Railroad books with the greatest impact

[garr]

Order of progression,

As a young child in the late '60s,

"The Wonderful Train Ride"

 

 

Just a little older,

"The Big Book of Real Trains"

 

The first "real" railroad book, that started a way too large railroad library,

"Never on Wednesday"

 

Jay

[NDG]

Re Books.

An eclectic mixture of truth and fiction.  Much of the Fiction being of the 'True Lies' type, but the stories were based on ACCURATE Truth and often described faithfully, from which one could learn from for the real job.

Gravity, brakes, or lack thereof, washout, Lap Meets,  asleep at the switch or throttle, snow and storm read the same, and Inform to a Novice, or Senior man.

Two early 'Train'-type books were;

 'Railway Story Omnibus' c. 1956. had many of the above, including a boiler explosion of 'Sunny Jim' as management was too cheap to spend on a new boiler and cut back the pressure, instead.  And a lithograph of the Russian 4-14-4.

Book from UK.. c. 1938.  'The Cheltenham Flyer.' Alternate meanings for 'Up' and 'Down'

Ziel's 'Twilight of Steam.' The account of the turning a GTW 6300 into a 4-8-0 by torching off the trailing truck on the move rather than rerailing it at the steel mill.  We had recently watched REAL CN cut up 4-8-4s and Dr. Wayne's 4193 and possibly therein knew more than we should about life and death of Steam.

The old 'Railroad Magazine' the size of Popular Science.

Fiction 'The Big Ivy.'

Ditto 'Held for Orders' Spearman c. 1901.

'Canadian Steam'. Morgan, with CN 6029 which went with the CN 4193 to the torch.

'When the Steam Railroads Electrified, The Bridge at Quebec.' Middleton.

Many others.

Of course, the continuing 'Book' in Monthly installments.

TRAINS MAGAZINE!!

Thank You.

[VGN Jess]

For me, it's the Virginian Railway, by H. Reid. The definitive tome on all things VGN. My grandfather was a brakeman then engineer on the VGN from 1923 to the merger with N & W in 1959. I have pictures and memories of the Victoria, VA crew change yard from the 1950's and sadly it's all gone now. But I can "whip out" Reids book anytime and see those pictures and read those stories about the "biggest little railroad in the world".

[ACLPLW]

There are a lot of influential railroad boooks that I've read over the years but here's 5 that stand out.  Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line books by Richard Prince.  Railroads: The Great American Adventure by Charlton Ogburn.  Railroading From the Head End by Kip Farrington.  Journey to Amtrak by Harold Edmondson.  And, yes, Metropolitan Corridor is another extremely well done book.

[oldline1]

I'm sorry to hear of Ron Zeil's passing on. My second railroad book was Twilight of Steam and it confirmed my budding belief that there was never anything built to compare to a steam locomotive.

My 1st RR book was B&O Power and I fell in love with train books right then at Lloyd's Hobby Shop! I have over 1.300 RR books now and those 2 are still there and I read them periodically.

Other favorites are:
Locomotives In My Life by Don Wood

The Ma&Pa by George W. Hilton

All my Richard E. Prince RR & loco histories 

The Long Trains Roll by Stephen Meader

The Interstate RR series by Ed Wolfe

Rails Remembered series by Louis M. Newton

Many thanks for all the authors who have kept me entranced, informed and broke all these many years. Many thanks also to Morning Sun for the zillions of picture books they have provided.

Roger Huber

Deer Creek Locomotive Works

[Randy Stahl]

I have a long list of books to buy. Thanks to everyone.

 

Randy

[Firelock76]

Randy Stahl

I have a long list of books to buy. Thanks to everyone.

 

Randy

 

But don't try for 1,300, only batchelors can get away with that!

Or a man with a VERY, VERY understanding spouse!

[MikeFF]

This is impossible, but...anything by DPM, with Mohawk as the favorite.  Same for OWL, Ball, Jr., Beebe and Best.  Al Staufer's work takes up a lot of my shelf space and I just noticed how much Brian Solomon I have.

[LehighLad]

daveklepper

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 

 

Further re streetcars, the late great Bill Middleton's classics "The Time of the Trolley" and "The Interurban Era".  Also, in the already mentioned Railroad Magazine, I'll always remember the circa 1950s article "The Day They Laid Ten Miles of Track" re the Transcontinental Railroad.

