Jim Wrinn just wrote about the passing of Ron Ziel and though I have the book "Twilight of steam locomotives" it became apparent that this book has meant a lot to me over the years.
My Jr. High library had this book so as a very young child I read and re-read this book many times. It wasn't until many years later that I found this book on E Bay and promptly bought it. Ron's book had one personal connection to me. There is a photo of CA&E car number 318 ( Page 70) , when I was in Jr. High that car was in East Troy in a very damaged condition, it was fun to see it before the railyard accident that destroyed it.
Ron also wrote a book on train wrecks that I also have.
Another book was by Central Electric Railfan Association. Bulletin 112 TM (Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company) was checked out by me from the local public library hundreds of times until I bought my own copy in 1978.
The last book I have special feelings for is the Bill Middleton book on the North Shore "America's fastest interurban"
Randy
My all time favourite is a little book entitled "I Remember" by Herbert Stitt, a CP locomotive engineer who retired in 1962 after 47 years with the Railway.
I picked this book up at a used bookstore in Port Perry, ON a long time ago and have read it numerous times. Not only is he an engaging writer, Stitt truly exemplified the meaning of great. The book is very well written, but what really shines through on every page is this man's fantastic attitude toward life and hardship. He had a hard life right from the get go, having fought in the Great War, endured the Great Depression, on top of his hard scrabble existence on the railroad. Yet he doesn't have a bad word to say about anyone.. and some of his stories on the railroad are humorous.
"I Remember" by Herbert Stitt.. read it.. I promise you that you won't be disappointed.
Along with Ziel's book, Steinhimer's Backwoods Railroads of the West was one of the most impactful books to me.
I think Ron Zeil's The Twilight of Steam Locomotives marked my entry into the acquisition of books on railroads as a part of my hobby. I was a kid then, and the chapter about the scrapping of a CB&Q steam locomotive was very engrossing to me. Mr. Zeil was able to get permission to go into the Northwestern Steel and Wire plant at Sterling, Illinois (when I bought the book I had no idea where Sterling was, let alone that I'd go through there often in my career, both on trains and on rbber tires--and that includes a bike trip that took me from there to Lombard, over 100 miles!).I think my most influential book was The Railroad--What it Is, What it Does, by John Armstrong (yes, the same John Armstrong that wrote "All About Signals" for Trains Magazine, and had many interesting layout ideas for Model Railroader). Textbook railroading...railroading textbook.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
I'm another one who was touched by Ziel's "Twilight of the Steam Locomotive", particularly the section on the D&RGW narrow gauge. My mom got it for me in 1968.
Some other RR books of importance in somewhat chronological order for me: American Heritage's "Rialroads in the Days of Steam", Freeman Hubbard's "Great Trains of all Time" (both early 1960's), Beebe's pamphlet sized book on the V&T, Beebe's "The Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroad", "Trains, Tracks and Travel", Keenan's "Cincinnati & Lake Erie", Hilton & Due's book on interurbans and Myricks "Railroads of Arizona" vol 1.
More recently, John White's books of passenger and freight car technology along with Vance's "The North American Railroad".
http://www.ronzielsteam.com/about/about.htm
https://books.google.com/books?id=yTbDAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT9&dq=%22over+a+century+and+a+half+ago+when%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZv7-IjIPRAhUESCYKHahVB1k4ChDoAQgaMAA#v=onepage&q=%22over%20a%20century%20and%20a%20half%20ago%20when%22&f=true
http://sbiii.com/lirr/heritage.html
“Members of the Long Island-Sunrise Trail Chapter of the NRHS working on LIRR Engine #35 at Eisenhower Park, Westbury, NY, 1969” L/R: Edward Conklin, Ron Ziel and Walter Cook.
For me, it was Lucius Beebe's Highball, High Iron, Highliners, and The Trains We Rode. Also gained a lifetime's fascination with the NYO&W through Helmer's book published by Howell- North. And spent countless hours pouring over the original Diesel Spotters Guide and Our GM Scrapbook.
Not to lower the importance of books listed above, but I would add the two CERA books on the North Shore, Westings Apex of the Atlantics (PRR E-6), Never on Wednesday (Rio GRande Zephyr), CERA's Magic Interurban (Indiana Railroad), Cox's Birney Streetcar book, and two streetcar books from the Boston Street Railway Association, one covering the '50s and one the MTA period. Also, White's The American Passenger Car
This isn't a competition for the best railroad book. Its simply about the books that mean the most to you.
I have read many train books over the years.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/606219.Metropolitan_Corridor
"Merging Lines" by Saunders
The Mohawk That Refused To Abdicate. I've never seen so many good stories in one place before (or since).
I have to agree with Backsop! The Mohawk is shown pounding the rails in my hometown! Today, you would know anything was even there!
I find much of the stuff I read as a kid and younger man unreadable now, for one reason or another.
I won't name any sacred cows. But the modern writers from whom I have taken both enjoyment and instruction include Maury Klein (his 3-volume history of the U.P.), David Bain (Empire Express, on the building of the Transcontinental) and Linda Niemann.
Excerpts from the, ah, less exuberant parts of Niemann's three books were run in Mark Hemphill's Trains. For a good look at modern railroading in the raw, I'd recommend the whole meal.
I kinda like the books by Don Ball Jr. They have just enough of that far far away presence to give me that feeling of escape.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
LensCapOn I have read many train books over the year. Metropolitan Corridor: Railroads and the American Scene made a bigger impression than any other single book. It changed the way I thought of trains, and their place in the physical world. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/606219.Metropolitan_Corridor
I have read many train books over the year.
