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Carregando... Irish Railwaysde Tom Ferris
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The first passenger railway in Ireland, the Dublin & Kingstown, opened for business in 1834. From modest beginnings, the railway network expanded over the next 70 years into almost every part of the country. At its greatest extent, the national network consisted of just under 3,500 route miles of track. This era of expansion was followed by an equally long period of decline which was sparked by the partition of the country, the inexorable rise of the internal combustion engine and the economic problems of the interwar years. It was only towards the end of the twentieth century that the fortunes of the railways at last began to recover. Irish Railways, written by one of the leading historians of Ireland's railways, provides many insights into the social and economic effects of the railways. This is a story rich in human interest, a tale of triumph and tragedy, superb achievement and monumental incompetence, which will appeal to all who have even a passing interest in this most romantic of human inventions. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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 Google Books — Carregando...GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)385.09415Social sciences Commerce, Communications, Transportation Trains and Railroads Subdivisions History, geographic treatment, biography Europe British Isles - UK, Great Britain, Scotland, Ireland IrelandClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia: (4.5)
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The text is very readable, although some chapters do of necessity become a litany of lines first built in a flurry of speculation and then intervention from government; and then closed as the fortunes of railways waned. Like many other books, there is a map; and like many other books, the map does not include all the places referenced in the text. This is made worse for an English reader by not all the places being as familiar as perhaps they ought to be; and also by the map being based on the extent of the system in 1947. A number of lines mentioned in the text closed before that date and do not appear!
The author also relates the role of railways in Irish social history, in particular the impact of the Famine and the movements of populations away from rural Ireland - first as the navigators, or "navvies" who built so much of the British railway system, and later as emigrants, looking to find a better life abroad. And Ireland's comparative poverty of natural resources and its contrasting eminence in livestock are regularly referred to as specific influences on the nature of goods traffic. Ferris does not hold back from describing the impact of railways on those traffics, and the effect of (especially) the human traffic on those left behind.
Tom Ferris is an expert in the history of Irish railways, and he wears his enthusiasm for his subject on his sleeve. He also wears his political opinion on his sleeve as well, at least where those politics impact railways. But it would be very hard to take umbrage at that, when his love for Irish railways is so great and so clearly expressed. Anyone with an interest in the railways of these islands should really have this book on their shelves. (