Railway Practice: A Collection of Working Plans and Practical Details of Construction in the Public Works

A complete four volume set of S. C. Brees's impressive study of railway engineering and construction in the nineteenth century, illustrated with over 250 folding and double paged plates. Present here are the third edition of volume I, the second edition of volume II, and the first editions of volumes III and IV.This work is considered to be of the foremost sources of contemporary information on civil engineering issues relating to early railways and rolling stock. The First Series mostly concerns the London & BirminghamRailway; the Second Series includes aspects of the Great Western, the London & Croydon, and specifications and contracts for works on the Birmingham & Gloucester, while the Third and Fourth Series's are mostly devoted to French railways.Volume I is illustrated with a double-page lithographed frontispiece after Brees, and sixty-nine double page plates. Collated, complete.Volume II is illustrated with a double-page lithographed frontispiece and seventy double-paged plates. Collated, complete.Volume III is illustrated with sixty-nine double-paged plates. Collated, complete.Volume III is illustrated with sixty-nine double-paged and folding plates. Collated, complete.With the bookplate of Arthur Elton, who himself authored a 1940s work on the British Railways, to each front pastedown.Not present here is the 1839 appendix volume.The author was involved in engineering the London to Birmingham line under Stephenson. He later went to New Zealand, and produced a topographical work on the country. Volume III in the publisher's original cloth binding. Volume I rebacked, with majority of original back strip laid down and boards restored, with endpapers renewed. Volumes II and IV rebound in cloth, with endpapers renewed. Externally, excellent. Loss of cloth to back strip tail of volume IV. Bookplate to each front pastedown. Internally, firmly bound. Pages significantly age toned due to paper type, with significant handling marks throughout. Spotting and instances of foxing to plate and page perimeters. Very Good.…