America was made by the railroads. The opening of the Baltimore & Ohio line — the first American railroad — in the 1830s sparked a national revolution in the way that people lived thanks to the speed and convenience of train travel. Promoted by visionaries and built through heroic effort, the American railroad network was bigger in every sense than Europe's, and facilitated everything from long-distance travel to commuting and transporting goods...

"When Roberta, Phyllis and Peter's father is accused of being a spy and sent to prison, the children and their mother are forced to leave their comfortable city life for the countryside. They move into a small cottage called "Three Chimneys" close to a railway station. As the children settle into their new home, the railway soon becomes the centre of their lives: promising new friends, plenty of adventures, and perhaps even the key to bringing their...

Das Buch weist angehenden und fortgeschrittenen Modellbahnern den Weg zum Aufbau ihrer digitalen Modelbahnsteuerung, anpassungsfähig an individuelle Wünsche, kompatibel mit dem Märklin-Standard, ausbaufähig und preiswert. Sein Schwerpunkt liegt auf der digitalen Steuerung mit dem CAN-Bus (Controller Area Network), den auch Märklin verwendet. CANgurus sind Funktionsblöcke aus Software und CAN-Decodern zur Steuerung einer digitalen Modelleisenbahn...

At first glance, wheat farming may not appear to be a scintillating topic for a novel, but in the hands of renowned social realist Frank Norris, this seemingly quotidian activity is transformed into a fascinating analysis of the economic factors that spurred the expansion into the western United States. The first novel in a planned trilogy that Norris never completed, The Octopus: A Story of California is an enlightening and gratifying read.

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Between 1849 and 1859, Virginia raced to pierce the Blue Ridge Mountains by rail and reach the Ohio River. At least 300 enslaved people labored involuntarily toward that goal, along with 1,500 Irish immigrants. The state leased the labor of enslaved Virginians from local slaveholders, including four connected with nearby University of Virginia. Blue Ridge Tunnel and Blue Ridge Railroad historian Mary E. Lyons explored hundreds of primary documents...