Wish I could say the same. I made the mistake of buying and reading "To Hell in a Day Coach" in the late 1960's. It's more of a rant than anything else and seemed to have trouble with the facts.
Bought and read in one sitting. Worth the purchase - but as noted it's more of a management-science tome' vs being about railroad operations. Of course, have read probably over a thousand railroad books over 40 years (the Columbus public library system HAS to a have a closet railfan or two on their purchasing committee), I've never met a railroad book I didn't like.
I too was disapointed with the small size of the book, for there is much more that Robert Krebs could say.
The book is almost like you were sitting in his living room and he was telling you stories. I particularly liked that he started out with three mistakes early in his career. Most bosses will not do that, which is too bad because we learn fastest from our mistakes, if we survive them.
His descriptions of people on the SP were accurate to the extent that I knew them from my time at SP. W. J. Lacy may have been the good operating man Krebs describes, but I thought he was unnecessarialy cruel to his Superintedents at staff meetings, one of which I attended.
If you have any interest in the SP, and real history, I recommend it.
Mac
I just finished reading Robert Krebs' Riding the Rails. I enjoyed it; it was very interesting. (Two chapters of the book were recently excerpted in Trains.)
However, I learned it pays to read the details about books. This (it turns out) is a small-format book of only 134 pages. So at more than 25 cents a page, it's priced pretty steep. The only photos are some b/w ones of Krebs, his family and fellow railroad execs.
The man had an amazing rise and journey through the railroad biz! Not sure I would have wanted to work for him, though. It is a very no-nonsense look behind the scenes of running a large railroad. Krebs does not mince words. Some folks mentioned may not like what he wrote.
I thought it was a good read. But if management stuff bores you, and you're hoping for a lot of on-the-ground operational detail, it might not be your cup of tea. (The two chapters that were excerpted in Trains were, IMO, the best ones.)
With the above caveats, I'd recommend it.
Still in training.
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