[phbrown]

Alfred W. Bruce, "The Steam Locomotive in America".  As a small child, I remember looking at the builder's photos over and over, so much so that I learned the word "articulated" at age 5 (which made me something of a performing flea at the time).  Fifteen years later, I finally read (and at least convinced myself that I understood) the text.

Pinkepank's _Diesel Spotter's Guide_ and its successors have been huge influences on me from the 1960's forward.  When a new model locomotive is announced, I still look first at the photos to figure out what its spotting features are.  (For whatever reason, I find spotting features a lot easier to recall than rosters.)

Helmer's book on the O&W, and Shaughnessy's on the D&H.  Charles and Dorothy Wood's book on the SP&S.

Don Ball's _Railroads: An American Journey_, both because it's an excellent book and because it was instrumental in reuniting me with my then-girlfriend, now my wife of 27 years.

[Sunnyland]

Ones I remember were White Cascade about the snowbound trains sitting for days and finally going over the cliff due to avalanche.  Also enjoyed The Red Caboose don't know the author's name, but Mom read it too She rarely read a book but since her dad was Frisco conductor she did read that one. Frisco Folks that was given to Dad and other employees when it was written. Not much about St. Louis but very interesting stories.  

[wanswheel]

Awful old but still pretty interesting, I think. Try a chapter.

https://archive.org/details/modernrailroad00hung

[Miningman]

Wanswheel- Quite The enjoyable and informative read on a Saturday morning. 

There are parallels to today even though this was 1911. One thing I am mindful of is that during this time science, commerce and innovation/invention was deemed to be the answer to mankinds problems and we were entering a new era of limitless possibility. It was a very optimistic time. When WW1 broke out in shattered this and instead turned the industrial revolution into an efficient mass killing machine. I don't think anyone saw that angle of it coming. Can the same be said for today with our advancements and hopes for science?

Sure would be nice to just hang around for a day 1911 trackside. I'll take anywhere along the New Haven to see this marvel in operation. 

[FM56]

I am certainly a big fan of CERA 112 TM, the ultimate interurban book.  

But my favorite rail book is Richard Steinheimer's The Electric Way Across The Mountains, with its stunning (shot from a trailing cab) night photography of a Little Joe crossing St. Paul Pass.  The tunnel shots of the arcing pantograph are incredible.

[RAY HEROLD]

I knew Ron Ziel personally when we both lived on Long Island. His book "Steel Rails to the Sunrise" was about the history of the Long Island Railroad and it had a great impact on me. Also anything by Jim Shaughnessy has always made an impact on me, as well as Mike Bednar. Anything he writes is not only informative, but he puts his own comical spin on it that makes them very enjoyable.

[NareBNSF]

Well, I honestly think the railroad book author with the most impact is Brian Solomon. He is pretty good.

[ATSFGuy]

I know a couple of good ones,

 

1. The Man Who Loved Trains, The Story of Men Who Battled Greed to save an Ailing Industry.  (Rush Loving Jr.)

 

2. The Southern Pacific, 1901-1985:  (Don L. Hofsommer)

 

3. Erie Lackawanna: Death of an American Railroad, 1938-1992  (H. Roger Grant)

 

4. Rock Island Requiem: The Collapse of a Mighty Fine Line:  (Gregory L. Schneider)

 

5. Southern Pacific Passenger Trains  (Brian Soloman)

  

[ValleyX]

Brownie the Boomer by Charles Brown, about his life as a boomer, starting in Ohio and Indiana, and ending up out west, a fascinating glimpse into the boomer lifestyle and a view into long gone roads.

Also, Set Up Running, about a PRR engineer, Oscar Orr, who started at the beginning of the last century and retired about 1950.

[Randy Stahl]

I have many of the books mentioned. I just recieved "Metropolitan Corridor" and so far it has my attention.

Years ago I had a book I believe was called "Life on a locomotive" I forget the author but it was about the CNW lines out of Fond Du Lac Wisconsin, Id like to find another copy someday.

Keep the suggestions coming and I'll keep looking for them !

Thanks,

Randy

edit : I just got it ( Life on a locomotive) A good read for CNW fans.

George H. Williams
Number Of Pages	219 pages
Format	Hardcover
Publication Date	1971-01-01
Language	English
Publisher	Howell-North Books, Incorporated
Additional Details
Copyright Date	1971
Illustrated	Yes