Railroads

Nothing Like It in the World is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad. In Ambrose's hands, this enterprise comes to life....

In the 24 richly illustrated lectures of How Railways Transformed the World, you’ll experience the amazing world and impact of railways, from the early 19th century to today’s futuristic trains, including extensive material on the pleasure and appeal of rail travel today.

America was made by the railroads. The opening of the Baltimore & Ohio line—the first American railroad—in the 1830s sparked a national revolution in the way that people lived thanks to the speed and convenience of train travel....

Les Standiford, author of the John Deal thrillers, tells how the man who turned Florida's swamps into the playgrounds of the rich performed the almost superhuman feat of building a railroad from the mainland to Key West at the turn of the century....

A fascinating journey through the history of railways, packed with first-hand accounts of innovation, triumph, and tragedy....

The Age of Railways was an era of extraordinary change which utterly transformed every aspect of British life - from trade and transportation to health and recreation....

The dramatic story of the explosive 1894 clash of industry, labor, and government that shook the nation and marked a turning point for America. The Edge of Anarchy offers a vivid account of the greatest uprising of working people in American history....

From renowned writer and travel journalist Gary Krist comes the story of two trains full of people, trapped high in the Cascade Mountains, hit by a devastating avalanche....

On April 12, 1862, a tall, mysterious smuggler and self-appointed Union spy named James J. Andrews and 19 infantry volunteers infiltrated Georgia and stole a steam engine....

In 1869, when the final spike was driven into the Transcontinental Railroad, few were prepared for its seismic aftershocks. Once a hodgepodge of short, squabbling lines, America's railways soon exploded into a titanic industry helmed by a pageant of speculators, crooks, and visionaries....

It is difficult to imagine now, but for all its gorgeous scenery, the American West might have been barren tundra as far as most Americans knew well into the 19th century....

Why do people love trains so much? Tom Chesshyre is on a mission to find the answer by experiencing the world through train travel....

There is a Bronze Age trackway below the Isle of Dogs, Anglo-Saxon graves rest under St. Pauls, and the monastery of Whitefriars lies beneath Fleet Street. To go under London is to penetrate history, and Ackroyd's book is filled with the stories unique to this underworld....

Escaping the rat race for a few happy weeks, Tom Chesshyre indulges in the freedom of the tracks....

Riding the Rails details Robert D. Krebs' rise to a position of influence in the recovery of America's railroads and offers a unique insider's view into the boardrooms where executives and businessmen reimagined transportation in the US....

In this account of an unprecedented feat of engineering, vision, and courage, Stephen E. Ambrose offers an historical successor to his universally acclaimed Undaunted Courage....

Tom Zoellner loves trains with a ferocious passion....

In this social history of the impact of railroads on American life, H. Roger Grant concentrates on the railroad's "golden age," 1830-1930....

Conover chronicles his impressions of their lives in this fascinating piece of first-hand reporting that becomes a thoughtful story of self-discovery....

On February 22, 1978, a devastating freight train derailment drastically altered Waverly, Tennessee, and its place in history. This was one of the worst train explosions of the twentieth century, killing sixteen people, injuring hundreds more, and causing millions of dollars in damage....

Railway engineer and transport policy specialist Gareth Dennis shows why the railways are key to the fight for a better world for us all.

The Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad started as a streetcar line, used largely for real estate development, and grew into a regional electric railway....

The thrilling true story of train-robbing revolutionaries and passengers who got more than they paid for, The Peking Express is the incredible, long-forgotten story of a hostage crisis that shocked China and the West....

The driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, which marked the completion of the country's first transcontinental railroad, was only the beginning of the race for railroad dominance....

After the Beeching cuts of the 1960s, many railways were 'rationalised' and gradually shut down. Rural communities were isolated without ready access to the main lines, and steam trains slowly gave way to diesel and electric traction....