The Illustrated Book of Steam & Rail: The History and Development of the Train and an Evocative Guide to the World's Great Train Journeys By Colin Garratt & Max Wade-Matthews
The Illustrated Book of Steam & Rail (Collectible Hardcover Edition)
The History and Development of the Train and an Evocative Guide to the World's Great Train Journeys
The History and Development of the Train and an Evocative Guide to the World's Great Train Journeys
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: The Illustrated Book of Steam & Rail
- Authors: Colin Garratt and Max Wade-Matthews
- Publisher: S. Webb & Son / Anness Publishing, London
- Publication Date: 2001
- ISBN-10: 1843092638 / ISBN-13: 9781843092636
- Edition Details: First Edition Thus. Highly desirable, premium large-format railway compendium.
- Binding: Hardcover with original publisher's heavy boards, housed in a complete illustrated dust jacket under a protective archive cellophane wrapper.
- Physical Format: Large Quarto Format (Oversized 4to), 512 pages. Lavishly enhanced with over 1,500 historic black-and-white and vibrant full-colour photographs, transcontinental route maps, and comprehensive locomotive specification tables.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Exterior / Boards: The original publisher's heavy oversized boards are exceptionally sharp, perfectly square, and pristine. The spine is completely straight, robustly bound, and uncreased with perfect structural integrity.
- Interior: Exceptional and pristine. The 512 heavyweight internal text pages and vibrant photographic plates are completely clean and fully intact. Free from handling stains, thumb soils, dog-ears, or previous owner inscriptions. Exhibits light, uniform, natural age-related paper tanning along the margins, entirely standard for heavy art-print stock of this vintage and serving as an authentic mark of its historical provenance.
- Protection: Beautifully looked after and maintained, now protected in a premium, removable archival-grade cellophane sleeve.
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The Dust Jacket: Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Condition: The original oversized illustrated dust jacket is complete, bright, and unclipped. Exhibits only very slight, microscopic signs of standard storage shelf friction along the extreme corners, completely free of chips, deep tears, or sun fading.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Published in 2001 by S. Webb & Son, The Illustrated Book of Steam & Rail is a monumental, encyclopedic masterwork that charts nearly two centuries of global locomotive evolution. Spanning the dawn of crude steam power in the early Industrial Age to the sleek engineering of modern high-speed bullet trains, authors Colin Garratt and Max Wade-Matthews capture the railway as a ultimate symbol of technology and human expansion. The first half provides an exhaustive global technical registry of the world's most iconic engines. The second half shifts into a beautifully romantic, evocative travelogue, guiding readers across the world's greatest train journeys—including the Orient Express, the Trans-Siberian Railway, and Africa's legendary steam corridors. Featuring over 1,500 spectacular photographs, this massive 512-page volume stands as an indispensable reference library for transport modelers, industrial historians, and dedicated rail enthusiasts alike.
Published in 2001 by S. Webb & Son, The Illustrated Book of Steam & Rail is a monumental, encyclopedic masterwork that charts nearly two centuries of global locomotive evolution. Spanning the dawn of crude steam power in the early Industrial Age to the sleek engineering of modern high-speed bullet trains, authors Colin Garratt and Max Wade-Matthews capture the railway as a ultimate symbol of technology and human expansion. The first half provides an exhaustive global technical registry of the world's most iconic engines. The second half shifts into a beautifully romantic, evocative travelogue, guiding readers across the world's greatest train journeys—including the Orient Express, the Trans-Siberian Railway, and Africa's legendary steam corridors. Featuring over 1,500 spectacular photographs, this massive 512-page volume stands as an indispensable reference library for transport modelers, industrial historians, and dedicated rail enthusiasts alike.
Author Profile: Colin Garratt & Max Wade-Matthews
Colin Garratt is an internationally acclaimed British transport documentary photographer, author, and steam locomotive archivist who has dedicated his life to recording the final days of active steam railways across all five continents. Max Wade-Matthews is a highly versatile British historian, musicologist, and prolific non-fiction writer celebrated for his deeply researched, visually compelling historic reference books. Together, backed by Garratt's breathtaking, world-famous transport photography, their collaborative visual anthologies are highly sought-after by international collectors for their absolute technical fidelity, narrative depth, and magnificent preservation of global railway heritage.
Colin Garratt is an internationally acclaimed British transport documentary photographer, author, and steam locomotive archivist who has dedicated his life to recording the final days of active steam railways across all five continents. Max Wade-Matthews is a highly versatile British historian, musicologist, and prolific non-fiction writer celebrated for his deeply researched, visually compelling historic reference books. Together, backed by Garratt's breathtaking, world-famous transport photography, their collaborative visual anthologies are highly sought-after by international collectors for their absolute technical fidelity, narrative depth, and magnificent preservation of global railway heritage.
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