I read this book and thought it was pretty cool! The book is The Rusty Dusty- Great Northern's Wenatchee-Oroville Branch. It's written by Mac McCulloch and John E. Langlot. Mac's name may sound familiar as he is regular forum member here- forum handle is PNWRMNM. He's a railroader who is always good at explaining railroad things to us non-railroaders. As you might guess, that makes him a very good author as well. The book is what it sounds like, the history of one little branch line among the hundreds of thousands of miles of rails laid in the USA back when the country was still in expansion mode. You'd think that would make the book appealing only to the locals. You'd be wrong. I read with interest a lot of things about a place and time that I'll never experience and to me it was fascinating. I wish someone would write a book like this about the rail lines in my area. I have to admit though, history about railroading in my corner of the world might not have been as interesting. The branch line of the title is in eastern Washington. When I think of eastern Washington, I don't think of arid desert land, but that's basically what it is. So here's the story of a lot of hard working folks who made that area prosperous. Truth be known, we have all eaten apples and probably other produce grown in that area and perhaps shipped by rail. Telling the story of the branch line unfolds in layers. In order to understand one part, you have to understand the part before and other parts and etc. So Mac and John did an excellent job of telling all the parts and explaining how all the parts fit together. Any more, I tend to rate my interest in a book by how often it makes me seek out more information on the ol' internets. This book gets big points from me on that level. I've probably followed half the existing line on Google maps in order to get a better feel for the being there. Last week as I was doing inventory at our lumberyard I ran across a unit of plywood that I believe came from a mill located on the branch line. That was pretty cool. In addition to learning about this particular branch line, the book also taught me a lot about other, related things like: construction of the northern transcons, apples, mining, railroad construction, the depression and railroads, refrigeration, and the geology of eastern Washington. One part is entitled "Fundamentals of railroading in the early 20th century"! I appreciated that everything was explained on a level that even a caveman (me) could understand. It's the same kind of understanding level that shines in Mac's posts on the forum when he explains some railroad thing or other. I liked this book. I learned from this book. A lot of people read certain kinds of fiction. My wife for example, will want to slip into her jammies and snuggle up with a book because it's a mystery and she can't wait to see what's going to unfold next. I read mostly non-fiction. Perhaps not as much mystery about what happens in the next chapter, but interesting to me. I found myself sitting at work and thinking about that next part in the book where steam was going to be replaced by first generation diesel locomotives. I knew how the story ended but still wanted to read it. I look forward to reading good books like The Rusty Dusty because I feel it allows me to use some of my recreational (or disposable?) brainpower for something other thank work. I hope these guys write some more books.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
In this modern day and age Santa would probably remind me that they do have a website for this book, therustydusty.com. That being said, books make excellent Christmas gifts for rail fans. In fact, this book was a gift I bought for myself. I have a lot higher standards than that annoying little girl who wants the hippopotamus for Christmas.
I believe the mill was called Omack. I'd have to go back to the book and look for the town it was near. I lived a couple years in eastern Wyoming. It was dry with dirt so poor that a lot of the soil had just nothing growing. It was all sagebrush and dust.
Uncle JakeYup, Omak is on the line
Anybody read some good books about local lines? It seems like if a book is written by local people with a feel for the subject matter, the writing has a lot more human feeling to it that a more scholarlybook by a professional writer at a distance from the subject matter.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.