MBI Railroad Color History Gripe

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

In the last three years, I have purchased a number of the MBI Railroad Color History books. The photography in all of them is quite good, but as a writer, I’m probably more hypercritical of the writing in them than most.

There are two volumes that I found very disappointing. Compared to other volumes, I wonder how Motorbooks/Voyageur Press let them slip through.

The first is Peter Lynch’s Penn Central. Lynch almost completely ignores the mistakes and operations that ultimately doomed the railroad, writing that it had been covered elsewhere. I can only think of the Wreck of the Penn Central, which is several decades old.

The second is the recent Chessie System by Dave Ori. Ori only briefly glances over why the C&O, B&O, and WM branded themselves as Chessie. He does not discuss how the parent holding company allocated equipment to each railroad. He also totally ignores how Chessie was folded into CSX. Yes, there is a separate MBI volume on CSX, but this seems a bad oversight on Ori’s part.

Instead, both Lynch and Ori spend most of their books going over the routes of both railroads, mind-numbingly listing every division, city, waypoint, and yard. I realize that a modeler or a really anal historian might be interested, but to me, it’s as exciting as reading the phone book.

I ended up being disappointed at the money I spent on both volumes and the lack of knowledge I gained about the railroads’ histories and rolling stock.

The template for this series is Brian Solomon’s Amtrak, which succinctly describes the history, rolling stock, and operations of the NRPC. Karl Zimmerman’s Burlington Zephyrs (in the related Great Passenger Trains series) was another excellent volume.

Yet it seems that for some authors in the series, photos are no problem, but filling pages is.

Thoughts?

2

Certainly…

Sorry that you’re not a “modeler” or “anal historian”, and that the authors didn’t write to please YOU, in books you had the choice to purchase or not… Last time I checked, authors didn’t write books that please everyone - as you claim you are a “writer”, I would think you know that already. There is always somebody with a bug in their rear to complain and nitpick about something in a publication… You think “anal historians” are bad? Read your post from an outside perspective… I am speaking as a published editorialist, thank you - criticism is my specialty, but within and with some good reason…

If you wanted to know about rolling stock and history, that’s fine - buy books that cover those topics, and don’t get in a hissy-fit that not every single book does… Don’t want to know about every “division, city, waypoint, and yard”? Fine - but don’t denegrate “anal historians” who give a hoot about the infrastructure of fallen-flags that either no longer exists or does in a very altered state. You complain that the MBI Penn Central book did not cover the “mistakes and operations that ultimately doomed the railroad”, but note "

3

David

I am a former US Air Force historian. I daresay my historical training is on par with anyone else on these forums. I know about “anal” historians. And if reading countless descriptions of “X subdivision went from Cincinnati to Toledo” then you’re welcome to them. I bought some of these books from Amazon.com and had no chance to peruse them beforehand.

Your attitude is much like what I found from my colleagues who were posted to Washington DC billets. They wrote dense, unreadable histories with arcane facts that pleased nobody but themselves. Sure, their details might have been historically significant, but nobody bothered reading their books and they were not very useful. Small wonder then that some commanders wondered what good it was pouring money into their budgets. In the end, if you cannot sell your books, then nobody is going to publish them.

I don’t wish to get into a peeing contest with you so let’s just say we agree to disagree.

4

Personally, my experience with a different MBI Color History book, CSX, was much happier. Basically I wound up writing a mini-review of that book, so I will start a new thread for it.

Personally, I have no “gripe” with the MBI books, at least not yet!

al-in-chgo

5

Well, as an avid reader of railroad books, I’d say “different strokes for different folks”. There are all different kinds of railroad books, that appeal to all different kinds of readers. I buy books from online used bookstores often. Unless I can find some reviews somehere on a particular book, I end up trying to use intuition to decide if it’s good book to order. I win some, I lose some.

From the name MBI Railroad Color History I would hope you’d realize it would be heavy on pictures, light on literature. I started the book nut thread, so I could get recommendations for books from other people. So far, it’s worked. Us readers have to stick together. You mention that you buy some books on Amazon. I hope you’ve taken the opportunity to add some reader’s reviews on books you’ve purchased. You are a writer with interest in railroading? Have you written any railroad books?