Excellent Source of Free Downloadable Full-Text Books

I just stumbled upon a terrific source of information including FREE full-text books that you can view or download in a variety of formats, usually including PDF… the catch is the books are old-- but hey, so is railroading… there’s a lot of good useful info out there:

The Internet Archive

Home of the “Wayback Machine”. I’ve known about the Internet Archive for nearly a decade, but have just (re-?)discovered that they have whole, complete books available online that you can download. All of the material is either out of copyright or donated. They also have other media too if you’re interested. (Myself, I’ve used the site to view other sites “in the past”, i.e., the “Wayback Machine”)

Here, I’ve already done your first book search for you:

The Internet Archive → Search for “Railroad”

John

Like this gem for instance:

Car builders’ cyclopedia of American practice; - Master Car-Builders’ Association
Book digitized by Google and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

Or this one:

Railroad Curves And Earthwork; Calvin Francis Allen, 1920

Here’s some more:

(Note that you may want to actually go to the Internet Archive and search for the title or author, as many of these books have multiple printings and/or updated versions available to download)

A Field Manual for Railroad Engineers; Nagle, James C, 1904

Catalogue of Interlocking and Railroad Signaling Appliances; Johnson Railroad Signal Company, 1889

Elements of Railroad Track and Construction; Winter, Lincoln Wilson, 1915

The A B C of Railroad Signaling; Elliot, W. H., 1909

The Detailed Design of a Railroad Bridge; Burr, William Hubert & Falk, Myron Samuel, 1904

Design of a Steel Railroad Bridge; Cahan, J, 1908

Some Interesting Searches at the Internet Archive:

The Pennsylvania Railroad

New York Central Railroad

Norfolk & Western Railroad

Southern Pacific Railroad

Canadian Pacific Railroad

Northern Pacific Railroad

Southern Railway Company

I looked up “Model Railroad” and I came up with this old 1950 video of a MRR Club. Check it out.