Another book I would recomend is “Going Railroading:two generations of Colorado stories”. It is written by Margarat Coel as told by Sam Speas.
University Press of Colorado, 1998
This is a great book about the Colorado and Southern Railroad. It focuses on the Como area and it is the history of a railroading family called the Speas. This is a must read and it is the best book about people in railroading that I have ever read.
I agree with FROM THE CAB by Douf Riddell, a truly great book
Fred Westing’s Apex of the Atlantics, about the PRR E-6 shows the right way to design a new locomotive and would have been must reading for the people doing the Acela or the original Metroliners to avoid some the pitfalls. Great reading and good b&w photographs, and puts the locomotive in context with many other types.
Partick and… NEVER ON WEDNESDAY, a beautiful momento of the Rio Grande Western’s Zephyr, covers the subject thoroughly with great text and b&w photos, people, equipment, and scenery. Beeb’s HIGH IRON and TWENTIETH CENTURY are good. Hilton’s THE INTERURBAN RAILWAYS OF NORTH AMERICA doesn’t have photos and only a few line drawings, but is authoritive on every line that ran. other books I like include DIESELS TO PARK AVENUE, from the New Haven Railroad Historical and Technical Society, any and all of the big CERA books, “TM”, aobut the Milwaukee interurbans and streetcars, INTERURBAN TO MILWAUKEE and ROUTE OF THE ELECTROLINERS, a two volume set, INDIANA RAILROAD, THE MAGIC INTERURBAN, the set on Chicago Rapid Transit cars, they do a good job on everything. The MCGINNIS YEARS is interesting historically and has great photogrpahs, the BSRA’s HUB STREETCARS, and NARROW GAUGE THROUGH THE ROCKIES, MAIN LINE THROUGH THE ROCKIES, and GIANTS LADDER are also tops.
We Took the Train - Grant - First person accounts of rail travel.
Brownie The Boomer - First person account of his life as a boomer from the late 180’s to 1914.
All Aboard - The Railroad in American Life - Douglas - history of the impact of the railroad on American life.
Railroadman - French - personal account of railroad work
Unauthorized Train Stories - Lothridge - Amtrak Conductor’s recollections of railroading
Books I’ve bought/enjoyed:
And of course I like the Don Ball Jr. books. I have America’s Colorful Railroads. The book lives up to its name, and even non-railfans might appreciate the variety and quality of the photos.
MP
These are a few of the books I own that I’ve enjoyed over the years, and which still get pulled out and reread.
Hofsommer, Don L. “The Southern Pacific, 1901 - 1985” College Station, TX; Texas A&M University Press, 1986.
Garmany, John Bonds “Southern Pacific Dieselization” Edmonds, WA; Pacific Fast Mail Publications, 1985.
Signor, John R. “Southern Pacific’s Shasta Divison” Berkeley, CA; Signature Press, 2000.
Signor, John R. “Donner Pass; Southern Pacific’s Sierra Crossing” San Marino, CA; Golden West Books, 1985.
Bowden, Jack & Dill, Tom “The Modoc; Southern Pacific’s Back Door to Oregon” Hamilton, MT; Oso Publishing Company, 2002.
Staff, Virgil “D-Day on the Western Pacific” Glendale, CA; Interurban Press, 1982.
Myrick, David F. “Railroads of Nevada and Eastern California” Vol 1 San Diego, CA; Howell-North Books, 1962.
Myrick, David F. “Railroads of Nevada and Eastern California” Vol 2 San Diego, CA; Howell-North Books, 1963.
Daggett, Stuart 'Chapters on the History of the Southern Pacific" New York; Augustus M. Kelley Publishers, 1966
Jim - Lawton, NV MP236
“American Narrow Gauge Railroads” by George W. Hilton and “The Electric Interurban Railways in America” by Hilton and John F. Due.
Hilton not only tells you what happened, but he tells you why. He’s a railfan PhD economist. He explains the economics in layman’s terms so you can understand why the narrow gauges and interurbans developed and why they failed. All the while shareing Hilton’s appreciation for these railroads.
