For those who don't want to read through 5 pages of this thread to get the jist of it.......I, and several others on here are readers, always looking for something interesting to read, hopefully railroad related. I do appreciate all those who have made recommendations, and hope I've been helpful to others looking for a good railroad read. I must not be the only one in that boat. Ed said he was reading a murder mystery(?). I'm currently reading a book about Alfred Hitchcock films. On a cold, February night, a good railroad book would be better.
Thanks
( Cogload-where have you been hiding, you Devil you?)
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Datafever wrote:A book that I have thought about reading is The Man Who Loved to Blow Up Trains by Peter Stafford. I have no idea what the book is about, but the title sure piques my curiousity. Has anyone read it?
Sounds likes a variation of the Cat Who......mystery series
From the NY Times book review section - Gary Krist, The White Cascade
On Feb. 21, 1910, snow began falling heavily in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Snowfall in winter was nothing unusual for the Cascades, but this storm was different. Rather than the usual one- or two-day blast, it raged on and on, dumping snow at the rate of three feet a day on mountainsides already buried under a full winter’s load. Meanwhile two trains, one carrying the mail, the other carrying Seattle-bound passengers, sat idle on a narrow ledge midway down a steep mountainside, waiting for snowplow trains to clear the tracks ahead.
See HERE for full review.
Glad to see this thread revived. I will have to get busy and write a review.
Happy Reading Everyone!
I've run accross th ename Albro Martin, "railroad historian", quite a bit, in a book I'm reading about Thoedore Roosevelt. Has anyone read anyting by Albro Martin
The book, Bully Boy, a very opinionated(downright nasty, actually) book about TR, has a chapter called "Why did Roosevelt cripple America's biggest industry?"
I'm not sure but something in the back of my mind says it has to do with T. E. Lawrence's sabotage of the Hejaz Railway (?) in WWI
Vance, Maury Klein, and Licht -- you can't go wrong with them.
Licht was my graduate advisor's, graduate advisor, at Princeton, coincidentally.
Albro Martin is read for affirmation not information, for those who are share his rather unique view of the world. I don't, and I don't know too many thinking railroaders who bother with his viewpoint either. Even if you did happen to agree with him, it goes nowhere.
S. Hadid
Kevin C. Smith wrote: Datafever wrote:A book that I have thought about reading is The Man Who Loved to Blow Up Trains by Peter Stafford. I have no idea what the book is about, but the title sure piques my curiousity. Has anyone read it?I'm not sure but something in the back of my mind says it has to do with T. E. Lawrence's sabotage of the Hejaz Railway (?) in WWI
Really? I had not even known that TE Lawrence (isn't that Lawrence of Arabia?) was involved in sabotage. Maybe I need to find myself a good biography of him.
#42 Follow the Flag by H. Roger Grant ISBN#0875803288 291 pgs.
This is another good railroad history covering just one railroad- The Wabash. Like all of Grant's books, that I enjoy, this is pretty much a straight forwaed history lesson. Even though he has pretty much a Joe Friday type style of writing ("Just the facts, ma'am"), the book is filled with enough quotes and other info to keep it interesting. And like any good history book, there is 27 pages of footnotes at the end. In a weird sort of way, I like footnotes.
All the highlights, and low points of the railroad's history are covered. All in all, the Wabash seemed like a pretty good road. Things I learned that were new to me, were that Wabash was an early promoter of TOFC, Wabash built a line into Pittsburgh that almost did them in, and that the PRR had it's fingers into just about every railroad in the northeast.
You'll like this book, if you're into: The Wabash, general railroad history,northeast railroad history, or PRR.
Murphy Siding wrote: #42 Follow the Flag by H. Roger Grant ISBN#0875803288 291 pgs. This is another good railroad history covering just one railroad- The Wabash. Like all of Grant's books, that I enjoy, this is pretty much a straight forwaed history lesson. Even though he has pretty much a Joe Friday type style of writing ("Just the facts, ma'am"), the book is filled with enough quotes and other info to keep it interesting. And like any good history book, there is 27 pages of footnotes at the end. In a weird sort of way, I like footnotes. All the highlights, and low points of the railroad's history are covered. All in all, the Wabash seemed like a pretty good road. Things I learned that were new to me, were that Wabash was an early promoter of TOFC, Wabash built a line into Pittsburgh that almost did them in, and that the PRR had it's fingers into just about every railroad in the northeast. You'll like this book, if you're into: The Wabash, general railroad history,northeast railroad history, or PRR.
