In my scrounging around in an old bookstore, I came across the book “The Story of American Railroads” by Stewart H. Holbrook. Has anyone read it and would they recommend it? It appears to have a date of somewhere in the 50’s. (1957???) The book looks to be in very good shape and wonder if it is a good reference to that era. I am not what you would call a collector, but would be interested in the history of RR’ing. After a quick browse through it, it seems like just old war stories type of articles or so. I didn’t have time to really check the chapters too closely. I did a “search” in the forum base and came up with nothing referring to the title. Would it be worth the read or is it kind of outdated? Thanks for any help/comment.
There can be times when a book is outdated that isnt the best. Such as trying to find accurate data, or the most up-to-date info on a subject. As years go by, more often than not, the information is updated as corrections are made or other facts come to light.
But, sometimes, this can add to the expeirence of the book. It was written by someone who saw the events, wittinessed them first hand and the expeirences can still be very fresh in one’s mind as the story is written or told. I enjoy books but I find sometimes th ebest reading is the “story type”. It makes it much easier to enjoy and picture what life was like.
If anything, (assuming the book is a fair deal), it could be worth to own as a lot of books, long out of print, are very, very hard to come by.
I have a copy that I received as a gift and never really got into it because it did not seem to mesh with my railroad interest at that time. Lately I have taken a second look and find that it is a lot more substantive than I had imagined. I covers a lot of deep history and comes up to the present era. My copy says copyrighted 1947. I would say that it appears to be quite accurate and informative, and goes into a lot of interesting detail, beyond what you might get in a typical historical overview.
I have it and think its well worth buying and reading. It was copyrighted in 1947 and gives a good picture of what railroad history was at the end of WWII. Some of it is information that you’ll find in other books, but there are some things in it that I’ve never seen in any other railroad history/interest books.
Thanks for some insight, I realize that it was post war and could not be up-to-date. I’m more interested in the history than basic “stories.” I’ll go back and get the book to get some much wanted info. Thanks again for some help on this. [oo___oo]
I read this book back in the 1980s and the new diesels wree mentioned a couple of times. In one case the author predicted that steam would last well into the 1970s.
Several good stories in that book… one of my favourites:::
“When the Erie came to the Seneca Reservation in Cattaraugus County, its agents hoped to get a right-of-way for little or nothing, but the chief of the tribe said it would be a matter of $10,000. The Erie agents protested, saying that the land wanted was of no value, no good for corn or potatoes, and that there was no decent timber on it. The old chief reflected a few moments, then remarked, “It pretty good for railroad.” The Erie paid.”
One thought, you might go online with a used-book seller and see if the book is available thru them. You might also find out if the book has any antiquarian value above and beyond its usefulness. If you’re really lucky you’ll get some (recent) amateur reviews of the book – a contemporary point-of-view can be very refreshing compared to fifty-year-old publicity blurbs.
Sites that have worked best for me for used books are alibris dot com, amazon dot com, and abebooks dot com, in that order.
Bookfinder.com has 7 pages of listings of the book. Priced from $4.24 up to $231.00. It’s a good read and, as the listings would suggest, it is fairly easy to get a copy.
Part of the allure of history, at least for me, is that we truly can’t appreciate where we are today, unless we can understand how we worked through yesterday and the days before that to be where we are today. Period publications give valuable insight as to what yesterday was all about.
True. In fact, all of Kip Farrington’s books are worth seeking out. Most big libraries have them. And speaking of libraries, every railroad enthusiast who remembers life before the internet should know the Dewey-Decimal numbers 385 & 625.