First Great Western

First Great Western PDF Author: John Balmforth
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781781550045
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
This is the story of First Great Western, the train operating company whose performance rose from being the worst for a long distance operator in the UK to one of the best in a few years. Its passengers felt so disgruntled they even organized a fares strike. The Department for Transport became so disillusioned that it issued a remedial notice plan, the first step to a holder losing its franchise, before a new management team kick-started the franchise back into life. In First Great Western: Gateway to the West, author and renowned railway specialist John Balmforth discovers how this iconic and award-winning train operator survived after coming so close to losing its franchise. See photographs of the only Pullman Dining service and the Paddington, the Penzance sleeper train. Learn what goes on at one of its main traction maintenance depots and how new life was breathed into rolling stock old enough to be considered railway heritage. Also, find out how electrification of the Great Western Main Line will improve passenger services and cut journey times.

First Great Western

First Great Western PDF Author: John Balmforth
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781781550045
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Get Book

Book Description
This is the story of First Great Western, the train operating company whose performance rose from being the worst for a long distance operator in the UK to one of the best in a few years. Its passengers felt so disgruntled they even organized a fares strike. The Department for Transport became so disillusioned that it issued a remedial notice plan, the first step to a holder losing its franchise, before a new management team kick-started the franchise back into life. In First Great Western: Gateway to the West, author and renowned railway specialist John Balmforth discovers how this iconic and award-winning train operator survived after coming so close to losing its franchise. See photographs of the only Pullman Dining service and the Paddington, the Penzance sleeper train. Learn what goes on at one of its main traction maintenance depots and how new life was breathed into rolling stock old enough to be considered railway heritage. Also, find out how electrification of the Great Western Main Line will improve passenger services and cut journey times.

Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway PDF Author: Andrew Roden
Publisher: White Lion Publishing
ISBN: 9781781310151
Category : Railroad companies
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Roden’s comprehensive new history of this remarkable railway company tells the story of nothing less than the opening-up of the isolated Southwest of England to the trade and tourism of the modern age. It has left us with soaring termini like Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads as well as glorious railway institutions like the Night Riviera overnight sleeper to Cornwall that endure to this day (not least thanks to the author’s own campaigning!). While the GWR’s green locomotives and chocolate and cream carriages may have given way to purple, anyone who wants to return to the golden age of the railways will find the company’s history an enthralling journey.

GWR in the First World War

GWR in the First World War PDF Author: Sandra Gittins
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750962569
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
In August 1914 the GWR was plunged into war, the like of which this country had never experienced before. Over the years that followed life changed beyond measure, both for the men sent away to fight and the women who took on new roles at home.Not since 1922 has the history of the GWR in the First World War been recorded in a single volume. Using modern data-bases and enjoying greater access to archives, Sandra Gittins has been able to produce a complete history which traces the GWR from the early, optimistic days through the subsequent difficult years of the Great War, including Government demands for war manufacture, increased traffic and the tragic loss of staff. From GWR ships and ambulance trains to the employment of women, every part of the story is told, including the saddest of all, which is represented by a Roll of Honour.

The Great Western Railway in the First World War

The Great Western Railway in the First World War PDF Author: Sandra Gittins
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750962569
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
In August 1914 the GWR was plunged into war, the like of which this country had never experienced before. Over the years that followed life changed beyond measure, both for the men sent away to fight and the women who took on new roles at home. Not since 1922 has the history of the GWR in the First World War been recorded in a single volume. Using modern data-bases and enjoying greater access to archives, Sandra Gittins has been able to produce a complete history which traces the GWR from the early, optimistic days through the subsequent difficult years of the Great War, including Government demands for war manufacture, increased traffic and the tragic loss of staff. From GWR ships and ambulance trains to the employment of women, every part of the story is told, including the saddest of all, which is represented by a Roll of Honour.

Great Western Railway Stations

Great Western Railway Stations PDF Author: Allen Jackson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781445670119
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Perhaps more has been written about the Great Western Railway than any other, and the company is regarded with the most affection. The combination of an unbroken history, engineering icons of the Victorian era, holiday destinations and a visual appeal in their design work went a long way in keeping the GWR in pole position. The stations and other structures have long enjoyed the admiration of many and are a quintessential ingredient of the GWR recipe for remembrance. Change has always been with us on the railways and none more so than in the twenty-first century, where much of the GWR scene is to be swept away under the wires of electrification. The GWR proposed electrification of the Taunton to Penzance route in the 1930s and would have carried it out if they'd had the cash so, eighty years later, this change has an air of inevitability about it. Great Western Railway Stations is a last look at much of the GWR architecture, some of which is listed, and aims to present a lavishly illustrated overview of what remains of the old company.

The GWR Handbook

The GWR Handbook PDF Author: David Wragg
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750985429
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
For many the GWR was synonymous with holidays by the sea in the West Country, but it was built to serve as a fast railway line to London, especially for the merchants and financiers of Bristol. Its operations stretched as far as Merseyside, it provided most services in Wales, and it was the main line to Cardiff, Bristol, Cornwall and Birmingham. This book, a classic first published in 2006, reveals the equipment, stations, network, shipping and air services, bus operations including Western National, and overall reach and history of the GWR. Forming part of a series, along with The LMS Handbook, The LNER Handbook and The Southern Railway Handbook, this new edition provides an authoritative and highly detailed reference of information about the GWR.