Besides, Hilton’s a White Sox fan and you have a tough time beating that these days.
Those with a yen to understand what USA passenger railroading was like just a few of years before Amtrak (in fact, the deplorable state of many RR trains that may have made Amtrak an inevitability), should check out TO HELL IN A DAY COACH by Peter Lyon.
This is a journalistic work from the mid-Sixties, and I’m not sure it would hold much sway in a typical hobby or railfan bookshelf. You could always get it on interlibrary loan, though…
Only a small part of the book, but Truman Capote’s IN COLD BLOOD starts out with a loving (if somewhat brutal) description of the mainline Santa Fe’s “Celebrated expresses” that never stop in the hamlet of Holcomb, home to the family that was slain in November of 1959 and gave Capote his topic. I especially like Postmistress Myrtle Clare, a septegarian who bid so low that she always got the U.S. contract to deliver the mail–beginning with the wrestling-down of heavy mail bags traveling at 85 or 90 mph, having just been tossed from the Chief’'s RPO…Also, the ATSF mainline (or “Southern Transcon” to the hip) serves as a metaphor both of nostalgia and restlessness, as trains have done in so many works of fiction and songs. IN COLD BLOOD is a great book all on its own.
[:)]
I’m partial to SET UP RUNNING, about the life of a PRR engineer in Pennsylvania, who started before the Hours of Service laws came into being, and retired about 1950. Book was written by his son, whose name escapes me at the moment but it was a interesting glimpse of railroading before the Hours of Service, when they literally could work until they dropped, if they wanted.
I also like BROWNIE THE BOOMER, who started out hawking newspapers in a daycoach between Springfield, Ohio, and Indianapolis, IN, on the Peoria and Eastern line and worked for various railroads including both the Cloverleaf between Frankfort and Delphos and the Lake Erie and Western between Rankin, Illinois, and Tipton, Indiana, as well as the Chicago and Eastern Illinois, and then working his way out west, spending some time on the UP in Wyoming.
I would recommend the following:
“Articulated Locomotives” by Lionel Wiener, I learned more about flexible steam locomotives than I knew even existed.
“The Great Lakes Car Ferries” by George W. Hilton, an excellent history about what happened when trains took the boat.
“Jane’s World Railways”, published annually. A bit pricey and may be hard to find but an excellent source of information on railways in the rest of the world.
I would recommend against “To Hell in a Day Coach”. I have read it myself and found it be a bit short on the facts and heavy on the invective. It got not one but two negative reviews in TRAINS when it was published.
“The Hiawatha Story” by Jim Scribbins has excellent photos and stories of the Milwaukee Road’s famous passenger trains.
“Thunder Lake Narrow Gauge” and “The Roddis Line” both by Harvey Huston tell the stories of two short line logging railroads in northern Wisconsin in the early 1900’s.
“Life on a Locomotive” by George Williams tells the story of a C&NW engineer who worked in Wisconsin. The chapter “Humiliating the Diesel” is priceless. It tells how in the fall of 1948 a passenger train with two malfunctioning diesel locos limped into Green Bay 20 minutes late and Williams was asked to doublehead with #2908, one of the big Pacifics C&NW used to use on the “400.” With two dead diesels and the passenger train in tow, he reached Milwaukee on time.
Ghost Railroads of Kansas
"Erie Power " by Stauffer,“A Treasury of Railroad Folklore”,by Botkin and Harlow and boxes of “Railroad Magazines” from the 1930’s to 1970’s.
I agree with Chad regarding the Blue Streak Merchandise by Fred Frailey. In my opinion he is the best of class in contemporary railroad authors.
I am surprized no one has nominated The Mohawk That Refused to Abdicate and other tales by David P. Morgan with accompanying photography by Philip Hastings.
In this book the two men pursue steam in the 1950’s, one with a pen, the other with lens. The book is a collection of short stories of their journey and reaches it’s climax with the title narrative, in which a NYC Alco Mohawk class 4-8-2 and an engineer prove that steam was not quite dead in 1955.
