THE RAILWAY REVOLUTION.
I recently found this book in a charity shop for £2. As the author is the famous L.T.C. Rolt I knew it would be a good buy and it is !!!!
Basically it tells the story of the working lives of the famous father and son duo who were largely responsible for the introduction and development of the railway in Britain and throughout the world. The early years of George are particularly interesting in that he had no formal engineering training and very little actual education. Instead he was blessed with a natural genius for engineering. Recognising this and his own limitations he ensured his son Robert received the very best education which resulted in him eventually possessing far superior engineering and administrative skills to those of his father.
The stories of the creation of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the Rainhill Trials and the Great Tubular Bridges among others make for fascinating reading even for the non railway historian while the construction of the London and Birmingham Railway , the largest ever civil engineering project at the time, is a testament to human ingenuity and fortitude.
Although this book will particularly appeal to the railway fan it also provides a superb account of the engineering element of the industrial revolution and some of the extraordinary, gifted and visionary people who created that revolution. Overall a very well written and highly recommended book by an excellent author.
Thanks for the review Tony. You always hear about the son but never really about the father, so good to get that view. There were certainly some very clever chaps out there and you often wonder how did they do all that infrastructure work by hand? Lots of navvies I suppose.
ReplyDeleteHi Steve...Yes I agree...I never cease to wonder at the extraordinary things our ancestors were able to create with their bare hands and no real technology....really inspiring...Regards.
ReplyDeleteLTC Rolt - now there’s a name and initials to conjure with, that name is always a good sign that this will be an interesting book.
ReplyDeleteI have posted a little about early railways or tramways on my Sidetracked gaming / railway overlap blog
https://sidetracked2017blog.wordpress.com/2023/02/18/early-railways-shire-book-1569-to-1830-and-other-early-railway-titles/
Hi Mark... Yes a great writer and always a good sign of an interesting book. Thanks for the link, I will have a look.....Regards.
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