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Railways of the World In Color The Dawn of World Railways 1800-1850
Book by Nock, O. S.
Hardcover
First published May 1, 1972
2 people want to read
About the author
Oswald Stevens Nock
168 books4 followersOswald Stevens "Ossie" Nock was a British railway signal engineer and senior manager at the Westinghouse company. He is best known for his prodigious output of publications on railway subjects, including over 100 books, as well as a large number of more technical works on locomotive performance.
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May 18, 2017
If you like pictures of old locomotives, then this is a book for you. If you like pictures of very old, British, European, and American locomotives, then this is definitely the book for you. Add the lavish number of colourful images rendered by the artful Clifford and Wendy Meadway to the instructive text by British railway doyen, O. S. Nock — with the collaboration of that doyen of American railroad archeology, John H. White — and you have a most useful informative reference source.
Transport in wheeled vehicles did not begin to earn the title of ‘rail-ways’ until the early Industrial Revolution in Great Britain required mine owners to find means to enable horses to draw heavier loads. If the small wagons of the day were run on some sort of prepared right-of-way with an unyielding surface, it was found that a single animal could often pull up to four of them instead of only one. Methods of guiding had to be devised, for with rakes of three or four wagons directional control could not be maintained as with a horse pulling a single wagon on an ordinary road.
Richard Trevithick took Watt’s stationary low pressure and condensed exhaust steam engine — which was in use for pumping water out of tin mines in Cornwall and evolved the ‘puffer' that exhausted steam to atmosphere, thus producing the very first locomotive. The news of Trevithick’s achievement spread to the north of England, and the gradual evolution of the steam locomotive was continued by George Stevenson, Hedley, Blenkinsop and others. William Hedley (and his mine engineering staff)--it should be noted--built the famous locomotive they named Puffing Billy. The reason for choosing this name has never been historically resolved, which means that a term that came to be globally recognised has never been officially explained. However, it can reasonably be surmised that the name may have originally been a nickname given to the machine by Hedley's staff that derives both from the 'puffing' sound it made when running, and Hedley's given name. In these early days, the 'puffing' sound deriving from the cylinder blast being routed up the chimney-stack was still a novelty. The term has even become the trading name of a highly successful Tourist & Heritage railway operation near Melbourne in Australia.
This early development of the steam locomotive was entirely for the purpose of carrying coal and minerals. There was no question of carrying passengers by steam-worked railways. The project that changed the whole trend of events was the incorporation of the Stockton & Darlington Railway as a common carrier and the first public railway in the world. Opened in 1825 it was operated almost entirely by horses, the company having only one locomotive – George Stephenson’s famous Locomotion. The line descended from the coalfields on a gradient and there was no need for any ‘haulage’ as such. The trains included ‘dandy carts’ in which the horse rode when not required for pulling. Although the Stockton & Darlington did not at first advance the art of steam locomotion, immediate success as a railway started something, and within the ensuing 15 years railways had been opened in nine countries.
A succinct and well-written illustrated journey.
Transport in wheeled vehicles did not begin to earn the title of ‘rail-ways’ until the early Industrial Revolution in Great Britain required mine owners to find means to enable horses to draw heavier loads. If the small wagons of the day were run on some sort of prepared right-of-way with an unyielding surface, it was found that a single animal could often pull up to four of them instead of only one. Methods of guiding had to be devised, for with rakes of three or four wagons directional control could not be maintained as with a horse pulling a single wagon on an ordinary road.
Richard Trevithick took Watt’s stationary low pressure and condensed exhaust steam engine — which was in use for pumping water out of tin mines in Cornwall and evolved the ‘puffer' that exhausted steam to atmosphere, thus producing the very first locomotive. The news of Trevithick’s achievement spread to the north of England, and the gradual evolution of the steam locomotive was continued by George Stevenson, Hedley, Blenkinsop and others. William Hedley (and his mine engineering staff)--it should be noted--built the famous locomotive they named Puffing Billy. The reason for choosing this name has never been historically resolved, which means that a term that came to be globally recognised has never been officially explained. However, it can reasonably be surmised that the name may have originally been a nickname given to the machine by Hedley's staff that derives both from the 'puffing' sound it made when running, and Hedley's given name. In these early days, the 'puffing' sound deriving from the cylinder blast being routed up the chimney-stack was still a novelty. The term has even become the trading name of a highly successful Tourist & Heritage railway operation near Melbourne in Australia.
This early development of the steam locomotive was entirely for the purpose of carrying coal and minerals. There was no question of carrying passengers by steam-worked railways. The project that changed the whole trend of events was the incorporation of the Stockton & Darlington Railway as a common carrier and the first public railway in the world. Opened in 1825 it was operated almost entirely by horses, the company having only one locomotive – George Stephenson’s famous Locomotion. The line descended from the coalfields on a gradient and there was no need for any ‘haulage’ as such. The trains included ‘dandy carts’ in which the horse rode when not required for pulling. Although the Stockton & Darlington did not at first advance the art of steam locomotion, immediate success as a railway started something, and within the ensuing 15 years railways had been opened in nine countries.
A succinct and well-written illustrated journey.
Displaying 1 of 1 review