Best Public Libraries for Railroad-related books?

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

A few years back I had some success getting early 20th century books on railroad equipment obligations from the Free Library of Philadelphia. 

More recently I've gotten the following uncommon books from Penn State's library on the Main Campus, either while there or on inter-library loan:

• Phyllis R. Fenner's anthology of short stories, Open Throttle: Stories of Railroads and Railroad Men 
• John G. Kneiling's Integral Train Systems
• Another book on unit train systems from the early 1960's (the details of which are not accessible to me at the moment) 
• Profit Management Systems; Key to Stronger Railroads by Edward C. Christ (a ConRail financial guy, better than a bean-counter), published by Simmons-Boardman, New York, in 1977 (86 pp.)   

The Allentown, PA Public Library has a copy of The North American Railroad: Its Origin, Evolution, and Geography (Creating the North American Landscape) by James E. Vance, Jr. (1995).  A former poster here - "Railway Man" - often cited it as being one of the better works on the evolution of railroads.  (That ought to bring back some memories for some of the participants here!)

- PDN. 

[Murphy Siding]

Keep in mind, that your local library can get ahol of a gazzilion books through interlibrary loan.

[mudchicken]

DPL=Denver Public Library (Start with the Western History Collection, 2nd & 5th floors of central library

CoHist-Hart = Steven Hart Memorial Library at Colorado History Museum / 2nd floor

[Overmod]

mudchicken

He's never been to DPL? or CoHist-Hart ??? (Barriger, CRRM-Richardson, OU - Bizzell, Newberry, Milwaukee, UofI-Main et al are more archival collections and not books - Most material is never let out of the buiding)

Yah, I was thinking more about 'he could read things about railroads' and not 'he could check the books out or get them on interlibrary loan'.  We should probably "fork" the answers into those two categories.

He will likely get nearly nothing out of "DPL" or "CoHist-Hart" though.  You'd better spell the names and contact information out for him.

I'd be at least tempted to mention the obvious if he wants to see the books: the Library of Congress.  They won't circulate, of course, and he'll have to register, (although he does have the option to do a pre-registration on line using the form access provided).  But most everything will be there if he indicates properly in advance what he'd like to see...

[Flintlock76]

I think that Jefferson County Library in Golden is more the exception than the rule.  Maybe the Colorado Railroad Museum being close by has something to do with it.

I've been in and out of libraries my whole life, and I've never been in one with what you might call a comprehensive railroad section.  Typically railroad books will be lumped into the "Transporation" section, sharing space with aviation and auto books.  

Possibly  the big main libraries in cities that were hubs of railroad activity like New York, Philadelphia, or Chicago might have more to choose from.  Just a guess.

If you're trying to learn something about a particular 'road you might be better off doing an on-line search for a historical society concerning that 'road.  Most of those societies have a lot of good information on their websites, and in most cases it costs you nothing to look at it.

Oh, and many libraries have books they never let out of the building, usually reference works or parts of rare book collections.  That doesn't mean you can't see them, it just means forget about taking them home for week or two.  

SubMaps, is there anything in particular you're looking for?

PS:  In addition to libraries I've been in and out of bookstores my whole life, both new and used.  Railbooks are kind of thin in the new book stores, and the used booksellers tell me railbooks they get go out the door almost as fast as they come in!  

[mudchicken]

He's never been to DPL? or CoHist-Hart ??? (Barriger, CRRM-Richardson, OU - Bizzell, Newberry, Milwaukee, UofI-Main et al are more archival collections and not books - Most material is never let out of the buiding)

[Overmod]

I think there's little question that one of the best is the Barriger collection in St. Louis.  

Although technically the Mercantile Library is in a university library system, it does offer regular public access hours and so, I think, qualifies here.

There are also extensive finding aids and an increasing access to content online, which will optimize actual library time when you go.

https://www.umsl.edu/mercantile/barriger/index.html

[SubMaps]

I remember going to Golden, Colorado branch of the Jefferson County Public Library which has a section of many railroad-related books. Every other libraries I've been to always have maybe 10 to 20 RR books, that's it.

Does anyone know what other public libraries have large collections of RR books? List them here