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Murph, thanks for recommending THE WRECK OF THE PENN CENTRAL. I started it after I finished Loving's THE MEN WHO LOVED TRAINS. Once again I am flip-flopping on the issue as to whether there's a special place in [Hades] for Mr. Saunders . . . or Mr. Bevan as well?
Does NO WAY TO RUN A RAILROAD sound like a logical follow-up to the two books above? It took a bit of doing to find it online, but I think I can get it cheap. Coming up soon is LAST TRAIN TO PARADISE by Les Standiford, about Henry Flagler's "impossible" task of extending his railway to Key West.
Also, has anyone read and have opinions re: PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD by Schafer? I think it's out of MBI as a paperback. The online market has it used in the neighborhood of $10.
I'm saving my pennies for the Don Ball book about Pennsy in the 1940s and 1950s. Maybe I'll wish-list it for this coming Christmas.
I'm iced-in and the Oscars are boring already. GOTTA read! - al
#43 Erie Lackawanna Death oF AN aMERICAN rAILROAD 1938-1992 by H. Roger Grant
ISBN#0-8047-2357-5 284 pages, including 37 pages of footnotes
This is another in a series of books by Grant about individual American railroads and their histories.
Even though the Erie(Lackawanna) railroad is far away from me in time and distance, I did find it interesting to read about a railroad that I will probably never see any part of. To say the Erie was colorful, is an understatement. It was more like the plot of a made for TV mini-series. Grant focuses on the last 50 years of the railroad(s), but gives enough background history to appreciate how well the EL actually coped with what they were given. Because EL went through bankruptcy 5 times, the book is heavy on financial details. Those, I'm sure, are more meaningful to those who understand them. I, who does not, felt like I was reading a European history book, where a lot of times, a phrase is written in French, just to exasperate those who don't speak the language. The part about the lead up to inclusion in Conrail makes me hope that someday somebody will write a good, detailed book about the PC>Conrail era.
You'll like this book, if you're into Erie, Lackawanna, E-L, Conrail, eastern railroad history, or railroad financial stuff.
- #44
If, you've ever walked the old ROW of a long gone railroad, or followed the terrain of an old road bed by car, or even on a map, you'll like this book. If, you've ever sat and talked to an older person about the "old day" of railroad passenger train travel (especially an old railroader), you'll like this book. I hve to admit to doing all of the above, on several occasions.
The Milwaukee Road Revisited by Stanley Johnson ISBN#0-89301-198-3 239 pages. This interesting book is written in sort of alternating chapters, alternating between the story of a retired psychology professor, exploring the lines and towns of the Milwaukke Road in WA,ID, and MT; with the recolections of his boyhood memories riding along with his step-father, a conductor for 53 years on the line. What you get, is a story full of old time railroad operations mixed with a longing for the past. I can relate.
From the subject matter and locations in the book, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that Michael Sol had maybe met the author of this book.
And...thanks to whoever recommended this book to me.
#45:
Dawn of the Diesel Age by John F. Kirkland ISBN#0-916374-52-1. 198 pages, 60-70 old, blcak and white photos.
Here's an intersting book I just read about the beginings of diesel engines and locomotives in North America. Tracing the history of the beast from inception around 1900, up until about WW II, Kirkland does a pretty thourogh job of covering mostly one of a kind units, up until the advent of mass production of diesels. While packed full of info about these units, I bet this book would not be exciting to a lot of readers. Those of us who enjoy similar type books, like Jane's Illustrated History of WW I Battleships, will enjoy all the trivial descriptions and comparison charts provided.
You'll like this book, if you're into: old diesels, diesel engine history, railroad history, and ....Oh, I don't know-WW I battleships(?)
OK, I'm into all those things including WWI battleships (Castles of Steel, Robert Massie, could I recommend?)
I prefer John B. McCall for early diesel history. Even thought McCall writes only from the perspective of the Santa Fe only, he has hands-on insights that are difficult to find in "official" versions of history -- that, and the buyer of a product always has a different view than the seller!
Jock Ellis Cumming, GA US of A Georgia Association of Railroad Passengers
1435mm wrote: OK, I'm into all those things including WWI battleships (Castles of Steel, Robert Massie, could I recommend?)S. Hadid
jockellis wrote:Decades later, after I had completely forgotten about the book, I was flipping through the NY Times and, by chance, saw his obituary. It mentioned his lifestyle, and I understood why Beebe had a predilection for such subject matter. G'day, Y'all,Sorry. I don't know how to put pastes in yellow, but Lucius Beebe is, was and always will be one of my two favorite writers (along with Paul Gallico) because he was such a keen observer of mankind, especially the super rich. I'm reading his "The Big Spenders" now and found out that someone I had heard of all my life as one of the decadents of the late 19th century, Diamond Jim Brady, made his money selling railroad equipment. Pop always told me I should have been a salesman!If anyone likes railroad fiction, they might try Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." How can you beat reading about sex, power, stupidity and railroading.For history, "Archaeology of the Industrial Revolution" by Brian Bracegirdle provides a glimpse at the state of 18th/early 19th century civil and mechanical engineering that was, and remains, truly remarkable. This is a coffee table book I picked up on eBay for $25. Mine is a library reject and has the protective plastic dust jacket. I've seen numerous examples of this book on eBay. Some are in color, some in b&w.
