Personal Recollections of English Engineers, and of the Introduction of the Railway System Into the United Kingdom - By a Civil Engineer, Author of the "Trinity of Italy"

Conder, Francis Roubiliac (A Civil Engineer)

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1868

About this Item

RARE FIRST EDITION. Fascinating recollections related to English engineering and of the introduction of the railway system into the United Kingdom, by a "Civil Engineer", author of the "Trinity of Italy". With 27 chapters, titles include The First Railway Approach to London, Work in 1835, The Travelling Destroyed by the Railways, A West Country Railway, A Bit of Work in Worcestershire, A Chapter on Contractors, Construction of the Broad-Gauge Lines, The Engineer of the London & Birmingham, A Canal Railway, Railway Work in Ireland, Engineering in the Principality, Railway Finance, The Future of Engineering, etc. From the Preliminary Chapter: "The following recollections are almost exclusively original and personal. They come now, for the first time, before the public. No incident, so far as the writer is aware, has been before published, with the exception of the newspaper reports of some of the Irish trials. It is certain that the greater part, if not the whole, of the matter must be new.". Author not stated (printed on title page as by "A Civil Engineer") but the book is authored by Francis Roubiliac Conder (1815-1889), civil engineer, pupil of Brunei & Robert Stephenson. Conder was a typical Victorian railway contractor. This volume is valuable as one of the few first-hand detailed accounts of pre-mechanism railway construction. No illustrations. 1868 on title page. Bound in original green cloth, with gilt design (of a steam engine) to front board & gilt lettering to spine, blind-ruled borders to covers. Printed by Benjamin Pardon and Son, Paternoster Row, London. Ex-library copy with usual library markings, lending library label to front board, binding cracked & all signatures shaken & loose, spine & covers entirely separated from book block but all present (volume is in two pieces: book block / + covers & spine), presentation label to front pastedown, slight shelfwear to covers, otherwise a clean complete hardcover copy of a title that is rarely found in the first edition. 432pp. RARE. Seller Inventory # 001716

Bibliographic Details

Title: Personal Recollections of English Engineers,...

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, London

Publication Date: 1868

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fair

Edition: First Edition