlike any other atlas published The Railway Atlas Then & Now provides historical & present-day maps alongside each other for direct comparison. Based around the ' Pre-Grouping Atlas & Gazetteer' the left-hand of the two maps records the railway industry as it existed in 1923 whilst the right-hand page shows it as it exists today. The contemporary 2012 maps include information about the railway lines that have been closed & converted into either walking or cycling routes. Other information given

Includes:: the location of all steam sheds & current diesel depots. The book

Includes:: 45 maps from each period
- making a total of 90pp of mapping in all
- alongside a detailed gazetteer & brief introduction.





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Peter Tatlow provides readers a concise & detailed history of railway breakdown cranes in Britain. Although there are few railway subjects that have not been published in detail in recent years breakdown cranes have not possibly due to the technical nature of the subject & as such the ideal person to compile such a work would be an engineer. Respected railway author & former BR civil engineer Peter Tatlow has taken the subject from its early days through the time of the short-jib cranes to more recent history & the introduction & use of the long-jib variant. Even so many of the older types continued in use well into the late twentieth century. In what will build into a two-volume history this volume

Includes:: descriptive & informative text & numerous photographs & scale plans. Illustrations of breakdown cranes in both static & working mode complete this standard work of reference on the subject.

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