Books on the Sierra RR

[jguess733]

i just did a search on amazon.com for books about the sierra rr and several are out of print, and a little expensive. before i buy one, i was wondering which books any of you would recomend? thanks for the help.

[Anonymous]

Jason,

Excellent choice in railroads. One of the few left that has a steam roster (well on week ends anyway). I am modeling a portion of the Sierra on my new layout. I recommend two books on the Sierra:

Sierra Railway by Dorothy Newell Deane Published by Howell North (Out of print)
Rails in the Mother Lode Adolf Wolf Published by Darwin (out of print)

The rails book has sections on several Sierra foothills railroads including a chapter on the Sierra.

Two other books of interest are:

That Dam Railroad-Hetch Hetchy railroad by Ted Wurm (Out of print)
Rails to Yosemite (The YV) By Jack Burgess (still in print)

With the exception of the Burgess book all of these books can be found for outrageous prices on certain used booksellers web sites. If you don't care about the book from a collectors stand point, don't bother with these guys. Check the California Railroad Museum store in Sacramento. They had a reprint of the Wurm book for less than 1/3 of the price of on line sellers. The other place is your public library. All of these books are available or can be requested from another linbrary. I have also picked books for a good price at train meets...