On Railways Far Away

William D. Middleton

Description

Midwest Publishing Association's 2013 Award of Excellence ("Crystal Book") in the 1-2 color general trade category

In this lavishly illustrated memoir, William D. Middleton invites readers to climb aboard and share with him 60 years of railroad tourism around the globe. Middleton's award-winning photography has recorded events such as the final days of American Civil War locomotives in Morocco and the start up of the world's first high-speed railway in Japan. He has photographed such great civil works as Scotland's Firth of Forth Bridge and the splendid railway station at Haydarpasa on the Asian side of the Bosporus, while closer to home he has been recognized for his significant contribution to the photographic interpretation of North America's railroading history. On Railways Far Away presents over 200 of Middleton's favorite photographs and the personal stories behind the images. It is a book that will delight both armchair travelers and those for whom the railroads still hold romance.

Preface: "On Railways Far Away"
Chapter 1. Western Europe Trains
Chapter 2. Far Northern Railways
Chapter 3. On the North Edge of Africa
Chapter 4. Across the Middle East from Berlin to Baghdad
Chapter 5. Trains of the Far East
Chapter 6. Meter Gauge in Southeast Asia
Chapter 7. A Glimpse of Australia
Chapter 8. Railway People

Sujets

• Pictorial
• Railroads
• Transportation
• Rail transport
• Photography
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 28 juin 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780253005946
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 87 Mo

Extrait

RAILROADS PAST PRESENT George M. Smerk, editor

INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bloomington Indianapolis

This book is a publication of
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931
2012 by William D. Middleton
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z 39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Middleton, William D. On railways far away / William D. Middleton. p. cm. - (Railroads past and present) ISBN 978-0-253-00591-5 (cl : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-00594-6 (ebook) 1. Railroads - Pictorial works. 2. Locomotives - Pictorial works. I. Title. TF 149. M 535 2012 385 - dc23
2011050293
1 2 3 4 5 17 16 15 14 13 12
For my granddaughters, Isabel and Evalina.
CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments

1 WESTERN EUROPEAN TRAINS
2 FAR NORTHERN RAILWAYS
3 ON THE NORTH EDGE OF AFRICA
4 ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST FROM BERLIN TO BAGHDAD
5 TRAINS OF THE FAR EAST
6 METER GAUGE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
7 A GLIMPSE OF AUSTRALIA
8 RAILWAY PEOPLE
PREFACE
MY FASCINATION WITH RAILWAYS goes as far back as my memory, but it was not until the navy sent me off on my first assignment to Morocco more than 50 years ago that I began my interest in what were often called overseas railroads, or, as I prefer, railways far away. In North Africa, I was much intrigued with such equipment as high-speed French-built electric locomotives, steam engines that were said to date from the time of the Civil War, and brand-new Baldwin diesels that were equipped with rotoclone sand-proofing filters for service in the Sahara. My interest in world railways quickly followed.
In the years following the long period in the navy and the higher education that came afterward, this interest sent me off for long tours and extensive travel overseas. My trips on the faraway trains seemed almost always to remind me of something new or different at every stop.
On journeys across Turkey on the Taurus or Ankara Express, I remember in the small hours of the night the pounding of steam cylinders on the 2-8-2 Mikado head engine and a 2-10-0 Decapod helper on the way up over the 2.5 percent Black Hill, the splendid Turkish dinner on board the Wagons-Lits dining car, or the station stop on a hot afternoon as we completed the long climb from the Mediterranean to the summit of the Taurus Mountains, as small boys running beside the train shouted buz gibi su! buz gibi su! (ice-like water!) to riders.
One cold day in Korea I remembered what I was sure was a former New Haven coach, thankfully heated with a retrofitted coal-burning stove for the climb up the snowy Taebaek Mountains to visit the first trial runs of the Korean railroad s new electrics, and how railroad staff in the Far East are typically smartly uniformed for their occupation. I was particularly impressed by the engineman on a narrow gauge 2-8-2, who operated the aging locomotive in an immaculate uniform, complete even to gloves and sunglasses, and occupied his seat with an air of importance that could have come from something like the 20th Century.
I have never become fully adjusted to the high speed with which the surrounding scenery along Japan s Shinkansen line passes by at perhaps 150 miles per hour. It was even more difficult when I sat alongside the engineer and watched two trains come together at a combined speed of 300 miles per hour.
On Sweden s Inlandsbanan (Inland Railway), an occasional mishap along the line is a collision between an elk or reindeer and a train; the train always wins. On a trip across the Inslandsbanan we made a luncheon at a place where the train and an elk had collided earlier in the day, and I couldn t help but wonder if the elk had been part of the day s meal. The Inslandsbanan, too, was well known for its ferocious mosquito - the higher above the Arctic Circle, the bigger the mosquito - and the railway even celebrated it with a short trip to visit the mosquito museum.
My memories for all of these trips were held in now voluminous notes, and even more in the camera that followed me on every trip, accounting for many thousands of negatives. In the expectation that a journal of some of these trips might be of interest to anyone interested in faraway places, I have collected some favorite pictures and recollected some favorite places for readers. I hope they will enjoy the journey, and I hope, too, that remembering their own journeys of far interests will add to the enjoyment.
As in so many of my previous works over now several decades, I have greatly appreciated the splendid processing work of Fred W. Schneider and Stan Kistler, while Stan has completed new digital prints for all prints used in the book.
William D. Middleton,
Livonia, New York
May 2011
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I WOULD LIKE TO ACKNOWLEDGE the help of Stan Kistler and Fred Schneider over the years for their excellent work in printing my photographs. I would also like to acknowledge the friendship and collegiality of Jack Swanberg and George Drury, who shared my passion for, and sometimes my journeys on, railways far away.

