Seven Railroads
This is a historical account, with 154 illustrations, about seven great rail-roads constructed during the period 1844-1923, which exposed various remote regions on earth to man's development. These early railroads had favorable impacts not only on trade and commerce; often there were significant political, economic, and social consequences as well. The select railway stories outlined here are interesting and exciting manifestations of the enormous influence that the "Iron Horse" had on many peoples and places. In Jamaica the English laid down their first colonial railroad in 1844, thus enhancing the progress of industry, agriculture, and mining in this famous Caribbean "Island in the Sun." The Panama Railroad, completed by Americans in 1855 after a frightful expenditure of dollars and lives, was one of the most financially rewarding rail lines ever built. The road was fortuitously constructed in time to expedite the passage of thousands of "gold diggers" on their way to California. The dream of a steam locomotive hurdling the mighty Andes Mountains was realized in 1910 when a rail connection was established, with great effort and sacrifice, between Argentina and Chile. The 155-mile Transandino Railroad significantly speeded commerce between Atlantic and Pacific areas and, at long last, brought an end to the devastating and senseless wars waged in this part of Southern USA. Imperial Russian engineers con-structed the Trans-Siberian Railroad at the end of the nineteenth century, and it brought about the mass colonization and economic expansion of Siberia. The railroad remains today the longest line in the world, handling the greatest volume of cargo. The British finished the 582-mile Uganda Railroad in Equatorial Africa from Mombasa to Lake Victoria, in 1901 after five years of incredible adversity and struggle against the forces of nature and hostile African tribesmen. The Tehuantepec Isthmus in south-eastern Mexico had long competed with the Isthmus of Panama as a possible crossing site between the oceans. A rail-road was finally extended Across this narrow neck of land early in the twentieth century. Alaska, purchased by the United States from Russia for $7.2 million in 1867, lay dormant for many decades due to the wild, inaccessible terrain, the lack of communications, and its extreme northern latitude. The United States government finally authorized a 471-mile railroad in 1914 from Seward to Anchorage to 'Fairbanks. Construction of the road was completed in 1923, initiating for Alaska a long, steady, and fantastic growth pattern. Seven Railroads is a valuable addition to the libraries of railroad buffs, historians, and those interested in travel.
Hardback with dust jacket, 16x24cm, 292 pages, black & white photographs
Condition: Fair-Good - Ex Public Lending Library
ISBN: 9780498022258
Most orders are dispatched within two-three working days of receipt of cleared payment. If there is going to be a significant delay (more than 10 working days), we will contact you and, where possible, give you an estimated dispatch time.
Please be aware that advance orders will be sent as soon as the relevant book has been published.
When placing your order, please ensure that you add the correct full shipping address to your order. This includes house number, street name, zip code/post code. If parcels are returned on account of an incorrect shipping address we will contact you to seek the correct address and also ask that you pay a contribution towards posting the parcel to you a second time. Similarly, if a parcel is returned to us because the local mail service is unable to deliver it (or you do not collect it from the designated collection point), we will contact you and ask you for a contribution towards the cost of shipping to you for a second time.
The journey of a book from our shelves to the reader demands careful handling and the appropriate packaging. We recognise the need to ensure that books arrive at their destination in the same condition that they leave us. Our packaging solutions aim to accommodate books of all shapes and sizes. In a society where so much is thrown away, Rail-Books have a policy of reusing packing materials to pack your order wherever possible. Whilst this may generate a small saving in our packaging costs, the impact to the environment is a much greater saving. We also try to ensure that new packaging used by ourselves, such as boxes, book-wraps and envelopes, is made from recycled materials.
UK
All orders for UK addresses are normally sent via Royal Mail 48 Hour (the business equivalent of 2nd class mail) which is not tracked although Royal Mail do confirm delivery of parcels. Orders of £35 and over are sent post free. If you require tracking for your order, tracking & courier options are available for a small fee. The appropriate shipping option can be selected as part of the checkout process. If the service that you require is not shown, please get in touch with us and we can quote for your desired service.
Large, bulky or high value orders may be split in to multiple consignments or sent via courier. There is no additional charge for this and you will be advised at the order fulfillment stage if this happens.
Overseas
Overseas orders are charged based on weight, and postage will be automatically calculated at checkout. For a postage quotation, please add the items you want to your cart and proceed to the checkout. All orders are usually sent via Air Mail - this is not tracked. If you required your order to be tracked or sent by a different service, please contact us, preferably before checkout.
Royal Mail will only accept parcels up to 5kg in weight (2kg for Canada). If you are ordering multiple items that exceed these limits, please contact us first so that we can advise you of the appropriate shipping rate.
Due to the high volume of parcels going missing, we are no longer able to send untracked orders via third party mail handling services such as Parcel Motel. We are able to send untracked parcels to bona fide PO Box addresses, friends and family members and to work addresses.
Some countries charge import taxes and other taxes such as VAT; we suggest that in these cases, you asked for your order to be tracked so the local taxation authorities can trace your parcel.
Please note that courier services are unable to deliver to PO Box addresses. If you usually use a PO Box address, you will need to supply an alternative address if you require shipping by courier.
Our shipping rates are based on sending a 5kg/10kg parcel and will include insurance. We can often secure good rates by the use of booking agents and we will refund any excess paid by you.
Shipping to the European Union
From 1 July 2021, EU countries have imposed VAT on imports. In the UK, books are zero-rated for VAT proposes so there is no VAT to deduct from the prices quoted on our website. All of our orders are usually sent "DDU" (Delivered Duty Unpaid) using a courier service and the shipping prices quoted are on a DDU basis. However, we are now able to offer limited "DDP" (Delivered Duty Paid) services to certain EU destinations. If you would like to purchase books on a DDP basis, please contact us before making your purchase and we will give you a DDP price. (Sometimes we can secure good DDP shipping rates - if this holds true, we will advise you if we are able to pay your taxes and/or whether is any additional payment required).
Therefore all DDU shipments to EU destinations will be held by the relevant customs authority until the customer pays any VAT that is due. We understand that if no payment is received by the relevant customs authority after 30 days, the package will be either returned or destroyed. Rail-Books will not be liable for any loss resulting from the destruction or return of goods where VAT has not been paid.
We recommend that customers in the EU follow the tracking data supplied to them once we dispatch your parcel and once the parcel is showing as arriving in the destination country, make contact with either the postal or customs authorities to pay the appropriate amounts of tax/duty.
Returned Parcels
On rare occasions, parcels will be returned to us. Where this happens we will refund the customer the cost of their order less any expenses incurred by ourselves (e.g. the initial cost of sending the parcel or costs relating to damage incurred in transit). If a customer requests that a parcel be shipped again for a second time, we request the customer to place a repeat order together with shipping costs. Repeat orders to UK customers will not be eligible for free shipping.
Updated: 2 January 2025