Steel Wheels [Hardcover] [Rare books]

It also tells how artists, writers and travelers - who had never before seen or imagined these extraordinary machines powered by fire and water and belching smoke, steam and noise - responded to the whole concept of railways. Chapter by chapter the book outlines the ways in which railways were a source of ideas and even of inspiration for writers, and how they were depicted in art, from the earliest lithographs to surrealist painting.

It covers the emergence of railway photography as a genre, the role of the railways in the movies and in music and it gives accounts of rail journeys made by all kinds of travelers from the very rich to the dispossessed. This book is a celebration of the railways and their enduring effect on our collective imagination.