Essential books on the industry

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

From time to time book reviews are written. These are always great…Greyhound your’s are more “executive summaries” than reviews, and often lead me to pickup these books.

My interests (book) in the industry are primarily from the 1950’s to present. I am intrigued by the merger and consolidation process that began in that era.

What books do feel are “essential” for this period, or perhaps expanded to longer era.

Books I have found useful include:

Saunders two volumes on mergers (titles escape me).

Craig Minors excellent look at Missouri Pacific.

Rush Loving Jr’s “The Men Who Loved Trains.” - read it twice and will probably pick it up again.

Maury Klein’s “Union Pacific, The Reconfiguration”

Lawrence H. Kaufman’s “Leaders Count”

Fred Frailey’s “Blue Streak Merchandise” - an excellent look at the history of modern railroading thru one particular freight train.

Even the Morning Sun books, while 90% color photography, will provide operations details. I recently “read” the two volumes on Santa Fe’s Passenger trains and was fascinated by the details provided. The section on the train Fast Mail, offered great insight into the express, parcel, bulk mail, and RPO business until 1967.

Added to these, my library includes a number of Official Guides from the 1940’s thru 1980’s and Moody’s Transportation Manuals from 1955, 1970, 1971, 1980, and 1998. Also the USRA Preliminary Plan (3 volumes) give a detailed look at east of the Mississippi railroading, from a planning aspect.

What else should I have? Looking for a look at the CSX mergers/consolidation/modern history; ditto Canadian National (including IC), and perhaps NS, although that is covered in The Men Who Loved Trains.

Ed

2

Definitely the best overview of long range history is still Jensen’s American Heritage History of American Railroads followed by Rails Across American from Salamander Press in 1993 with Consultant Editor William Withuhn of Smithsonian fame. I think To Hell In A Day Coach is missing from your list. For fun you might want to check out the histories of virtually any and all rairoads no matter the geographical location. rembmebering that the changing economy in the Eastern states led to the changes in railroads there and accross the country: Lackawanna and Erie and Erie Lackawanna in addition to the NYC and PRR and resulting Penn Central which all led to Conrail. Family lines mergers along with C&O, WM and B&O which as cumulated in today’s CSX and the N&W and Southern marriage resulting in today’s NS; and both CSX and NS absorbing respective parts of CR. New England is seperate with NH going to PC and B&M and MEC coming under the Guilford, now Pan Am banner while P&W has remained somewhat independent; but NS is coveting PanAM in order to take traffic away from CSX in New England. Meanwhile CP just doesn’t know what to do with the D&H property for one, so it could be chopped on the auction block or not chopped just shopped. Yeah, I think over the next few years there’s gonna be a lot of changes in the East, so reading about the predecessor roads will give you a perspective of what will be unfolding.

3

For CN, but pre-IC:

“The Pig that Flew: The battle to privatize Canadian National”, by Harry Bruce, 168 pgs., published 1997 by Douglas & McIntyre - see: http://www.amazon.com/The-pig-that-flew-privatize/dp/1550546090 and/ or http://www.alibris.com/search/books/isbn/9781550546095

Somewhat of a ‘puff piece’ and not terribly critical, but still a good inside look at that unique event.

  • Paul North.
4

Further thought: Some members here also belong to Northwestern University’s Transportation Center’s (“NUTC”) “Hagestad Sandhouse Gang”, and/ or “The Lexington Group in Transportation History” (particularly railroads) - see:

http://www.transportation.northwestern.edu/industry/sandhouse.html and

http://www.lexingtongroup.org/

Perhaps an inquiry along these lines to those groups would yield solid recommendations, and/ or spark some interest in filling the missing gaps ?

  • Paul North.
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Not to hijack a thread, but I’d be interested in hearing book recommendations for the very early years of railroading – say, pre-Civil War. I’d be interested in learning about both early American railroads like the B&O as well as early British lines like the Stockton and Darlington.

6

copcarSS

Have you read J Vance’s “The American Railroad, Its Origins, Evolution and Geology”?

This is an outstanding pre-Civil War (and later) book on why railroads were built. One of my favorite quotes in the book was from Granville Dodge, the Chief Engineer for the Union Pacific transcontinental line. Regarding Sherman Hill in Wyoming he stated (while being pursued by the Crow Indians) “If we save our scalps, I blieve we have found a railroad line over the mountains.”

I secured this book thru the local library (interlibrary loan) and while reading it used Google Maps to follow the various routes laid out. Unfortunately I do not own the book, but I did take 18 pages of notes.

Ed

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The two books I reccomended…Jensen’s and Wituhn’s…are both perfect for what you’re looking for. Also look at individual railroad histories, especially the railroads you are interested in, for more details. B&O is handled well in its own histories as well as as in CSX histories. Stockton and Darlington are covered in the two books I mentoned as well as many individual eastern railroad histories…but there are British books which will go into much deeper details. Your library should have many books which will give you direction.

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“The North American Railroad” – Vance (Kind of an “In The Beginning” work. I think it’s essential for any further understanding.)

