A new used bookstore sprouted up near my work in Old Town, Alexandria so I paid them a visit.
Naturally, I was looking for books on railroads–real or model. There weren’t many but I did find one for about $10 (real RR, no model ones avail).
I struck up a conversation with the used book lady; who was shapely but had a bit of a weathered look about her from too much sun, not unlike a used book.
The book lady explained that train books are hard to come by and that furthermore, I was the third person that day who inquired about train books. She said that as a lot, we are a bunch of fanatics who are unwilling to part with our train memorabilia.
I couldn’t argue with her flawless critique of us; the lot of us are a strange subculture.
I asked where she got her books from. She was unwilling to divluge her sources so I volunteered some leading questions.
–Estate sales
–Yard sales
–Library sales
Yep, she said, you about covered all of them. I mentioned that libraries typically charge about 50 cents for hardcovers and 25 for soft. I noticed the price markups on the used books were averaging around $12. She agreed that the profits were built in but that it was a lot of work scrounging around for the books and assembling them all on one place and sorting them out and dealing with inane questions from people like me.
Again, she had a good point that I was forced to agree with.
We’ve gotten to know each other; somewhat like a reader gets acquainted with a good book. I stop in every Friday afternoon on my way from work to the train station. Looking for…you guessed it…
…any book on trains.
Dave Vergun
I’m pretty lucky on this one Dave. There is a store here in the Twin Cities that specializes in new and used railroad books.
http://www.skypoint.com/~jcluecke/
There’s one bookstore in Regina that I discovered a while ago. Like you Dave, I immediately inquired about train books. The guy there showed me a place on a shelf where there were two books on real trains, both of which I bought ($6 for one, $3 for the other-everything in the store was 50% off). He then said he had sme train magazines and told me to wait. He went downstairs and came back with one of those huge Rubbermaid containers filled with old Trains, Railfan & Railroad, Rail Classics and Railroad magazines, plus a few assorted model train magazines as well. He said I could have it all for $20 (not the Rubbermaid container, though-I had to unload the magazines in the car and bring it back to him). I counted them, but can’t remember how many now, but it was over 100. Most of them dated from the 70’s and 80’s, but there were a few older ones from the 60’s.
There’s another used bookstore in Regina that does usually have train books in, but they are very over-priced and I’ve only bought one book from them ever.
There’s another very good bookstore that I get to about once a year when I go on holidays, plus there’s often those used book sales that charity organizations put on in malls where you fill a bag with books and make an offer. I’m just looking exclusively for train books at these places, though. I’m someone who buys any book that seems to look good, I’m especially a sucker for mysteries and books on WWII. However, I buy books faster than I can read them. I’ll buy 5 books somewhere and maybe only get through one before I buy some more. Oh well, I’m young still, I’ll get to them sometime.
The used bookstore at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois (www.irm.org) is 100% railroad. It’s open Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Limited mail order; it’s best to come out to IRM and see what they’ve got.
Best of all, the bookstore is non-profit; all net income goes to benefit the museum’s restoration projects.
I use the abebooks.com website quite a lot. It is a database of a gazillion used book retailers around the world. I’ve ordered everything from books on military topics and railroads (British and US) to fiction. Still, nothing quite compares to going into a dimly lit, musty bookshop, flashlight in hand, and making a discovery of a book you never knew was printed!
A fellow model railroader this morning gave me a website. I tested it out with a very obscure book (Trolleys Down the Mohawk Valley); and hits came up. I’m hooked now and it’s bookmarked. Hope this can help some of you out with those “out-of-print” books:
http://www.bookfinder.com/
A few months ago I used abe to find a copy of the book “Speedliners,” about the last leg of the Milwaukee Electric’s interurban line out to Waukesha from a used book dealer in Washington State. At a mere $20!! So I was pretty pleased.
One thing i love about these stores, is that they remind me of old hobby shops. No glitz, no glam, just tons of interesting stuff. These are treasure hunts, and in todays era of convinence, these outings are something i truly enjoy. Bill
i have bothered a few booksellers with these same questions.
they either dont know where those books are kept or say something like “sorry, i dont have any, another person just asked this morning”
keep on looking and asking![^][:D][:)][tup]
There is a used book store in Manhattan, its called Strands. It is really cool it has every kind of books stacked from floor to ceiling. It looks like a really old library. They don’t always know what they have it is up to the reader to find his or her book of interest. I think it would take a week to get through the whole place.
Angelo
Up until a few months ago, we had a great Old & New bookstore here in Freehold. I managed to get some nice stuff there, including railroad books. These were mainly great books on real railroads. They also had great stuff in other genres.
Thanks fo rthe tips guys. I needed a present for my best man at my wedding and found a book that was last printed in 1971 for him at the bookfinder.com site!
One happy Camper!
Ed