The Rise of the Railways

Railways transformed the world. In the space of fifty years in the middle of the nineteenth century, the steam locomotive took human beings from a world in which nothing could travel faster than a galloping horse to a world in which it was possible to cross a continent in days — reshaping economies, altering landscapes, creating cities, and changing the social fabric of every country it reached. DK’s The Rise of the Railways tells this extraordinary story in comprehensive visual detail.

From George Stephenson and the Rocket through the great railway builders of the Victorian era, the competition for transcontinental routes, the golden age of steam, and the transition to diesel and electric traction, every phase of railway history is covered with maps, photographs, engineering drawings, and the stories of the engineers who built the networks that connected the modern world.

The definitive history of one of the most consequential technologies ever developed. Published by DK.