David P. Morgan had a way with words.
ed
I just picked up a book a couple of days ago that is called “Railroad: Identity, Design, and Culture” by Keith Lovegrove.
The book basically looks at the design aspect of passenger trains throughout time and from around the world. He goes from the design of the actual locomotives and cars to uniforms, and advertising. He even goes some into evolution of seat design and a short look at some of the company logos.
I still haven’t had time to look through the whole book yet, but so far it has been very interesting. But then again I went through four years of college and have a degree in “Environmental Design” (a.k.a. Architecture) so I always enjoy these types of books.
Also, this book was actually just released in May, but it is my understanding that Keith Lovegrove wrote a similar book for the airline industry (you guessed it: “Airline: Identity, Design and Culture”) about five years ago for those that are interested.
am now reading THE RAILWAY GAME
author J.Lukasiewicz 1976
Deals mainly with Canadian RR’s but also numerous entries
on US and oversead RR’s. A very critical look at the
short falls of the RR industry. Deals in facts, statistics,
graphs, personal incidents
Very critical of railroads attitude toward psgr trains, such as
the following:
The 8.18 out of a suburban town was 25 minutes late when
it limped into New York’s Grand Central Station one winter
morning. A long-suffering commuter asked the conductor
what as wrong the time. The answer: “This train is almost
always late when it snows.”
“But there is no snow today,” the puzzled commuter
pointed out.
“Yeah,” admitted the conductor. “But snow was predicted.”
Numerous items of how the RR’s discouraged psgrs for
travelling by having scheduled arrival times at major
stations half an hour or more later than departing trains
to other points Not having enough cars on
trains forcing psgrs to ride standing up in the baggage
car for long distances. Running out of food in the
dining cars
A 1970 count on the CN Super Continental showed
for the full year: 17% of psgrs were pass holders & 5%
were children under 5 years. During the peak
perion in the summer 20% were non revenue psgrs.
This books also describes faulty safety practices
compared to overseas rr’s
All in all a very contreversial book of the years
prior to the 1970 & one can wonder has much
changed since then ???
Just finished reading The Night Operator by Frank Packard, and would recommend it highly. It’s a collection of short stories about railroaders on a fictional railroad that runs through the Rockies set in the early 1900s or possibly late 1800s.
Also, The Boomer by Harry Bedwell is being reprinted and will be out sometime toward the end of this month. If you’ve read any of the old Railroad Stories magazines, you’ve probably read some of Bedwell’s short stories.
Here’s a list of some other good “railroad” fiction.
http://www.railroadfiction.com/books.htm
There’s also some old time radio shows there. Great to listen to on a rainy day.
See the following thread for my railroad library reads…
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/874753/ShowPost.aspx
LC
Just stopped in on this old thread, and had to chuckle when it came to comments on Lucius Beebe’s accuracy. He said something about an unusual-looking semaphore on the GM&O once–guess he thought that the top arm on a B&O-style CPL actually moved! Nonetheless, I have about three or four of his books.
Emma, congratulations on that amazingly fortunate acquisition of the Don Ball book!
I wonder whether the Internet has done much to book sales (it hasn’t to the prices!). I know that I don’t buy nearly as many books as I used to, but will barely hesitate when a good one happens along. Actually, I’m looking forward to the collection of Harry Bedwell stories. They were published several times in Railroad Magazine, and it’s interesting to compare the versions. Bedwell was a decent writer, but the last time these came out they had been brutally butchered by (I assume) the magazine’s editor. I’d like to see the originals!
I got that book as a gift several years ago. I took sometime to open it-I’m sure we’ve all gotten the “train book” gift from someone that doesn’t know the hobby well enough to know what we really like (or what’s any good). Once I sat down to read it, though, I went through it in one sitting. Of course, it helps that it takes place in my neck of the woods, so to speak. When I go back to leaf through it, Humiliating the Diesel is the chapter I’m usually after.