As far as the yellow/quotes thingie: Push the "quote" box, in the upper right side above a message. When it pops into the next screen, go to the very end, past the word {/quote]. Click there, and start writing. If it helps, you can go over to the test forum and practice, that's what most of us did. It took at least 10 people to explain it to me before I caught on, but then, I'm pretty dense.
Paul Gallico? Try Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris. Has nothing to do with railroading, but very funny.
1435mm wrote:OK, I'm into all those things including WWI battleships (Castles of Steel, Robert Massie, could I recommend?)
And don't forget his earlier book, Dreadnought. Along with my RR books, I also have a collection of Naval Institute Press books, with most authored by Friedman. The book on US subs before 1945 had some interesting points about diesel engine development ca 1930 - the USN wanted lightweight diesels for subs and were looking at what other applications would be suitable for the designs and came up with diesel-electric locomotives.
As far as Castles of Steel, the most memorable part was Spee's 'oh ***' moment when he cruised by Port Stanley and saw the tripod masts of the Royal Navy's battlecruisers.
erikem wrote: 1435mm wrote:OK, I'm into all those things including WWI battleships (Castles of Steel, Robert Massie, could I recommend?)And don't forget his earlier book, Dreadnought. Along with my RR books, I also have a collection of Naval Institute Press books, with most authored by Friedman. The book on US subs before 1945 had some interesting points about diesel engine development ca 1930 - the USN wanted lightweight diesels for subs and were looking at what other applications would be suitable for the designs and came up with diesel-electric locomotives.As far as Castles of Steel, the most memorable part was Spee's 'oh ***' moment when he cruised by Port Stanley and saw the tripod masts of the Royal Navy's battlecruisers.
I've been resisting buying any of Friedman's books (as well as Norman Polmar's) because I know once I have one, I'll have to have them all. My wife very astutely saw me eyeing a few volumes of Victory at Sea in a used bookstore and pieced together a complete first-edition set and gave it to me for Christmas last year. Maybe she'll read this ...
I would like Massie to take on the aircraft carrier battles in the Pacific in WWII -- a bigger story especially when combined with all the sharp and brutal cruiser-destroyer knife-fights in the Guadalcanal and Bismarck theaters.
1435mm wrote:I've been resisting buying any of Friedman's books (as well as Norman Polmar's) because I know once I have one, I'll have to have them all. My wife very astutely saw me eyeing a few volumes of Victory at Sea in a used bookstore and pieced together a complete first-edition set and gave it to me for Christmas last year. Maybe she'll read this ...
That was pretty much my experience, couldn't stop with just one or two books. It did help that I got most of the NIP books before I got married.
A couple of books that might intrigue you are: Shattered Sword, The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Parshall and Tully, which goes into great detail about the Japanese operations including how the IJN's damage control compared with the USN's (i.e. the USN was much better than the IJN); Clash of the Carriers by Stephen Coonts, which covers the Marianas Turkey Shoot of June 1944 (the last great carrier battle). Both books give high marks to Spruance's judgement.
Probably the most interesting book on the WW1 era that I've read is John M. Barrie's The Great Influenza, mainly because of the insights into the US political climate of the time (think 1984). The RR related aspects of the book are that the "Spanish Flu" discouraged the use of mass transit (crowded cars were a great place for the flu to spread) and it was partly responsible for the post-war depression.
Murphy Siding wrote: The Milwaukee Road Revisited by Stanley Johnson ISBN#0-89301-198-3 239 pages. This interesting book is written in sort of alternating chapters, alternating between the story of a retired psychology professor, exploring the lines and towns of the Milwaukke Road in WA,ID, and MT; with the recolections of his boyhood memories riding along with his step-father, a conductor for 53 years on the line. What you get, is a story full of old time railroad operations mixed with a longing for the past. I can relate. From the subject matter and locations in the book, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that Michael Sol had maybe met the author of this book.
