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.

On Railways Far Away (Railroads Past and Present)

Engineering & Transportation

Middleton, William D.

Transportation

Indiana University Press

American civil engineers were unsurpassed in their ability to build railroads over great distances and across high mountain passes, to erect great bridges, or to bore tunnels of prodigious length. This is a remarkable story of the application of engineering to the building of a transportation system that civilized and settled America, and then supported an industrial revolution and created a world power.

Landmarks on the Iron Road: Two Centuries of North American Railroad Engineering (Railroads Past and Present)

Here is the new, expanded edition of William D. Middleton's much-admired book on the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad. In more than 250 photographs, maps, and schematic drawings, the rising and sinking fortunes of this technological triumph are chronicled from the first decade of the 20th century to the present day.
Using the same technology that produced the electric street railway, the interurbans helped bridge the gap between the horse-and-buggy era in rural America to the modern age of paved highways and family automobiles. The Chicago South Shore Line is unique among the nearly 10,000 lines operating at the end of World War I, not because it didn't suffer the same triumphs and tragedies, but because it is the only one to have survived. It still provides electric transportation over precisely the same route it has served since the first decade of the 20th century.
South Shore: The Last Interurban is essential reading for all those interested in rapid transit, railroads, railroad history, and the impact of America's last interurban.

South Shore: The Last Interurban : Revised Second Edition (Railroads Past and Present)

Business & Money

Industries

American civil engineers were unsurpassed in their ability to buildrailroads over great distances and across high mountain passes, to erect greatbridges, or to bore tunnels of prodigious length. This is a remarkable story of theapplication of engineering to the building of a transportation system that civilizedand settled America, and then supported an industrial revolution and created a worldpower.

History

Yet there isn’t a train goes by all day But I hear its whistle shrieking.... Yet there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take, No matter where it’s going. ―Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Travel"
"Yet there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take" is a collection of stories about favorite train journeys by an inveterate railway enthusiast and train traveler. A half century career as an engineer, Naval officer, and university administrator took Bill Middleton to almost every part of the globe, and everywhere he took with him an abiding interest in railways, and a notebook and camera to record his experiences. His North American journeys have included experiences as diverse as the long journey north through Manitoba to polar bear country on Hudson Bay, a trip to Minnesota’s Mesabi Range to haul a boatload of iron ore to Lake Superior behind a giant Yellowstone articulated steam locomotive, and the trip between Costa Rica’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts by narrow gauge railway. His European travels have ranged from a Pullman seat on the crack London-Paris Golden Arrow to the slow trip across Thrace on one of the last runs of the celebrated Simplon-Orient Express. In Asia he traveled through the Toros Mountains of Turkey on the famous Istanbul-Baghdad Toros Express, experienced modern high-speed railroading in the cab of Japan’s Bullet Train, and rode to Asia’s highest mountain east of the Himalayas on the little trains of Taiwan’s Ali Shan Forestry Railway.

Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take: Railway Journeys by William D. Middleton (Railroads Past and Present)

In the middle of the 19th century the leaders of the City of Québec dreamed of a great bridge across the St. Lawrence River. It would link their city to the new railway lines developing along the south shore, giving Québec a competitive edge in its long struggle with Montréal for commercial dominance. The width and depth of the St. Lawrence necessitated a bridge of unprecedented scale, and many of the best engineers of the time turned their attention to the problem. Three serious proposals for a bridge never materialized. A fourth plan finally moved ahead at the beginning of the 20th century, only to end in of one of the greatest construction failures of all time. In 1907 the incomplete structure collapsed into the river with a loss of 75 lives. From the ruins of this first attempt emerged still another plan. In 1916, when the great bridge was nearing completion, tragedy struck again. As the huge center span was being lifted into place, it fell into the river, taking another 11 lives. It was not until a year later that a replacement was installed, and the great bridge was finally complete. Today the Québec Bridge stands firmly astride the St. Lawrence, safely carrying the commerce of Canada across its broad waters. No one has yet built a longer cantilever span, so the bridge still ranks as the greatest of its kind. The Bridge at Québec provides a full account of the long effort to build a bridge at this difficult site, with particular emphasis on the extraordinary story of the failure of the first one, the human tragedies that accompanied it, and the lessons that its story holds today for engineers and builders as they continue to extend the boundaries of technology. Fully illustrated, the book makes clear to the general reader and technical audiences alike the engineering issues involved in constructing one of the world’s greatest bridges.

