Product Description

"Iron Road" is a comprehensive and authoritative history of the Scottish railways told in a single volume. A pleasure for any railway enthusiast, this book also reaches out to new audiences, exploring technical details as well as social and cultural aspects of the industry, drawing together a vast amount of carefully researched material into a single accessible work. The story begins in the 18th century when horses pulled coal waggons along rails of wood. In the Victorian era, a national railway network was built, and during the golden age of Edwardian times steam trains carried everything and everybody everywhere, from commuters and industrial materials to tourists holidaying in the Scottish countryside.The railway's dominance as a transport network was first challenged by the Depression of the '30s, but its overwhelming competition appeared with the prosperity of the 1960s, when Britain's financially mobile masses began to purchase and rely on motor vehicles for pleasure and business. Much of the railway network disappeared, steam was replaced by diesel and then by electric traction, and it seemed Scotland's proud rail system was in rapid decline. Yet forty years on, passenger numbers and railway mileage are on the increase again, and heritage railways and museums are working hard to preserve Scotland's railway identity. At the present time, when powers over Scottish railways have largely been transferred from Whitehall to Holyrood, this book is essential reading for all who care about the future of Scotland's railways, as well as their past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135989 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-29
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 334 pages

About the Author
P.J.G. Ransom has written ten books previously on railway history, and was a contributor to The Oxford Companion to British Railway History. He is Hon. Secretary of the Scottish Committee of the Heritage Railway Association.

Customer Reviews

Definitive History of the Railway in Scotland
For years I have been searching for a good history of the railway in Scotland. Most histories focus on developments in England, with barely a mention of Scotland. At last we have a history of the railway in Scotland, and "Iron Horse" is an amazingly well researched and written book; full of facts and incidental information. I live only a few miles from the trackbed of the Monklands to Kirkintilloch railway - one of the very first in Scotland (you can still cycle or walk along much of its length from the Forth and Clyde Canal at Kirkintilloch). It was only when I got this book that I was able to find out more than the vaguest details of how this railway came about and operated. It's a fantastic book. The only thing it is missing, for me, is detailed maps so we can follow their routes and maybe find traces on the ground. Essential for the Scottish rail enthusiast.