I know Stan quite well, and very much enjoy his writings, particularly in that he is motivated by his childhood and family memories of the Milwaukee Road; resulting from a very close bond with his step-father who was a well-known and beloved conductor on the Milwaukee. Indeed, his writings are very much in the memory of his step-dad, Frank Fiebelcorn. In that, we share a common bond. After the Milwaukee Road Revisited came The Olympian: a Ride to Remember, which I thought was just extraordinary. After that, he said he was done writing.
However, I teased him with a couple of thick volumes of construction exhibits, unpublished, that had been prepared by the Milwaukee in response to an ICC request during the 1925 Receivership proceeding. They provided an account, mile by mile, of cost and descriptions and all sorts of construction details, to be found nowhere else. I mentioned that I had talked to Stephen Ambrose while he was working on "Nothing Like it in the World" and he had offered his opinion that "somebody ought to do something on that Milwaukee construction over the Bitterroots -- what a great story that is. Somebody needs to tell it." I offered my own manuscripts on the effort -- generated during my Milwaukee Road days -- as well, if he would agree to write something about the Milwaukee construction efforts on the PCE.
He reluctantly agreed, and then jumped into the full committment. Last month the result -- The Milwaukee Road: The Western Extension -- was released. Stan is now 80, and it is likely this will be his last book. Although his health is just fine, writing a full-fledged book like that is exhausting. I was honored to be asked to write the Foreword, but I really do think the book sets new standards for a railroad construction book. It is the best coverage, by far, of that era and of that effort.
#46 No Way to Run a Railroad by Stephen Salsbury ISBN#0-07-054483-2 363 pages.
I've just finished my third book about the failure of the PennCentral. I've got a sort of a trilogy thing going there. I wonder if The Hobit ever rode a PC commuter train.
To start out, I did not like reading this book. The reason is, it's more of a book about business practices and accounting, than a railroad book. As I got into it, it got much better. Because of the author writing from a business failure perspective, it gives a different angle to PC, and I feel that I learned some things I did not know from the other books about PC.
In a nutshell,Salsbury lays out that,an accountant(Bervin), an operating man(Perleman) and a political-minded lawer(Saunders), cannot revive two railroads on the long term downslide by merging them into one big mess without a plan. After reading this book, I feel that Bervin was not the rat I thought he was, and perhaps Saunders is.
You'll like this book, if you're into: railroad history,PRR,PC,Conrail(maybe)or railroad business.
I'm tempted to start a thread about the slow death of the Pennsylvania Railroad, as I think that would be interesting. First, I may have to raid the inter-library loan system with requests for books about dreadnoughts and such. And when you think about it,when Von Spee saw the tripod masts at the Falklands, why didn't he just put into port, and start firing? The end result may have been somewhat the same, but the best German gunners may have found an achilles heel on a battlecruiser, don't you think?
eastside wrote:Here are a few of mine that come to mind.Most Disappointing"The Twentieth Century Limited," by Lucius Beebe. The first railroad book I ever bought, unfortunately sight unseen through the mail. I had heard he was a famous railroad book author. I was a kid and expected it to be stuffed with pictures of my favorite train, a train I had ridden, on the high iron. Instead it was mostly pictures of obscure '30s movie stars, society figures, and Broadway actors boarding and disembarking from the Century. And most certainly unusual for a railfan book, page after page of editorial text, ranging from personal anecdotes, commentary about the Twentieth Century's interiors and personnel, and meals taken in the dining car and at the Pump Room in Chicago. Decades later, after I had completely forgotten about the book, I was flipping through the NY Times and, by chance, saw his obituary. It mentioned his lifestyle, and I understood why Beebe had a predilection for such subject matter.
Quite to the contrary, Lucius Beebe's The Twentieth Century Limited is among the very best railroad books I've ever read. This book is his paean to what may have once been his favorite train just as the film Manhattan is Woody Allen's love letter to his beloved New York. True Beebe's book is awfully short on technical details, but the quality of the prose is superb. In the opening pages is a word portrait of the morning parade of eastbound long-haul passenger flyers making their way down the Hudson River Valley sometime during the 1930s. One train after another is holding faithful to their respective time cards as the New York Central's famous Hudson class locomotives kept them moving at high speed in a well coordinated parade. When Beebe's narration finally turns to the Central's flagship passenger train, the careful reader will certainly leave those words with a sense of what this once great passenger train meant to the pride of the New York Central and to the nation as a whole.
It was either in the Time Magazine obituary or in the letters section two weeks later that someone wrote the obvious: Lucius Beebe wrote the way W.C. Fields talked. And it's no wonder too because both men often did their best work when under the influence of the fermented grape or proof spirits. Amateur historians have told me that Beebe's scholarship may have been wanting at times, but nobody could turn a phrase like he could. His writing must be savored slowly in order to fully appreciate it.