YES! I have lots of books, and I like them all, but Metropolitan Corridor comes at the subject from an entirely different approach. I could read it over and over like listening to a good song. Nobody has ever explained the presence of the railroad in the captivating way that he does.
That's funny. I bought that book based on some discussion of it on here several weeks back. It's currently about #3 in my que of books to read.
Google Books preview of Metropolitan Corridor and the author's old youtubes about other stuff
https://books.google.com/books?id=2pWcmPGd6oUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECXo4utFwvc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVkLLN8EeSE
Grest stuff Wanswheel. However, do not ever expect me ever to wear a bow tie during my lectures or interviews. I've learned through the years to be skeptical, one eye brow raised sort of thing, with anyone wearing a bow tie. Especially used car salesman and professors. Politicians doesn't matter what...they are all skunks!
As a child I read (ok mostly looked at the pictures at first) "The World Encyclopedia of Locomotives" by Colin Garratt, "Illustrated History of North American Railroads" by Arthur Tayler and "The Spirit of Steam" by Bill Withuhn. There were others but those 3 are most significant as with them I dove into steam and railroad history, on both sides of the Atlantic. Soon afterward I discovered Trains' Magazine, and the rest is history.
But I would be a revisionist historian if I did not mention Thomas the Tank Engine when reviewing my own past, those wooden trains and the TV series had me hooked on railroads even before I could read.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
I lie Beebe, Ball and O. Winston Link, although I feel that the OWL books are in a class by themselves. I had the priviledge of meeting Mr. Link several times. He was a character.
In the order that I got them...
Wilbert Awdry's original book "Thomas the Tank Engine" in its original small landscape format, "A Century of Locomotives" (a 1955 history of the locomotives of the NSW Government Railways by the Australian Railway Historical Society), "The Observers Book of Locomotives of Great Britain" by H C Casserley and "The Diesel Spotter's Guide" by Jerry Pinkepank.
I'm a sucker for concisely presented locomotive data and I have hundreds of such books, but these were the influential ones...
Peter
In many respects, perhaps one of the more influential ones for me was Jerry Pinkepank's original Diesel Spotters Guide. Finally I could identify the wide variety of diesels still running in the late 60's into the 70's. And with that greater knowledge and understanding, and ability to join in conversations with more experienced fans, so too the enjoyment of the hobby increased.
My library of course has grown tremendously from those formative years, more from the history side than picture books, and I would be hard put to single out specific ones. The two volume history of the Canadian National Railways by G.R. Stevens perhaps was the most important in awakening the historical interest.
John
In my previous posting I should have also mentioned Giants Ladder, the biography of David Moffat t and the history of the Denver and Salt Lake through the construction of the Dotsero Cutoff and the merger with the D&RGW.
David Moffat is a real hero for me, and the book does bring him to life.
Certainly one book that sets the record straight on the factors that lead to the rise and fall of the "other railroad system" is Hilton and Due's Electric Interurban Railway in America. Gets rid of a lots of the dreaming about the viability of the system.
I've got a whole buncha railbooks, I'm running out of space for them, but I've got to say my favorites and the ones that got me started on this whole addiction are the first two I purchased nearly 40 years ago, the great Don Ball's "America's Colorful Railroads" and "Portrait Of The Rails." Don's sheer love of the subject leaps out at me from every word and photograph. How I miss that man!
Yes, Ron Ziel's "Twilight of Steam Locomotives" - it was in our elementary school's library. It's more than a coffee-table picture book - there's mini-travelogues, technical stuff, and history in there, too. I can still remember some of the captions, especailly those about the Shays.
"The Wonder Book of Trains" by Norman Carlisle - revised 1957 ed., I think - it had a photo of GM's Aerotrain on the front cover. Despite the corny title, it was a pretty good introductory book, and no too out of date then (mid-1960's).
A little later, "The Nickel Plate Road" by John A. Rehor - focusing on a specific railroad and its predecessors enabled an in-depth study of all the pieces in a comprehensible context, with great photos and the drama of a good rags-to-riches-to-merger storyline, fascinating personalities (the Van Sweringen brothers), the Berkshires, and the NYC electrification and T-motors at the drama of Cleveland Union Terminal, thorough appendices, etc.
About the same time I discovered Trains and Model Railroading, and they sufficed until near the end of high school, when I purchased:
"Integral Train Systems", by John G. Kneiling (enough said for here).
The "Metropolitan Corridors" book looks to be very interesting, this close to the PRR's "Main Line", which must be the epitome of such things. I didn't even know about this book until today. Thanks, guys ! (yet again)
- Paul North.
chicagorailsrailroad avenue
By Freeman Hubbard, the lore and the legends, great book!
The Giants Ladder was a great read and a tribute to a great American, not to mention featurng some unbelievable (for the time) photography, but anyone familiar with the Moffat should read Edward Bollinger's Rails That Climb as a companion work.
That book contains a number of first-hand accounts of daily operation (if such a term could be used for the D&SL in pre-Tunnel years), many supplied by a former conductor named Barnes, who isn't mentioned at all in Hal Boner's book.
Another great read was the late H. Reid's The Viginian Railway. Reid's book was organized as a series of short narratives in the same style as David Morgan's Trains vignettes, many of which were collected in The Mohawk that Refused to Abdicate.
They just don't write 'em like that these days.
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