Online Catalogue last updated 17th of September 2023
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was one of the greatest British engineers of the 19th century. He dominated a wide range of fields - railways, shipping and civil engineering - from his earliest days through to his death in 1859. He flew in the face of conventional wisdom and was a pioneer in the development of many engineering skills which are today taken for granted. Not all that he was involved with proved successful; the atmospheric railway along the south Devon coast was a disaster and the broad gauge fell foul of the Gauge Commission, despite bequeathing the railway network a superb route to the West Country, but 140 years after his death, it is still possible to see much that Brunel designed continuing to fulfil the role he planned.
Today, as the government proposed the Great Western Railway main line from London to Bristol to become a World Heritage Site, interest in arguably Britain's greatest engineer remains undimmed. To commemorate the 140th anniversary of Brunel's death, Tim Bryan has written a comprehensive and heavily illustrated account of the engineer and his work, which will become a major source of reference to Brunel and his career. As Keeper of the Great Western Railway Museum in Swindon, the author has drawn upon the archives to produce a book that will be of interest to railway historians, engineers and all those who appreciate the triumphs of the Victorian years. This new addition to the studies of this most influential of engineers will become one of the definitive accounts of his life and work.
The book details many of Brunel's achievements such as the tunnels, bridges and docks, the Great Western Railway, the ships the Great Western, Great Britain and Great Eastern, the Devon atmospheric railway, and more.
Code No. 009657, ISBN 0711026866