Rolls-Royce first established a factory at Crewe as part of Britain's war effort just prior to WWII. The site was built as part of the expansion of its aircraft engine manufacturing, but once hostilities were over, production of the company's car business was concentrated. Here for almost 50 years the Rolls-Royce and Bentley brands were eventually split in the early 21st century - the Pyms Lane factory was to produce numerous classic Rolls-Royce models. From the Silver Wraith of 1946 to the Silver Seraph, the last Rolls-Royce badged car to emerge from Crewe, the Pyms Lane workers had a reputation for the production of iconic cars that helped make the company's reputation as the world's leading luxury car manufacturer. Officially opened on the 14th July 1939, in that year 208 engines were built. By 1943, production had risen to more than 6,000 engines a year. Of the 150,000 Merlin engines built in factories around the world, 28,000 were constructed at Crewe, along with 2,000 Griffons. 'We were just ironmongers'. Follow the story from the aero engines which propelled Spitfires, Hurricanes, Wellingtons and Lancasters, engineering masterpieces which still have a lasting and special place in the nation's aviation history, through this well illustrated history covering the Phantom V Limousine, the Silver Cloud, the Bentley S, and all the graceful lines of these beautiful saloons, sometimes pictured outside iconic buildings like the Royal Albert Hall or photographed alongside sleek aircraft, or at the London Motor Show. 64 page nostalgic paperback packed with colour and quality archive photos.

When the steam era ended on 11 August 1968, a final special train ran from Liverpool to Carlisle via Manchester, Bolton, Hellifield and along the iconic Settle to Carlisle route over the Ribblehead viaduct and through the Blea Moor tunnel. Five steam locomotives hauled that legendary journey, four ex-LMS Stanier Class Five engines and one Class Seven BR Britannia, 70013 Oliver Cromwell. All steam locomotives were then scrapped or preserved for heritage, with the exception of the privately owned Gresley A3 Class 60103 Flying Scotsman. It was not long before a change in public opinion brought steam traction back to a number of secondary main lines, followed in 1994 by the privatisation of British Rail which allowed steam operation subject to weight and gauge restrictions. The north west region from Buxton to Carlisle, bounded by Todmorden in the east, took full advantage, with a particular focus on the two major climbs of the mountainous region, the long haul up to Ais Gill Summit on the Settle-Carlisle route and the pull over Shap Fell on the West Coast Main Line. Around 150 colour photos by the author give a superb impression of a wide range of steam locomotives at work in the region. One of the Stanier locomotives of the 1968 run, 45110, normally based in the Severn Valley, made an appearance with the Crewe-Carlisle Railtour in 1999, while on as similar run in 2009, 44871 is seen piloting 45407, The Lancashire Fusilier, in fields of snow and clouds of steam. Three years later the same duo are powering off Ribblehead viaduct with the precipitous slopes of Ingleborough as a backdrop and in the same year, 46233 Duchess of Sutherland is pictured curving through Greenholme as it ascends Shap. A superb photographic record of preserved locomotives from all major regions working these routes. 128pp, around 150 colour photos.

The Volkswagen car originated in Nazi Germany, a low-cost "people's car" designed for German workers. In 1945 the British took over the factory, with a Yorkshireman, Major Ivan Hirst, as senior resident officer. Destined for demolition, the factory survived through a technicality and went on to produce an astonishing 1,785 cars in 1945. This book takes the story from 1948 to 1968, when the factory was managed by Heinz Nordhoff, a former Opel supremo. Nordhoff inherited the iconic Beetle, which reached an annual turnover of over a million by 1968. Resisting the temptation to change the model and design, Nordhoff concentrated on driving down the number of hours per car manufacture from 400 to 100, and as the 1950s progressed his main goal was to keep up with a deluge of orders, at the same time developing the Beetle to the highest level of technical excellence. The VW Transporter, launched in 1950, was a Nordhoff product, and to meet strong demand a second factory was opened in Hanover. The third iconic VW vehicle, launched in 1955, was the sporty Karmann Ghia, named after the coachbuilders, while the VW 1500 was a larger family saloon targeted at the same market as the smaller Beetle when their owners' families expanded. This book covers these models in all their different variations, for instance the sophisticated Karmann Ghia coupé, described as being like a "smart lady's cocktail dress", or the author's own Jupiter Grey standard model built in 1960 and sold to a customer in Leeds. 52pp, softback, black and white photos on every page, with some in colour.