The Bridge at Quebec

Americas

This comprehensive history of North American railroad electrification has been out of print for many years. Now, Indiana University Press is proud to announce its return in an new, updated second edition.
For most of the first half of the 20th century the United States led the way in railroad electrification. Before the outbreak of World War II, the country had some 2,400 route-miles and more than 6,300 track-miles operating under electric power, far more than any other nation and more than 20 percent of the world’s total. In almost every instance, electrification was a huge success. Running times were reduced. Tonnage capacities were increased. Fuel and maintenance costs were lowered, and the service lives of electric locomotives promised to be twice as long as those of steam locomotives. Yet despite its many triumphs, electrification of U.S. railroads failed to achieve the wide application that once was so confidently predicted. By the 1970s, it was the Soviet Union, with almost 22,000 electrified route-miles, that led the way, and the U.S. had declined to 17th place. 
Today, electric operation of U.S. railroads is back in the limelight. The federally funded Northeast Corridor Improvement Program has provided an expanded Northeast Corridor electrification, with high-speed trains that are giving the fastest rail passenger service ever seen in North America, while still other high-speed corridors are planned for other parts of the country. And with U.S. rail freight tonnage at its highest levels in history, the ability of electric locomotives to expand capacity promises to bring renewed consideration of freight railroad electrification.
Middleton begins his ambitious chronicle of the ups and downs of railway electrification with the history of its early days, and brings it right up to the present―which is surely not the end of this complex and mercurial story.

When the Steam Railroads Electrified, 2nd Revised Edition

Early in the 19th century, growing American cities began to experience transportation problems. One solution was the horse-drawn streetcar, developed in 1832, but it soon proved inadequate. The first elevated train was transporting passengers above the streets of Manhattan by 1871; the first subway opened 25 years later in Boston; and similar systems soon followed in Philadelphia and Chicago. Rapid transit was confined to these few cities until after World War II, when a new generation of systems began to appear. In the 1970s, light rail became an economical alternative to conventional rapid transit. By century’s end, some three dozen cities in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico operated metropolitan rapid transit or light rail systems that transported five billion urban passengers annually, and still more were under construction or planned. These diverse systems include elevated lines ranging from Chicago’s "L" to the fully automatic Skytrain metro of Vancouver, B.C.; subways from New York City’s thundering tunnels―the world’s largest underground system―to the thoroughly modern metro of Guadalajara; and light rail from lovingly restored New Orleans streetcars to the sleek, articulated vehicles of Silicon Valley.
Metropolitan Railways is a large-scale, extensively illustrated volume that deals with the growth and development of urban rail transit systems in North America. It traces the history of rail transit technology from such impractical early schemes as a proposed steam-powered "arcade railway" under New York’s Broadway through today’s sophisticated systems. Rapid transit enthusiasts as well as residents of cities that are potential candidates for rapid transit or light rail systems will find this book indispensable.

Metropolitan Railways: Rapid Transit in America (Railroads Past and Present)

China by rail

Trans-Anglo Books

Fascinating black and white pictorial history of the transition from steam to diesel in North America. The book collects photos showing steam and diesel, passenger and freight, locals and transcontinentals from the 1930s through the 1960s, as the railroad industry underwent one of its most revolutionary eras. Each of the photos is intelligently captioned by the author, a well-known railroad writer. 144 pages.

The Railroad Scene

Golden West Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Middleton, William D.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Middleton, William D.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Middleton, William D.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

On Railways Far Away (Railroads Past and Present)

Landmarks on the Iron Road: Two Centuries of North American Railroad Engineering (Railroads Past and Present)

South Shore: The Last Interurban : Revised Second Edition (Railroads Past and Present)

Landmarks on the Iron Road: Two Centuries of North American Railroad Engineering (Railroads Past and Present)

Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take: Railway Journeys by William D. Middleton (Railroads Past and Present)

The Bridge at Quebec

When the Steam Railroads Electrified, 2nd Revised Edition

Metropolitan Railways: Rapid Transit in America (Railroads Past and Present)

China by rail

The Railroad Scene