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EAN : 9782259203401
Shaping : BROCHE
Pages : 792
Size : 132 x 201 mm
The Train Lovers' Dictionary

Alain Bouldouyre (dessins de)
Release date : 02/11/2006

Jean des Cars's relationship with trains can only be described as passionate. Ever since he can remember, the historian has hopped on a train whenever he could. In Africa or Italy, in Chile, Scotland or Hungary, across the American West or along the Baie de Somme in France. From the...

Jean des Cars's relationship with trains can only be described as passionate. Ever since he can remember, the historian has hopped on a train whenever he could. In Africa or Italy, in Chile, Scotland or Hungary, across the American West or along the Baie de Somme in France. From the early days of the « Devil's cauldron » and the « iron horse », in the cab of the Lison, the locomotive of La Bête Humaine, or in the impatiently chuffing smoke of a painting by Monet, from the milk train in the country to Courteline's Le train de 8h47, nothing has escaped the attention and the affection of this great connoisseur of the world of rails. In 1974, he was one of the first journalists to participate in the trial runs of the first TGV, in the cab with the conductor, hurtling through the Landes at 300 kms an hour. He has hosted trips aboard the restored galaxy of the Orient Express, the Transiberian, and the Transmongolian. His year is not complete without at least one nostalgic voyage on a steam-engine-drawn train, with the Pullmans of another era and its speed as well. The author delights us with the bizarre Papal train, the record-breaking, new Beijing-Lhassa that covers « the roof of the world » at 5000 meters above sea level, the sinister trains that crossed Cold War borders, and the erotic trains of La Madone des Sleepings. His tales of his experience as a conductor on the Paris-Istanbul include a harrowing description of a manoeuvre—involving a 150 allemande--from the Bulgarian frontier to the Bosphorus.

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EAN : 9782259203401
Shaping : BROCHE
Pages : 792
Size : 132 x 201 mm
Plon