The London Brick Company of Stewartby and Peterborough has served the building industry by rail and by road. This second, fully revised edition from Nostalgia Road celebrates the company's history. The guide shares the company's growth, its acquisitions and its delivery service as well as details on the brick-making process. The book explores how the firm emerged from a series of acquisitions of different brick-making firms from the 1880s until a new company emerged as the London Brick Company Ltd. in 1936. It shares how the company grew to become the major producer of bricks in the country and the biggest brick company in the world. Learn how the organisation was well ahead in social thinking by offering better conditions and higher pay levels for their staff in accord with their philanthropic ideals which were similar to the Quakers and the Cadbury family. Discover how, in 1974, the firm bought Whittlesey as the clay reserves in the Peterborough area could be better managed under the control of one company rather than multiple. The book also offers insight into how elite the firm was, highlighting that one of the biggest benefits of the semi-dry brick industry, as typified by the London Brick Company, was the fact that huge quantities of bricks could be produced cheaply by use of the continuous kiln. There are also fantastic images to bring the company's history to life, including a landscape shot of the horse and rail transport at the company's No.2 yard near Peterborough in the late 1800s and a photograph of a London Brick Company vehicle called the Foden DG6 which was a 6-wheeler similar to the brick vehicles requisitioned by the Ministry of Supply in the Second World War. Paperback, 8" x 8.3", colour and black and white images, 52pp.

The Pilgrim Fathers are often hailed as the founders of the American nation, although the Virginia Company had created a colony a few years earlier and the whole continent was already peopled by native Americans. This comprehensive guide to the voyage of the Mayflower in 1620 puts the Pilgrim Fathers in the context of earlier exploration, for instance Leif Eriksson around the year 1000, Christopher Columbus in 1492 and the French expedition of 1521. Britain's John Cabot and Sir Francis Drake were early transatlantic adventurers, while Sir Walter Raleigh's ill-fated attempt to create an American colony notoriously ended in disaster. The Mayflower Pilgrims were religious exiles voyaging from Leiden in the Netherlands, Separatists who felt the Church of England had retained too many elements of Roman Catholicism at the Reformation. The author describes in detail the 66-day voyage for its 102 migrants and 30 crew, with diagrams of the ship's structure, lists of their dried food and provisions, photos of 17th century navigational instruments and cartography, and details of the huts and wooden-framed houses they built on arrival. The settlers were fortunate that the leader of the Wampanoag Indians, Samoset, was an English speaker who was prepared to co-operate peacefully with them. In 1630, ten years after the Pilgrims' foundation of the Plymouth community, a fleet of 11 ships delivered 800 English Puritan colonists to the Massachusetts Bay colony of Salem and Boston under its governor John Winthrop, and these highly devout settlers spread throughout what we now call New England. The final chapter describes the creation of the Mayflower II, the brainchild of journalist Warwick Charlton, which made the voyage in 1957. 156pp, numerous colour and archive photos, maps.

Sub-titled 'The English Channel and Ocean Liner Specials, History, Development and Operation' here is the exciting story of more than 125 years of independent and organised tourism. The routes to Northern Europe inner cities and south to the French Riviera, Switzerland and Italy have been at the forefront of travel ever since railways and steamers first started working in tandem. The book features the evolution of cross-channel boat trains and the many dedicated services responsible for moving international passengers to and from trans-Atlantic steamers, an extension of luxury railway travel. At the end of the 19th century, faster and more stable twin-screw vessels replaced cross-channel paddlers resulting in a significant expansion in the numbers of day excursionists and short-stay visitors heading to Belgium, France and the Channel Islands. Major ports became hives of commercial activity involving moving freight and mail, as well as transporting all manner of travellers and there was intense competition for passenger traffic between the Old and New World and Britain's imperial interests. Greater numbers of well-heeled tourists headed off to warmer winter climes and experimented with the novel idea of using ocean steamers as hotels and cruise tourism and the itinerary arrived. 'Ocean Special' boat trains became essential components of railway and port procedures synonymous with glamorous travel, and this beautifully illustrated book showcases interiors, working ports, attractive poster art and archive photos. Chapters cover the Blue Train and the Côte d'Azur Pullman Express, Golden Arrow, LNWR American Specials, LMS and British Railways London Midland Region Trains, Liverpool Riverside and Gladstone Docks, Southampton Docks and Plymouth Millbay, Bristol Avonmouth and Fishguard Harbour among what will evoke for many customers childhood memories. 384 big glamorous glossy pages, colour throughout.
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'How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History' is the sub-title title of this riveting account that puts us in the cockpit with Amelia Earhart and other brave women who took to the skies in the unreliable flying machines of the 1920s and 30s. The five remarkable women are Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout from Fargo, North Dakota, Ruth Elder an Alabama divorcee, Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled, Ruth Nichols, who chafed at her Blue Blood family?s expectations, and Louise Thaden, a young mother of two who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Together they fought the chance to fly and race aeroplanes and in 1936, one of them was to triumph, beating the men in the toughest race of them all. The prose reverberates with fiery crashes, then stings with the tragedy of lives lost, and sometimes equally heart-breaking stories on the ground. Reminder mark 338 page paperback with illustrations.

