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SIMMONS**, JACK: : EXPRESS TRAIN AND OTHER RAILWAY STUDIES

SCOTLAND.NAIRN.DAVID ST JOHN THOMAS PUBLISHER/imprint of THOMAS & LOCHAR,1994.

ISBN 0946537976.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.NFINE/NFINE.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip - absence of publisher's price- usually indicates an export edition,believed to precede UK trade issue - to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean, glossy laminated,red background with wrap-around white coloured rail track design illustrated dw/dj,with white lettering; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no major nicks or tears present.Top edges bright and generally clean,fore-edges lightly marked,grubbed or thumbed; contents though,generally bright,tight,clean - mark to pp126/7 and pp134s' page edges - solid and sound - near pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners, appears unread - apart from my own collation.Bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,publisher's original plain blue cloth boards with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain white endpapers.UK,8vo HB +dw/dj,1st edn,6-240pp [paginated] includes abbreviations (used in the notes) list/table,a preface, 14 studies/chapters, 9 tables,3 b/w rail maps/diagrams,and an index,plus [unpaginated] half-title with a b/w 'Punch' cartoon frntis to its verso, title page with dedication+copyright details to verso,and contents list/table. Possibly the most authoritative writer on railway history of our generation,Jack Simmons combines originality of perception with enormous original research.Over the years he has portrayed railways,their machines and men.their carriages and the people who travelled in them,in many new lights. Much of the cream of his work has not naturally fitted into earlier books,so here for the first time is brought together an unrivalled collection of studies,some really mini-books in their own right ('The Origins and Early Development of the Express Train',which gives this work its title,and 'The Railways in Victorian Cornwall' are two examples),and others shorter but extremely telling. Among the studies of persons there is one of a man who kept a diary of his work as a fireman and driver of trains in the 1850s. At the opposite end of the scale of employment we can observe how the general manager of a great Victorian railway company got the sack.Attention is drawn here for the first time to the black comedy created by John Tenniel in his cartoons of railways for 'Punch'. Rugby,King's Cross suburban traffic,how a general manager of the North Eastern Railway lost his job,railway hotels. . . . the interest is enormous,and even Bradshaw,working timetables and accident reports emerge in a new perspective. Most of the studies here relate wholly or primarily to the Victorian age of train travel,when the railways were at the height of their power.Some of them continue into the 20thC.Studies 1,5,6,and 15 all take at least a look into what followed 1914. Seven of the papers have been published before (No. 1,3,4,5,7 and No. 8),and they are reproduced here,but in a revised and extended form.The other seven studies ae printed in this book for the first time. Here is a railway book that is a treat to read and full of fascinating insight.Your train journey will never be quite the same again! Since April 2013,again in March 2015,and in this year too,the UK Post Office has altered it's Pricing in Proportion template,altering it's prices,weight allowances,dimensions and lowered it's qualifying compensation rates too! So,please contact seller,because of the weight/value of this item for correct, insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!

SCOTLAND,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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