This highly illustrated 1897 handbook by a leading electrical engineer offers unique insights into the earliest days of electric locomotion.

“Succeeds admirably as an introductory survey of the early American travel experience”—from the National Book Award-nominated author (Journal of Transport History). What was travel like in the 1880s? Was it easy to get from place to place? Were the rides comfortable? How long did journeys take? Wet Britches and Muddy Boots describes all forms of public transport from canal boats to oceangoing vessels, passenger trains to the overland stage. Trips over long distances often involved several modes of transportation and many days, even weeks. Baggage and sometimes even children were lost en route. Travelers might start out with a walk down to the river to meet a boat for the journey to a town where they caught a stagecoach for the rail junction to catch the train for a ride to the city. John H. White Jr. discusses not only the means of travel but also the people who made the system run—riverboat pilots, locomotive engineers, stewards, stagecoach drivers, seamen. He provides a fascinating glimpse into a time when travel within the United States was a true adventure. “Throughout this massive work, the author repeatedly captures the romance, flavor, and color associated with travel.”—Choice “Every chapter, in any order, will constitute a well-spent and informative read. Journey with this book soon!”—National Railway Historical Society Bulletin “[A] popular history, informative and engaging . . . White has given us a book that’s as unusual as it is useful. Read it cover-to-cover or just pick out a random chapter in a stolen hour, and the book will be equally enjoyable either way.”—Railroad History

Electric traction is the most favourable type of power supply for electric railways from both an ecological and an economic perspective. In the case of urban mass transit and high-speed trains it is the only possible type of traction. Its reliability largely depends on contact lines, which must operate in all climatic conditions with as high availability and as little maintenance as possible. Extreme demands arise when overhead contact lines are required to provide reliable and safe power transmission to traction vehicles travelling at speeds in excess of 250 km/h. The authors have used their worldwide experience to provide comprehensive descriptions of configuration, mechanical and electrical design, installation, operation and maintenance of contact lines for local and long-distance transportation systems, including high-speed lines. In this book, railway company professionals and manufacturers of contact line systems, students and those embarking on a career in this field will find practical guidance in the planning and implementation of systems, product descriptions, specifications and technical data, including standards and other regulations. Special emphasis is laid on the interaction of the individual components of power supply, especially between contact lines and pantographs. Since large sections of the book are dedicated to system aspects, consultant engineers can also use it as a basis for designing systems as well as interfaces to other subsystems of electric railway engineering. The contents of the book are rounded off by examples of running systems.

Never before has a comprehensive history been written of the track used by railways of all gauges, tramways, and cliff railways, in Great Britain. And yet it was the development of track, every bit as much as the development of the locomotive, that has allowed our railways to provide an extraordinarily wide range of services. Without the track of today, with its laser-guided maintenance machines, the TGV and the Eurostar could not cruise smoothly at 272 feet per second, nor could 2,000-ton freight trains carry a wide range of materials, or suburban railways, over and under the ground, serve our great cities in a way that roads never could. ??Andrew Dow's account of the development of track, involving deep research in the papers of professional institutions as well as rare books, company records and personal accounts, paints a vivid picture of development from primitive beginnings to modernity. ??The book contains nearly 200 specially-commissioned drawings as well as many photographs of track in its very many forms since the appearance of the steam locomotive in 1804. Included are chapters on electrified railways, and on the development of mechanised maintenance, which revolutionised the world of the platelayer.