Western European Trains. A Holyhead-Crewe train emerges from the ornate tunnel portal at Conwy, Wales.

1
WESTERN EUROPEAN TRAINS
THE UNITED KINGDOM WAS THE BIRTHPLACE of the railroad and brought to it such things as the world s predominance of British standard gauge, the early technology and development of the steam locomotive, the basic formation of trains made up of locomotives and cars, train ordering, train braking, and one of the most important of all, the technology and development of the construction of the civil works that supported the railway. In these civil works were some of the most significant differences often found between British and American practice. In the British Isles, the cities and towns were well developed, and agriculture, mining, and manufacturing were already well established. Thus the British could build the new railways to high standards and could likely begin operations with good traffic from already developed resources.
In the United States, in contrast, cities and towns, commerce, and financial support were often less well developed, and the railways were forced to build to a much lower standard, just enough to run the railroad, with the expectation that when traffic was built up the roadbed and its structures could be rebuilt to better standards. And the farther west the railroads went, the more likely that this was true. A new British railway, on the other hand, would likely build its roadbed to high standards of curvature and grade; such appurtenances as culverts, tunnel portals, and the like were often masonry with decorative work of stone on brick; and longer, high bridge structures were commonly masonry. Large bridges were also built in wrought iron or steel, designed for the specific locations, and put together on the site by skilled ironworkers. New U.S. railroads were often built with the lightest iron rail that would carry the loads, and crossties were made with whatever wood could be located in the vicinity. There was little ballast employed: sometimes ashes, dirt, or none at all. Treatment of crossties was seldom seen. The favorite material for building smaller bridges was timber ties, while later wrought iron and steel members were often from a factory and assembled in a post-and-pin manner.
The result of all this today is that a traveler to the United Kingdom will see much more of railroading s earliest work, built well to highest standards, and civil works still serving well after 150 years or more.

The Bridges of Britain. A general view of the Firth of Forth Bridge from North Queensferry.

Circular cross-section compression members on the Firth of Forth Bridge.

The Bridges of Britain. Cantilever members on the Firth of Forth Bridge.
THE BRIDGES OF BRITAIN
Nothing is more evident than the work of Britain s great bridge builders. Still in service are the works of such great builders as Thomas Telford; George and Robert Stephenson, father and son; John Miller; Sir John Fowler; Sir Benjamin Baker; and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the greatest civil engineer of them all. Enduring stonework was an early choice of Britain s builders. John Miller built a 181-foot clear span in 1848 that still stands as the longest stone arch bridge ever built in Britain. Also in 1848, Robert Stephenson completed the great High Level Bridge, built of wrought and cast iron, to cover the gorge of the River Tyne. A double deck spanned a structure of six spans, each 125 feet in length, accomodating road vehicles on the lower deck with rail traffic on the top. The trusses of the bridge were tied together by bowed arches of cast iron, with the lateral thrust carried on wrought iron ties that supported the floor system.

The Bridges of Britain. Survey of the Forth Bridge taken from a hotel dining room in North Queensferry in 2006.
But the greatest of all Britain s bridges was the splendid Firth of Forth cantilever bridge that John Fowler and Be