On Railways Far Away

By William D. Middleton

The photographer shares over 200 images from his sixty-year career covering railroad tourism across the world, plus the stories behind them.

In this lavishly illustrated memoir, William D. Middleton invites readers to climb aboard and share with him sixty 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.

Praise for On Railroads Far Away

“Few American chroniclers of the international railroad scene have shown the versatility and insight of William D. Middleton. As an author and a photographer (not to mention a professional engineer), he demonstrated an uncanny ability to connect all the dots in railroading, from all corners of the world. In this book he does it with an inimitable personal touch.” —Kevin P. Keefe, publisher, Classic Trains magazine

“Middleton will go down as the only producer of popular railroad history . . . who was able to present such a broad coverage of railways during his lifetime. . . . There has never been a person with his wide range of talents (as a researcher, writer, and photographer), his personal discipline to be a steady producer of historical publications, and his unrivaled zeal to record railroad activity in interesting spots around the globe. Many have excelled in one or even two of these categories, but no one has ever come close to his overall record. It will take a generation for the breadth, depth, and significance of his total contribution to be appreciated.” —J. Parker Lamb, author of Railroads of Meridian

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 28, 2012
• ISBN: 9780253005946

Book preview

1

WESTERN EUROPEAN TRAINS

THE UNITED KINGDOM WAS THE BIRTHPLACE of the railroad and brought to it such things as the world’s predominance of British standard gauge, the early technology and development of the steam locomotive, the basic formation of trains made up of locomotives and cars, train ordering, train braking, and one of the most important of all, the technology and development of the construction of the civil works that supported the railway. In these civil works were some of the most significant differences often found between British and American practice. In the British Isles, the cities and towns were well developed, and agriculture, mining, and manufacturing were already well established. Thus the British could build the new railways to high standards and could likely begin operations with good traffic from already developed resources.

In the United States, in contrast, cities and towns, commerce, and financial support were often less well developed, and the railways were forced to build to a much lower standard, just enough to run the railroad, with the expectation that when traffic was built up the roadbed and its structures could be rebuilt to better standards. And the farther west the railroads went, the more likely that this was true. A new British railway, on the other hand, would likely build its roadbed to high standards of curvature and grade; such appurtenances as culverts, tunnel portals, and the like were often masonry with decorative work of stone on brick; and longer, high bridge structures were commonly masonry. Large bridges were also built in wrought iron or steel, designed for the specific locations, and put together on the site by skilled ironworkers. New U.S. railroads were often built with the lightest iron rail that would carry the loads, and crossties were made with whatever wood could be located in the vicinity. There was little ballast employed: sometimes ashes, dirt, or none at all. Treatment of crossties was seldom seen. The favorite material for building smaller bridges was timber ties, while later wrought iron and steel members were often from a factory and assembled in a post-and-pin manner.

The result of all this today is that a traveler to the United Kingdom will see much more of railroading’s earliest work, built well to highest standards, and civil works still serving well after 150 years or more.

The Bridges of Britain. A general view of the Firth of Forth Bridge from North Queensferry.

Circular cross-section compression members on the Firth of Forth Bridge.

The Bridges of Britain. Cantilever members on the Firth of Forth Bridge.

THE BRIDGES OF BRITAIN

Nothing is more evident than the work of Britain’s great bridge builders. Still in service are the works of such great builders as Thomas Telford; George and Robert Stephenson, father and son; John Miller; Sir John Fowler; Sir Benjamin Baker; and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the greatest civil engineer of them all. Enduring stonework was an early choice of Britain’s builders. John Miller built a 181-foot clear span in 1848 that still stands as the longest stone arch bridge ever built in Britain. Also in 1848, Robert Stephenson completed the great High Level Bridge, built of wrought and cast iron, to cover the gorge of the River Tyne. A double deck spanned a structure of six spans, each 125 feet in length, accomodating road vehicles on the lower deck with rail traffic on the top. The trusses of the bridge were tied together by bowed arches of cast iron, with the lateral thrust carried on wrought iron ties that supported the floor system.

The Bridges of Britain. Survey of the Forth Bridge taken from a hotel dining room in North Queensferry in 2006.

But the greatest of all Britain’s bridges was the splendid Firth of Forth cantilever bridge that John Fowler and Benjamin Baker, later knighted by Queen Victoria for their work, built across the Firth in 1890 to complete Britain’s eastern main line all the way from London to Aberdeen. The work started in 1883, and as many as 4,600 men were at work on it over the next 7 years. The cantilever plan adopted for the bridge called for two back-to-back cantilevers, each spanning a clear 1,700 feet, while the outer arm at each suspended span crossed 680 feet clear. With the addition of steel approach viaducts at each end, the overall bridge was 5,270 feet in length; including the earth viaducts at either end would extend the Forth Bridge to a total of just over 1½ miles. The principal compression members were built of riveted steel tubes 12 feet in diameter. The tops of the three towers rose to a height of 361 feet above high water, and the double-track railway was 156 feet above the water.

From its beginning the bridge was a huge success, with more than a hundred daily trains scheduled over it. In its details the Forth Bridge was a unique design that was never replicated, and its splendid setting at the mouth of the Forth made it a bridge icon that has never been surpassed. It is easily the greatest of all British railroad bridges, and if a contest were held to name the world’s best-known railroad bridge there can be little doubt that it would be the Forth Bridge.

Royal Border Bridge. High on any list of attractive bridges would be Britain’s Royal Border Bridge, which lies just south of the Scotland–England border. Twenty-eight 61-foot 6-inch arches make up the 2,160-foot bridge – the largest in Britain at its completion in 1850 – which sets a breathtaking site as it crosses the River Tweed. From the south the curving railway line begins to climb above the gently sloping ground, finally reaching a height of 120 feet above the river. Then abruptly the north bank climbs a steep cliff to again rejoin the railway line. It took Robert Stephenson as many as 2,700 men and almost 3 years to complete the bridge, and soon after its completion, Queen Victoria officiated at the dedication of this splendid bridge.

The Conwy Tubular Bridge. In 1845, Robert Stephenson had been presented with some difficult bridge design problems for the Chester & Holyhead Railway, for which he was chief engineer. The required clear spans had made the use of a stone or suspension bridge impractical, and trusses capable of supporting the spans had not yet been developed. Stephenson came up with the idea of a tubular bridge. As it was developed through several years of tests, the long bridge span would be carried by a very large, stiff structure made of wrought iron and using chain supports. As the design progressed, the use of chains proved unnecessary and tests showed that a rectangular structure would work better than a round or elliptical one. The trains would operate through the structure, which would function much like a plate girder or truss. The