To paraphrase my favorite observation about the character of railroad men, "In a world full of skim milk authors, Lucius Beebe was a chocolate malted - thick and rich!"
If you enjoy reading good literature about railroading, buy anything written by Lucius Beebe. He, Morgan, and Frailey were (and are) the best!!!
I concur with the comment of Morgan and Frailey being the best. Perhaps it is time to read Beebe.
ed
Murphy Siding wrote: #46 No Wat to Run a Railroad by Stephen Salsbury ISBN#0-07-054483-2 363 pages. I've just finished my third book about the failure of the PennCentral. I've got a sort of a trilogy thing going there. I wonder if The Hobit ever rode a PC commuter train. To start out, I did not like reading this book. The reason is, it's more of a book about business practices and accounting, than a railroad book. As I got into it, it got much better. Because of the author writing from a business failure perspective, it gives a different angle to PC, and I feel that I learned some things I did not know from the other books about PC. In a nutshell,Salsbury lays out that,an accountant(Bervin), an operating man(Perleman) and a political-minded lawer(Saunders), cannot revive two railroads on the long term downslide by merging them into one big mess without a plan. After reading this book, I feel that Bervin was not the rat I thought he was, and perhaps Saunders is. You'll like this book, if you're into: railroad history,PRR,PC,Conrail(maybe)or railroad business. I'm tempted to start a thread about the slow death of the Pennsylvania Railroad, as I think that would be interesting. First, I may have to raid the inter-library loan system with requests for books about dreadnoughts and such. And when you think about it,when Von Spee saw the tripod masts at the Falklands, why didn't he just put into port, and start firing? The end result may have been somewhat the same, but the best German gunners may have found an achilles heel on a battlecruiser, don't you think?
#46 No Wat to Run a Railroad by Stephen Salsbury ISBN#0-07-054483-2 363 pages.
We had a good talk on Von Spee and the Pacific Squadron at the Royal Australian Navy History Conference in 2003. The first thing the RAN did in August 1914 was to occupy German New Guinea, in the hope of finding Von Spee or at least denying it to him as a base. They took the whole fleet, including the Battlecruiser "Australia" just in case.
Would he have known which ships he was facing from the sea outside Port Stanley. They might have been battleships rather than battlecruisers, with similar tripod masts. There was a chance that he could outrun battleships, but little chance that he could out shoot even battlecruisers. The Scharnhorst and Gneisnau were better than the older British Armoured Cruisers but the Invincible class only needed to make a couple of hits while well out of range of the German guns.
M636C
M636C wrote: Murphy Siding wrote: #46 No Wat to Run a Railroad by Stephen Salsbury ISBN#0-07-054483-2 363 pages. I've just finished my third book about the failure of the PennCentral. I've got a sort of a trilogy thing going there. I wonder if The Hobit ever rode a PC commuter train. To start out, I did not like reading this book. The reason is, it's more of a book about business practices and accounting, than a railroad book. As I got into it, it got much better. Because of the author writing from a business failure perspective, it gives a different angle to PC, and I feel that I learned some things I did not know from the other books about PC. In a nutshell,Salsbury lays out that,an accountant(Bervin), an operating man(Perleman) and a political-minded lawer(Saunders), cannot revive two railroads on the long term downslide by merging them into one big mess without a plan. After reading this book, I feel that Bervin was not the rat I thought he was, and perhaps Saunders is. You'll like this book, if you're into: railroad history,PRR,PC,Conrail(maybe)or railroad business. I'm tempted to start a thread about the slow death of the Pennsylvania Railroad, as I think that would be interesting. First, I may have to raid the inter-library loan system with requests for books about dreadnoughts and such. And when you think about it,when Von Spee saw the tripod masts at the Falklands, why didn't he just put into port, and start firing? The end result may have been somewhat the same, but the best German gunners may have found an achilles heel on a battlecruiser, don't you think?We had a good talk on Von Spee and the Pacific Squadron at the Royal Australian Navy History Conference in 2003. The first thing the RAN did in August 1914 was to occupy German New Guinea, in the hope of finding Von Spee or at least denying it to him as a base. They took the whole fleet, including the Battlecruiser "Australia" just in case.Would he have known which ships he was facing from the sea outside Port Stanley. They might have been battleships rather than battlecruisers, with similar tripod masts. There was a chance that he could outrun battleships, but little chance that he could out shoot even battlecruisers. The Scharnhorst and Gneisnau were better than the older British Armoured Cruisers but the Invincible class only needed to make a couple of hits while well out of range of the German guns.M636C
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