I chatted with our local library management today and she asked (after a lengthy conversation of various issues) for recommended railroad books. This was prompted by the devastating purge of a number of excellent such books.
Any suggestions for a general community library?
My personal collection is about 80-90 books plus about 40 Official Guides and other reference books.
Looked thru the IU Press Railroads Present and Past catalog and came up with:
Riding the Rails - Robert Krebs
Indiana Railroad Lines - Graydon Meints
The Diesel that Did It - Wallace Abbey
Boomer - Linda G. Niemann
Being an Indiana community the library does have quite a few state based railroading books (primarily by IU Press).
Brosnan: the Railroad’s Messiah would be my recomendation. I had to get mine via inter-library loan, very few even available, had a long wait to get it, and it was non-renewable.
So, trying to absorb 1200+ pages in 2 weeks was a chore. Just having another copy available in the grand scheme would be a plus.
The cool thing about Brosnan was that he wasn’t the kind of guy you could tell “that’s not the way we do things” and expect to remain employed very long. He was vey big on fresh ways to view goals and objectives.
Some general interest stuff, like books on Pullman cars, and railroads in general (ie, general information on trains and what makes them up). Topics that will pique the curiosity of those without a direct interest in railroads.
“A History of Railroad Accidents, Safety Precautions and Operating Practices”
by Robert B. Shaw (First Printing 1978)
Covers What happened, with the Whys & Wherefores for the existence of North American Rules of Railroading. Contrary to some modern management ideas there are actual real events that occurred to make the AAR and other organizations impose rules for all employees to know and follow.
I was loaned some 40 years ago a copy of the book on BROSNAN by a former Southern Railroad official – he told me the book only gave an idea of what it was like to work in upper management under BROSNAN – if you can find a copy of the book it is a great read
Both books were written by Richard Saunders Jr. I stumbled across his orginal book, The Railroad Mergers and the Coming of Conrail (subsequently revised into Merging Lines), while attending Illinois State University in the early 1990’s. I read the book straight thru one weekend. I couldn’t put the book down, it was so engrossing. I learned so much about the railroad mergers that had occurred and why and, most interestingly to me, the mergers that had been seriously contemplated but never occurred.
I have read both of those…a big complaint of mine is the library purged these during COVID. Both are really great reference books for the rail industry’s mergers.
About 20 years ago our library purged a lot of books and bookshelves, and put in a lot of computer stations. The were well used a first, but now they have wifi with most using their own smartphones, and the computers mostly sit idle. They seem to push interlibrary loans.
Fifty years ago I worked at a library for a year, before going to grad school. Things change.
Our Library here in Ft Wayne did a massive purge about 6 years ago, and the outcry ended up costing the executive director her job.
Her defense was that they had hired a consultant who determined that “evolving trends” indicated that contemporary borrowers seek items such as camping gear and portable 3D printers, more so than the antiquated materials sitting down in storage. She further tried to explain that “our” library was a “popular” library, as opposed to a “research” library, which belonged at universities.
Ultimately she was serenaded out of town by our torch and pitchfork committee.
In a way, I kind of feel their pain. Space is not unlimited, and if you want to bring in a new book, something else has to go.
I’m sure there are other hobbies that are experiencing similar circumstances. If no one has checked out the book on underwater basket weaving in 10 years, do we really need to keep it on the shelf?
Writen by an Indiana native about an Indiana railroad: “Monon Route” by George W. Hilton.
“Sunset Limited” by Richard Orsi. It’s focus is on how the railroad enabled the settlement and development of the territory it served. It’s about the role the railroad played in those activities.
Regarding “Brosnan"The Railroads’ Messiah”…I ordered a copy of Volume 1 from our library’s Inner Library Loan (ILL) and have been reading it almost non-stop the past 24 hours.
V1 is over 600 pages and I will order v2. Quite a history of railroading thru William Brosnan’s perspective, primarily from the 1920s to the 60’s.
The author, Charles O. Morgret, a former Southern Railway Public Relations Officer, had access to considerable paper records and conducted over 200 interviews. He goes into a little more detail than I would prefer, but the changes described (I am currently around 1952) are well documented. We are told more than we need to know…considerable detail of Brosnan’s family, primarily his father. We are also provided with some personal issues which didnt need to be included (brief affair with a co-worker) and communications with a former student (female). It appears than no written letters or memos were avoided.
Brosnan rubbed most fellow Southern railroaders the wrong way…either those above him or subordinates. He was a man to be feared and admired.
