History of the Great Western Railway - Set of three volumes
Three Volume Set
For more than 150 years the Great Western Railway has captured the hearts of all railway enthusiasts. It can fairly claim to be Britain's most charismatic railway; outstanding for the performance and style of its locomotives, the glamour of its distinctive liveries and the magnificence of the scenery through which its lines passed. In this major three-volume work Peter Semmens looks at the period in which the GWR was in its prime, from 1923 right up to the nationalisation of railways in 1948. This first volume of the History of the Great Western Railway describes the financial details of the amalgamation, and traces the development of the new Group through the 1920s. It was a period of great rivalry between the Great Western's neighbours, the SR and LMSR: speed, comfort, frequency and price were always being compared and contested, spurred on by the pride and loyalty of the Great Western's staff. The ports played an important role in the activities of the railway, which became the largest dock operator in the world. Passengers took the trains to ports like Weymouth, Plymouth and Fishguard while the volume of freight passing through the docks at Cardiff, Newport and Swansea was enormous. Collett had taken over from Churchward as Chief Mechanical Engineer in 1922 and `Caerphilly Castle' was shown in tests to be superior to the LNER's Pacifics' until they copied some of the vital details of the GWR design. 1927 saw the construction of the `Kings', the Great Western's largest locomotives and by the end of the decade it had become a larger and more enterprising company than ever before.
Hardback with dust jacket, 288 pages, black & white photographs
Condition: Good/Very Good
ISBN: 9780999004920
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