“Railroads in the Civil War” – Clark (The Federals understood logistics better than the Rebs. When the Union Army runs into trouble at Chattanooga the solution is to move two entire army corps from the eastern theater to the western theater. And do it the long way ‘round going through Indianapolis. Read how the railroad men gathered the necessary equipment, got the trains loaded, and got the trains through. Nothing like it had ever been done before. But the railroad men didn’t flinch. They just did it. It’s about American early railroad management and how good it was, at least in the north. )

“Railroads –Rates and Regulation” – Ripley. (The economics of railroading explained in 1912 by an economist. Before the dead hand of regulation shut it down, the railroads were swashbuckling, freewheeling and entrepreneurial. They made things happen. If there was freight moving, the railroads fought for it.

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“The American Railroad Passenger Car” - John H. White. Gives a detailed account about the development of passenger cars from 1830 to about 1970. Includes developments in components and subsystems of the cars, e.g. running gear, brakes, couplers, lighting.

“The American Railroad Freight Car” - John H. White. Covers freight car design, construction and use from 1830 to the early 1900’s.

Any of Myrick’s books on the railroads of Nevada and Arizona, but particularly Nevada Vol I and Arizone Vol I & IV.

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Let me suggest two very good books on the industry, at least as it was in the 1940’s:

“This Fascinating Railroad Business” by Robert Selph Henry. Mr Henry covered EVERTHING, from road building to “road billing”, and all points in between. He didn’t miss a thing.

“Railroads at War” by S. Kip Farrington. How the railroads were responding to the demands of World War Two. Mr. Farrington didn’t miss much either.

The downside? Both are long out of print, so you’ll really have to beat the bushes to find them, used book dealers, flea markets, antique and train shows. But hey, the hunt is half the fun!

And no, you can’t have mine!

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One note about writers like Henry, Farrington, Casey, even Hungerford, and the 1940-1950 era writings: these writers and thier books were often commissioned or othrewise provided for by the individual railroads or the Association of American Railroads. Therefore they sometimes reflect puffery and views through rose colored glasses. They should not be discounted or ignored by any means, but know the origin of the work and use it as a stepping stone to other materials.

12

Ed, you should probably look for The Iron Horse in the Windy City, by David M. Young. Mr. Young was a long-time transportation editor for the Chicago Tribune, and this book was written in 2005. I haven’t read it thoroughly, but the facts I’ve found seem accurate (though the maps aren’t always). Saddest picture in the whole thing is one of the demolition of the old C&NW station.

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[:-^] Paul; were the Eastern mountain railroads less essential ? I haven’t seen much of a good read on this thread, unless someone posts more info on those roads. C.& O & N.&W.

Cannonball

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C&O B&O N&W Clinchfield Virginian Western Maryland NKP B&LE Interstate Pittsburgh and West Virginia .Monongaheia PRR NYC W&LE Rdg DL&W LV Erie original NS Pittsburgh and Shawmut BR&P (see B&O) ACL SAL SCL L&N At least some of the names off the top of my head which battled and conquored the Appalachians in some way or another between North Carolina and New York, the Atlantic Ocean to the Ohio River and Lake Erie. There are dozens of books in your library to tell the tales of each.

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Carl:

Thanks for the tip on Iron Horse in the Windy City.

Ed

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Puffery? PUFFER-REEEE? I mean really! OK, I’ll admit Farringtons book is a bit “WOW! Is this cool or what?”, but I’ve read the Henry book several times, and as a 40’s era railroad primer it’s really not to be beat. Nothing in there over the top, or untrue, or of the, um, shall we say, “brown-nosing” stripe. Don’t know if you’ve read the book, but don’t pass it up if you get the chance, trust me.

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[:)] henry6 thank you for the info . I hadnot thought of those roads for a while , because of all the failures of some . Also a lot of mergers happened in that time frame.

Respectfully, Cannonball

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For early railways in Britain try THE GRAND EXPERIMENT : The Birth of the Railway Age 1820 - 1845 by Stuart Hylton (if you can find it). Or for a contemporary view Francis Wishaw’s Railways of Great Britain and Ireland was written in 1842 and republished in 1969.

For early railway history, I imagine the likes of Google Books and Project Gutenberg might be a happy hunting ground for old classics.

The Fallen Colossus by Robert Sobell covered Penn Central from a business more than a railway perspective.

And I would be interested to hear an American view on The Great Railway Revolution by Christian Wolmar

19

The two Saunders books are Merging Lines; American Railroads 1900 - 1970 and Main Lines; Rebirth of the North American Railroad 1970 - 2002

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The Richard Saunders, Jr. books you mention are Merging Lines and Main Lines. They are THE definitive histories of the railroad industry in the 20th Century. Merging Lines covers 1900-1970 and Mail Lines is the follow up from 1970-2000. They were the recommended books to read after Rush Loving’s The Men Who Loved Trains.

Another excellent text for those interested in the development of GE’s current Evolution series is the Sean Graham-White book GE Evolution Locomotives. Not just another pretty picture book, the text looks at the development, layout and systems on the modern GE’s. It is technical, and yet easy to read. The discussion of Tier II emission standards was of interest to me.

The above mentioned books deal with facts and history. All too often, fans tend to look at the pictures and judge a book by its pictures rather than the quality and content of the text. Ask yourself, “What did I learn in reading the book?” In that measure, the above listed books excel.