Buy this book on-line BONAVIA**, MICHAEL: : THE FOUR GREAT RAILWAYS.**UK.NEWTON ABBOT,DEVON.DAVID & CHARLES,1980. ISBN 0715378422.
UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE.No owner
inscrptn,and no clip to dw/dj.Sepia, photographic illustrated upper panel with 4 b/w railway lines livery logos to a white background dw/dj; with minimal shelf -wear and negligible creasing to edges - no nicks or tears present.Top+fore-edges
bright and clean,contents pristine.
Unblemished,plain black paper-covered bds (boards)with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain white eps (endpapers).UK,8vo HB+ dw/dj,1st edn,4-223pp includes title+ contents pages,author preface,16 chapters, 16pp contemporary b/w photographs,a b/w double-page map,appendices(4) includes bibliography,and an index.
The four great railways of the between the wars period,the LMS, LNER, GWR and SR,have been the subject of numerous books in past years,mostly written in the form of company histories and dealing primarily with mechanical engineering and train performance.This book fills a gap between these previously published works and the more erudite studies of transport economists,with a fresh appraisal of the railways as a whole,and how each company tackled the problems,both of its own making and those forced on it by outside influences.The author served the former LNER and subsequently held high office in various parts of the British Rail network concerned with modernisation,planning, training and education,retiring as director of the Channel Tunnel scheme.He is thus eminently qualified to write about
the four great railways from the inside.
The book discusses the need for the 1923 grouping and how it came about;there are character sketches of each of the four main line companies,and chapters dealing with mechanical engineering,civil engineering,train services,road competiton,the railway-men themselves,and
the many other facets,including shipping and hotels,allied to each company.But this
is much more than a mere historical record,for the author examines closely many of the policy decisions of the twenties and thirties and discusses why some brought benefits while others went disastrously wrong.This is a valuable new study of the heyday of the traditional steam railway in Britain,concluding with the run-up to nationalisation in which the
author was personally involved.A superb copy of an out-of-print 1st edition,as the publisher ceased trading in the late 1980's.
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