Trains.com

Blue-chip railroad publisher

Posted by Brian Schmidt
on Wednesday, April 27, 2016

I can still remember back in high school getting my first “good” railroad book: Detroit, Toledo & Ironton in Color. It was, after all, written about my hometown railroad, a topic close to my heart.

Since then there have been many, many more additions, a lot of them from the same publisher: Morning Sun Books. Clinchfield in Color? New York Central Trackside? Penn Central Power? Yes, yes, and yes.

This legacy is the work of Robert J. Yanosey, former railroader and founder of Morning Sun. Bob, who will turn 70 on April 30. Bob, along with his sons Rob and Stephen and a handful of others, keep turning out more color railroad titles than just about any other publisher today. The company produced 36 hardcover books each year in the past few years, and started a line of e-books in 2014.

That output was not lost on me as I just completed moving my collection of railroad books across town to a new abode. Some back-of-the-envelope figuring indicates that about 20 percent of my library consists of Morning Sun titles.

Fun fact: Yanosey used the proceeds from his holdings of Lehigh Valley stock in the 1980s to start the publishing company. In the mid-1970s, he was the railroad’s fourth-largest shareholder!

In spite of his business affiliation with the Route of the Black Diamond, Yanosey’s first book was Penn Central Power in 1987. But do not despair, for Lehigh Valley in Color came along soon thereafter in 1989.

So happy birthday, Bob, we all hope you keep turning out more pages for years to come, “in color,” of course!

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