WW II photo: Saipan?

[03 1008]

A German internet-forum has this posting:

https://www.drehscheibe-online.de/foren/read.php?017,10395482

Are there any details known about the photo?

Best wishes from Germany, Helmut

[Flintlock76]

I doubt it's Saipan, to my knowledge there weren't any railroads of any type on Saipan, construction of the B-29 base there had to be done with heavy equipment brought in by US Army Air Force engineers. In a history I've read of B-29 operations and the support units involved there was no mention of existing railroads that were put to use.

That photo  could have been taken anywhere in Southeast Asia where American forces were.

[rcdrye]

There was some thought it could be Okinawa, especially due to the engine number/type match.  Not sure why Saipan crept in.

[SSW9389]

There was a sugar cane narrow guage railroad on Saipan. Some details are here: Rail transport on the Mariana Islands - Wikipedia 

Ed in Kentucky 

[Flintlock76]

SSW9389

There was a sugar cane narrow guage railroad on Saipan.

Thanks so much Ed, I had no idea!  

[03 1008]

rcdrye

  Not sure why Saipan crept in.

There are Saipan photos in Ron Ziel: Steel Rails to Victory, p. 258 f..

 

[Flintlock76]

03 1008

There are Saipan photos in Ron Ziel: Steel Rails to Victory, p. 258 f..

One Ron Zeil book I don't have. Dang, I suppose I'll have to look for it now!  

[pennytrains]

Flintlock76

One Ron Zeil book I don't have. Dang, I suppose I'll have to look for it now!  

Oh, how awful!  You have my sympathies!  

[Flintlock76]

pennytrains

Oh, how awful!  You have my sympathies!  

If you want to feel even MORE sorry for me Becky I passed on a Carleton book years ago called "Smoke Around Gotham," as you might guess it was about steam 'roads in the New York City area.  I've been looking for it ever since, with no luck.

WHAT was I thinking?  

[Overmod]

Flintlock76

If you want to feel even MORE sorry for me Becky I passed on a Carleton book years ago called "Smoke Around Gotham," as you might guess it was about steam 'roads in the New York City area.  I've been looking for it ever since, with no luck.

WHAT was I thinking?

You were not thinking like Mike, unfortunately, and TO THE VICTOR BELONG THE SPOILS... 

"Smoke Around Gotham" is a DVD, featuring Nickel Plate 765.  And indeed, no amount of searching will find a Carleton book with that title.

However, a little sleuthing revealed "Rails Around Gotham" -- and I bought the copy on Amazon that was under $20 shipped.  [Cue mad-scientist laughter.]

 

 

 

[/quote]

[Flintlock76]

I don't know, I'm sure I saw what I saw.  I HAVE seen "Rails Around Gotham" on occasion, maybe I'll just grab that one when I see it again and call it a day. 

Oh yeah, Mike was an original and there'll never be another like him!   

[Overmod]

Flintlock76

I don't know, I'm sure I saw what I saw.

If D. Carleton is still posting here, he can confirm or deny that Carleton Railbooks ever published a 'Smoke Around Gotham'... I can think of no one here who would have a more knowledgeable idea of what they published.  

Now if I could find the book from 1949 that published a representative cross-section of all the trains that might be seen on a 'given day' within 100 miles or so of New York... I loved that book when I was young, because there were so many dramatic differences with what I knew and could see... much less than 20 years later, although it seemed like an eternity (it was the year of my father's college class!).  Strangely, almost exactly twice that number of years has passed since then, but even the dramatic changes seem to pale compared to the differences from that book.

[Flintlock76]

Overmod

If D. Carleton is still posting here, he can confirm or deny that Carleton Railbooks ever published a 'Smoke Around Gotham'... I can think of no one here who would have a more knowledgeable idea of what they published.  

I did an on-line search myself and couldn't find a book titled "Smoke Around Gotham" either.  No biggie.  It's a "nice to have" and not an obsession.

[Overmod]

Congratulations!  You may be relieved of an obsession but you have now infected me with it, like that damn Twain story about 'Punch, brothers, punch with care'.

Of course it's impossible to prove a negative so this might take a loooooong time 

[pennytrains]

A search for "Gotham Steam book" resulted in one titled "Conquering Gotham" by Jill Jonnes about the construction of Penn Station and it's network of tunnels.

[jeffhergert]

How about "Rails around Gotham" by Paul Carleton.  First published in 1981.

Rails Around Gotham by Paul Carleton: Near Fine Hardcover 1st Edition | Nash Books (abebooks.com)  The link was one of many for this book.

Jeff

[Overmod]

I have received my copy of 'Rails Around Gotham' - it is the first printing (1981) and I was delighted to find that not only is the "D." for Daphne, but there is a picture of her (p.29).  This is a typical-for-the-era offset with sometimes-muddy pictures a la the Beebe reprints, and it's probably one of the last books with text set by a Varityper before the advent of phototypesetting machines and then desktop-publishing programs.

They took the same interest in the S-curve at Waldwick that I did, and remark on the wonderful variety of traffic that was to be seen on the Erie Lackawanna in the first half of the 1970s.  If you were there for some of it, as I was, you'll be instantly transported back to the way it was then.  

One note: "Iselin" in New Jersey is misspelled in the text.  This had a somewhat outsized impact as I spent considerable time in places like Iselin and the amazingly-named Colonia when railfanning the last years of Penn Central, and knew a couple of girls with that middle name...

My copy no longer has its dust jacket, so it won't look like the book you say you remembered.  Send me an address and you can borrow my copy indefinitely until you find something more definitive.