The Train: An Illustrated History - Jonathan Glancey - Paperback

The train changed the face of the world. From slow beginnings in the coalmines of England at the start of the nineteenth century, it was possible by the 1840s to cover vast distances at unprecedented speed, changing modern communications forever. Much more than a collection of models through the ages, The Train offers insight into the ways in which trains have made an impact upon the modern age. Admire some of the world's greatest trains from the New York Centrals sleek Twentieth Century Limited to the high-speed TGV of France, or Japan's Shinkansen "bullet train." Wonder at the splendid architecture of the world's great train stations, from the original Penn Station of Washington DC. Consider the role of trains in film, from Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train to Billy Wilder's Some Like it Hot.

Jonathan Glancey is the architecture and design editor of The Guardian.