When the Moors spread across the country during the eighth century they could never penetrate the Pyrenees, though they left quite a legacy in other parts of Aragón. By the ninth century the Christians had begun to reconsolidate in the Pyrenees; they formed the Kingdom of Aragón and made Jaca - today the most popular village among mountain sportsters - their earliest capital. The Romanesque churches scattered throughout the Pyrenees stand as a genteel testament to the devotion and determination of these rallying Christians. During the 12th century they had worked their way south into the wide.
Freelance travel writer and Lonely Planet guidebook contributor Tim Richards decides to shake up his life by taking an epic rail journey across Australia. Jumping aboard iconic trains like the Indian Pacific, Overland, and Spirit of Queensland, he covers over 7,000 kilometres, from the tropics to the desert and from big cities to ghost towns. Tim's journey is one of classic travel highs and lows: floods, cancellations, extraordinary landscapes, and forays into personal and public histories—as well as the steady joy of random strangers encountered along the way.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Rubicon Forest was acknowledged as containing some of the finest stands of timber in the state of Victoria. Due to the rugged terrain, little could be done to exploit the timber until an efficient and economical means of transport could be provided. Light railways, (or tramways), were commonly used to deliver timber from Victorian forests to the closest Government railway. The first timber tramway in the Rubicon Forest was completed in 1907, but terminated some distance from a railhead. The railway to Alexandra was opened in 1909 and, in 1912, the railway and forest tramway were connected by a steel-railed tramway. This link was the principal method of timber transport in the district until 1947 when competition from road transport forced its closure.Rails to Rubicon tells the story of the sawmills and tramways of the Rubicon Forest. Around each mill was a cluster of houses. Keeping warm, dry and well fed was not as easy in the forest as it was in a rural township, and this book describes what it was like to live in one of these isolated settlements. Schools and facilities for entertainment had to be provided, often on steep hillsides miles from anywhere. Yet the inhabitants of the settlements led full and contented lives despite the dangerous nature of the work and the isolation and altitude of the mill settlements.Although sawmilling forms the central theme of this book, it is not the only one. Forests provided a seasonal home to the Aboriginal people and to the pastoralists who followed and displaced them. Fire is a major theme in forest history and Rails to Rubicon describes the fire practices of the graziers using the forest and the fire-exclusion policies of the forest managers who eventually forced them out. The utilisation of the water resources of the forest is also explored, and a chapter describes the historic Rubicon hydro-electric scheme.
The Railways of the USA have a great following, both in the United States where there are large numbers of rail fans and increasingly in Britain/Europe, where there are enthusiasts who visit and model North American railroads.
“Other names besides [Herman] Melville’s will surely come to mind as you read this thrilling tale—there’s Dune’s Frank Herbert. . . . But in this, as in all of his works, Miéville has that special knack for evoking other writers even while making the story wholly his own.”—Los Angeles Times On board the moletrain Medes, Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt: the giant mole bursting from the earth, the harpoonists targeting their prey, the battle resulting in one’s death & the other’s glory. Spectacular as it is, Sham can’t shake the sense that there is more to life than the endless rails of the railsea—even if his captain thinks only of hunting the ivory-colored mole that took her arm years ago. But when they come across a wrecked train, Sham finds something—a series of pictures hinting at something, somewhere, that should be impossible—that leads to considerably more than he’d bargained for. Soon he’s hunted on all sides, by pirates, trainsfolk, monsters & salvage-scrabblers. & it might not be just Sham’s life that’s about to change. It could be the whole of the railsea. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “[Miéville] gives all readers a lot to dig into here, be it emotional drama, Godzilla-esque monster carnage, or the high adventure that comes only with riding the rails.”—USA Today “Superb . . . massively imaginative.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Riveting . . . a great adventure.”—NPR “Wildly inventive . . . Every sentence is packed with wit.”—The Guardian (London)
Rails Across Australia is an album of photographs taken by David Cable, a well regarded British author of several picture albums of train pictures throughout the world. The photos were taken initially during the period 1967–1973 when David lived in Adelaide, and then during several visits around the Commonwealth during the 21st Century. The photos cover a wide variety of trains in the mainland states from Queensland to the Pilbara region of Western Australia, and include pictures showing trains in the landscapes as well as close up photos of different gauges originally established in a various states are illustrated by the individual classes designed for them, in addition to the newest designs for the standard gauge tracks now linking them.
Few stories in the annals of railroading are as compelling as the construction, evolution, and astounding successes of the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railways. This sprawling volume combines two of Voyageur Press' most successful Railroad Color History titles into one volume taking in the grand scope of both railroads. Author Tom Murray presents fastidiously researched and concisely presented histories of each railroad, along with more than 300 photographs, including rare archival black-and-white images and modern and period color photography sourced from national archives and private collections.
Master storyteller Judy Nunn has now sold over 1 million books worldwide. In her spellbinding new bestseller she takes us on a breathtaking journey deep into the red heart of Australia. It is 2001 and as the world charges into the new Millennium, a century-old dream is about to be realised in the Red Centre of Australia: the completion of the mighty Ghan railway, a long-lived vision to create the 'backbone of the continent', a line that will finally link Adelaide with the Top End. But construction of the final leg between Alice Springs and Darwin will not be without its complications, for much of the desert it will cross is Aboriginal land. Hired as a negotiator, Jessica Manning must walk a delicate line to reassure the Elders their sacred sites will be protected. Will her innate understanding of the spiritual landscape, rooted in her own Arunta heritage, win their trust? It's not easy to keep the peace when Matthew Witherton and his survey team are quite literally blasting a rail corridor through the timeless land of the Never-Never. When the paths of Jessica and Matthew finally cross, their respective cultures collide to reveal a mystery that demands attention. As they struggle against time to solve the puzzle, an ancient wrong is awakened and calls hauntingly across the vastness of the outback . . .