Great Western: County Classes

Great Western: County Classes PDF Author: David Maidment
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1526706393
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
British Railways’ David Maidment presents a pictorial history of the county class trains designed by George Jackson Churchward and F. W. Hawksworth. The Great Western Railway had two classes of tender locomotives named after counties. The first class of two cylinder 4-4-0 tender locomotives, designed by George Jackson Churchward, were introduced in the 1900s to provide efficient motive power, including lines on the North & West route between Hereford and Shrewsbury, owned jointly by the Great Western and the London and North Western Railway. The 4-4-0 counties were in service until the early 1930s, when they were withdrawn and replaced by more modern motive power. The 4-4-0 counties were paralleled in design by the county 4-4-2 tanks, which operated suburban services in the London area and were also withdrawn in the early 1930s. In 1945, the Great Western introduced the County Class 4-6-0 tender locomotives, designed by F. W. Hawksworth. These two cylinder machines had a high pressure boiler that was meant to give the same tractive effort as a Castle Class 4-6-0, four cylinder locomotive. After modifications and boiler pressure reduction, the County Class 4-6-0s operated in express and semi fast train service, until the last members of the class were withdrawn in 1964. Great Western, County Classes: The Churchward 4-4-0s, 4-4-2 Tanks and Hawksworth 4-6-0s details the fascinating history of the trains that were a crucial part of England’s twentieth century transportation system.

Americanism:The Fourth Great Western Religion

Americanism:The Fourth Great Western Religion PDF Author: David Gelernter
Publisher: Doubleday
ISBN: 0385522959
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
What does it mean to “believe” in America? Why do we always speak of our country as having a mission or purpose that is higher than other nations? Modern liberals have invested a great deal in the notion that America was founded as a secular state, with religion relegated to the private sphere. David Gelernter argues that America is not secular at all, but a powerful religious idea—indeed, a religion in its own right. Gelernter argues that what we have come to call “Americanism” is in fact a secular version of Zionism. Not the Zionism of the ancient Hebrews, but that of the Puritan founders who saw themselves as the new children of Israel, creating a new Jerusalem in a new world. Their faith-based ideals of liberty, equality, and democratic governance had a greater influence on the nation’s founders than the Enlightenment. Gelernter traces the development of the American religion from its roots in the Puritan Zionism of seventeenth-century New England to the idealistic fighting faith it has become, a militant creed dedicated to spreading freedom around the world. The central figures in this process were Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson, who presided over the secularization of the American Zionist idea into the form we now know as Americanism. If America is a religion, it is a religion without a god, and it is a global religion. People who believe in America live all over the world. Its adherents have included oppressed and freedom-loving peoples everywhere—from the patriots of the Greek and Hungarian revolutions to the martyred Chinese dissidents of Tiananmen Square. Gelernter also shows that anti-Americanism, particularly the virulent kind that is found today in Europe, is a reaction against this religious conception of America on the part of those who adhere to a rival religion of pacifism and appeasement. A startlingly original argument about the religious meaning of America and why it is loved—and hated—with so much passion at home and abroad.

The Steam Workshops of the Great Western Railway

The Steam Workshops of the Great Western Railway PDF Author: Ken Gibbs
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750962399
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
The nineteenth century was a time of innovation and expansion across the industrial landscape, and nowhere more so than on the railways, as the new age of iron, steel and steam, literally, gathered pace. At the head of the race up was the iconic Great Western Railway. As this mighty corporation grew, it absorbed an astonishing 353 railway companies. Many of them had their own workshops, depots and manufacturing, often assembling locomotives to the designs of other companies. All these, along with the various designs, became the responsibility of the GWR on takeover, and followed its standardisation of components where this was possible. These works became the beating heart of the GWR's vast empire, where majestic engines were built and maintained by some of the most skillful and inventive engineers of the day. Retired GWR railwayman Ken Gibbs presents a comprehensive portrait of the works from Brunel to the final days of steam in the mid-twentieth century, and beyond to the rediscovery and renovation of many of the workshops for their unique heritage.

Four-Coupled Tank Locomotive Classes Built by the Great Western Railway

Four-Coupled Tank Locomotive Classes Built by the Great Western Railway PDF Author: David Maidment
Publisher: Pen and Sword Transport
ISBN: 1399022598
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
This book is a comprehensive history of all twenty-six classes of four coupled tank engines commissioned by the Great Western Railway or built at their Wolverhampton and Swindon Works, from the Broad Gauge 2-4-0 and 4-4-0 tanks of the 1840s and 1850s to the well known Collett 0-4-2 branch line engines of classes 48XX (later renumbered 14XX) and 58XX of the 1930s. As well as the Broad Gauge engines, the strange looking ‘Covertibles’ of William Dean, a number of experimental ‘one-off’ designs, the numerous Wolverhampton 0-4-2Ts of the ‘517’ class and the Swindon built ‘2-4-0 ‘Metro Tanks’ are described with – where known – their allocation and operation. The book includes twenty weight diagrams and nearly 300 photographs, over 50 in color. The four-coupled tank engines absorbed by the Great Western from other companies at or before 1923 will be featured in a separate volume to follow.