Title: GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY. Per Rail.
Publisher: [Westminster and Kingston-on-Thames, Knapp, Drewett & Sons for GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Good
Edition: 1st Edition
Royal 8vo. [2], xxxii, 238. Large birds-eye view of Grimsby deep water dock (Immingham), large colour-printed folding colliery map of the Midlands, colour-printed folding railway map of Britain, highly illustrated throughout, printed on heavy, glossy paper(front hinges splitting, some foxing); a few central folds of maps with tears (a few historic sellotape repairs), otherwise good. 18 x 25.5 cm. Pictorial cloth with details in relief (worn, soiled and bumped). First edition of an impressive PR piece for one of the great railway companies, published before WW1 in a highly decorative and unusual binding. This scarce publication describes, and illustrates in detail, how an Edwardian railway handled all freight traffic locomotives, rolling stock, depots, warehouses, docks, cranes, shunting, manually and by capstan, staff and uniforms, also road collection and delivery services. Per Rail is the most sumptuous publication ever issued by a British railway to promote its services-highest quality paper, type setting, presentation of illustrations, layout design and binding. Just over a decade earlier, financially exhausted by the cost of extending the line to London, few would have predicted that the Great Central would provide comfortable passenger services, including, through trains between the NE and SW parts of the country, would run 60 mph trains with automatic brakes, build Wath -upon- Dearne marshalling yard for the efficient handling handling of millions of tons of coal traffic to London, or for export; the exports went through a large modern port, which the GCR had built at Immingham, complete with coal bunkering equipment, graving docks and a passenger station for steamer services to the Continent. The GCR was also in the fore front of other technical developments, including power operated and colour light signalling. Although the GCR was still unable to pay a dividend on its ordinary shares, it was a remarkable achievement, by a first class team of officers and managers, led by Chairman Sir Alexander Henderson and newly knighted (at the opening of Immingham Docks) General Manager, Sir Sam Fay. Henderson, steered the GCR through some very shallow financial waters, while Fay, one of the outstanding railway managers of the age, provided the ideas and the flair. The year 1913, marked by Per Rail , and with revenue increasing from the capital investments showed the GCR viewing the future with optimism. Sadly, it was not to last. On 4 August 1914 the Great War broke out. The export coal market collapsed and the port of Immingham, with the company's steamers were immediately requisitioned by the Admiralty. In 1883, a clerk on the London & South Western Railway at Kinston-on-Thames wrote and published, at his own expense A Royal Road -history of the LSWR. Move on 30 years and the clerk is now the newly knighted Sir Sam Fay, and wants a prestigious publication to mark over a decade of achievement by his railway, and to promote the extensive range of freight services which the company provides. The Kingston printer is now Knapp, Drewett and Sons, with a large works in London additional to the Kingston premises. They were awarded the valuable contract to print and publish Per Rail . Seller Inventory # 5098