Sub-titled 'Thrilling Tales of the Sea Volume Three' here is seafaring before the 20th century bristling with peril. Illustrated with beautiful woodcuts and maps chapters cover The Loss of the Fleetwood of Boston, The Dromahair and Dreadful Sufferings at Sea: 'We cleared away the wreck as much as possible, and try to get some canvass to steady her...' 'We lived on half a biscuit a day. A barrel of salt beef and a barrel of salt pork were under the hatches, and after the storm somewhat abated we could just get at them by watching our chances between the seas. This was all the food we had...' Other stricken craft are the derelict junk Isukin Maru seven months adrift, the Milton, the Brigantine Mary T. Kimball and eleven days on a raft, the Psyché living on an open boat on sharks' blood and the wreck of the Amy Turner. There are stories of survivors and orphans at sea, the lost ship Margaret Tyson, the wreck of the schooner Leader, the loss of Jane Lowden and the terrible sufferings of shipwrecked crews, of the captain saved after 109 days on a wreck where passengers and crew starved, and tragedy and heroism in the Irish Sea. And finally mid-Pacific Crusoes with the tale of the Seladon and 2,000 miles in an open boat, tales of starving men and cannibalism, a castaway?s murder mystery, a wandering minstrel story, whale ships and castaways at Galapagos Islands. 254pp, paperback, illus.

For the seasoned car collector or the awestruck newcomer, this volume is the consummate sports car anthology, bringing together 50 of the most exquisite, desirable, and adrenaline-charging sports cars of all time. It recounts the enthralling endeavours in automotive design and engineering in pursuit of optimum dynamic performance for both road and track. This expertly curated roundup of glorious, high-speed two-seaters includes both all-out sports racers as well as their street-legal brethren. Indeed, some of the most desirable cars are from the glorious golden era of sports car racing, which existed up until the late 1960s. In that time, gentleman privateers would drive their cars to a competition event, such as the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, race them hard - perhaps winning their class or even the race - before coolly driving them home again. Showcasing 50 of the most sought-after sports cars ever created, from the 1912 Stutz Model A Bear Cat and the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B MM Spider to the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR "Uhlenhaut Coupé" - the world's most expensive car - and the 1962/64 Ferrari 250 GTO Series II, this spectacular volume is an automobilia treasure trove. Each fabled model is presented with lavish colour photographic spreads, stunning imagery taken by the world's leading car photographers alongside rare archival gems, from original factory photos to famous motorsports event posters and expert descriptive texts and specs. 15.6 x 21.7cm, 512 pages. New from Taschen.

With detailed itineraries, fast facts, photos and maps, no airport screening or long waits, take the luxury of the train on these 30 memorable train trips from every inhabited continent with travel writer Tim Richards. His curated selection covers the full range of rail options from the humble commuter train to long-distance night trains with sleeper berths and dining cars, and all journeys are blessed with great scenery. We travel the Glacier Express from San Moritz to Zermatt, the Caledonian Sleeper from London to Glasgow, through Belgrade and Montenegro, Venice and Istanbul, Budapest and Oslo, Cape Town and over to Asia on the Trans-Siberian railway, and trains in Japan, India, Bangkok and Vietnam. In Australia, the USA and Canada, South America and Mexico to more unusual and eclectic choices like the Welsh Highland Railway from Porthmadog to Caernarfon, the Settle to Carlisle railway, the Grand Canyon railway, or to Hong Kong, Beijing in China and the Hanoi to Beijing night train. Famous luxury trains such as the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (see page 21) and Rovos Rail's Pride of Africa (see page 45), pull a lot of focus with their storied pasts, beautiful interiors, spectacular food, impressive routes and dizzyingly expensive fares. However not every train journey worth taking has a high price tag. The author also outlines his guide to suburban trains, tourist railways, long distance and sleeper trains and rail cruises, gives tips for riding trains like booking. Plus a map of the world pointing out all 30 journeys and coloured maps throughout the text and full page glamorous colour photographs. 182 page quality softback. 21.8 x 24.6cm.
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