Ohio Books

As another installment of Morning Sun Books' color series on the major railroads and their rolling stock from the early days of color slide photography, author Craig Bossler has compiled color photos from many contributors covering the equipment used by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Although a bit pricey, if the B&O is your favorite railroad, you will not object to spending the extra money to get valuable information in an area rarely documented by rail historians, not to mention the added luxury of color photographs of rail equipment that in most cases no longer exists. An important addition to the library of fans of the B&O.

In an ongoing series of books exploring the rich history of the Buckeye State, author Mary K. Assad travels to Berea, Ohio, to pen a wonderful book on Baldwin-Wallace College.

Nestled within residential neighborhoods, the private, liberal arts college is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and got its name through a 1913 merger between Baldwin University and German Wallace College. But while the history of the college is steeped in the visions of the founders of those two institutions - John Baldwin and James Wallace - it is the architecture around campus that merges the past with the present.

Marting Hall is the oldest classroom building and was saved from a wrecking-ball several years ago through a successful fundraising drive by alumni to retain the then badly deteriorating building. Bagley Hall was once the building that housed the Cleveland Browns, who had their training facility on campus. And a visitor may get an eerie feeling inside Kohler Hall - the residence for conservatory students - it is rumored to be haunted, as the building was used as a hospital for Civil War veterans and home to a mental institution. There is a particular majesty to the architecture of the Lindsay Crossman Chapel.

While taking a trek through campus is the preferable way to appreciate the history, Assad does a great job in providing an alternative for those who cannot travel to Berea. The book is also an excellent means for alumni, students and city residents to learn more about things they may breeze past on a daily basis.

Anyone that ever travelled by rail in the pre-Amtrak days should like this book, especially those who rode on the B&O through West Virginia and Ohio. Lots of photos, timetables, and menus. A chapter is devoted to the Cincinnatian including some of the promotional material about this great train. All about the great B&O trains that travelled from New York to St. Louis. And, there are photos and a chapter about Amtrak's early service on the route. The only thing that is missing from the book is a route map! Highly recommended for the passenger train fan!

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad devotees went into ecstasy in the 1980's when Deane Mellander and Bob Kaplan published William P. Price's collection of Kodachrome slides on B&O steam in two volumes ("B&O Steam Finale"), mostly on the portion of that railroad east of the Ohio River. But Willis A. McCaleb's magnificent Kodachrome slide collection goes one step further in three ways. First, he covers a portion of the B&O left undocumented by Bill Price, almost all of the area west of the Ohio River. Second, Morning Sun Books has pulled out the stops to assure that National Geographic-quality color will be available to present Willis McCaleb's photos. Third, Willis McCaleb was by profession, a photographer employed by the Nickel Plate Railroad to document their operations; however, he had a special affection for the B&O and took along with him, a Kodak Retina 35-mm. camera loaded with Kodachrome color slide film to document the B&O while on Nickel Plate assignments. Nickel Plate trackage paralleled the B&O throughout much of Ohio, which is what allowed those B&O side trips for McCaleb. His unique position as a professional railroad photographer gave him access to operations of the B&O that wouldn't otherwise be given to non-railroad personnel, for railroads have always been very particular about unauthorized individuals being around rail yards and rail equipment in general, naturally for safety reasons. By virtue of having authorized status, Willis was granted access to areas of B&O operations that otherwise would not have been given to newspaperman Bill Price, who essentially was relegated to locomotive "pass-by" photography. For example, look at Willis' photography of Benwood Junction, West Virginia, and the truly unique silhouette photo of engineer Bartock reading his orders on p. 55! It was to Willis' credit and fortune that he was able to get such pictures and to Bill Price's misfortune not have the vantage points that Willis had. However, my statements are not to discredit Bill Price, who had the advantage of being able to look down onto B&O trains from a hilltop and the use of a Leica camera, the "Mercedes-Benz" of the 35-mm. format.

In conclusion, a truly magnificent book, worth every penny of its $50.00 price and then some! By all means, get this book before it goes out of print if you want to see some classic railroad photography! And if you can luckily find an out-of-print copy of either Bill Price volume, snap that up also! Both Willis McCaleb's and Bill Price's collections complement each other.

This is a magnificant book about a magnificent Locomotive. The photography is superb. They were real "monster" locomotives, but the tragedy is that not one was preserved for the B&O Museum.

Whether you are a slight fan or an avid fan of trains and railroads, you don't want to miss this book! It is very well written and the pictures are great! Bob Withers is one of the best writers ever.
S. Smith, Ravenswood, WV

Harry Ellard had amazing foresight in 1907 to write this book. Without it, most details surrounding the formation of baseball's first all-professional team (Cincinnati Red Stockings) would have been lost. The book is written in a Victorian style with tremendous detail about the people and places which fostered Cincinnati's historic franchise. Harry gives as much attention to the 1867 and 1868 Red Stockings as he does the fabled 1869-70 team. Afterall, Harry's father, George Ellard, was one of the fathers of professional baseball and operated a sporting goods store in downtown Cincinnati, and Harry simply views the 1869 team as part of a long evolutionary process. Harry also explains how his dad came up with those first uniforms with red stockings which led to the team's name -- first, the Red Stockings, and later, simply the Reds. Harry gives careful attention to Cincinnati locations important to the franchise. A marvelous document.

This splendid photographic record of an Ohio small town would make a great gift for anybody who lived in Summit County, but its lively images of real people and places from yesteryear make it a valuable resource and inspiration for anybody interested in small town America or nostalgia. The faces, though they belong to bygone eras, will bring the past to life. Costumers, historical reenacters, writers, theater folk all will find this is a source of true-to-life pictures of American life in the fascinating, and sometimes wild past.

Bazhanov is the most anti-communist writer and the only one who really was inside in the top of Bolshevik government understanding the whole nonsense of the system. We can't trust him in every word, especially about his escape from USSR, but as a good storyteller he tries his best to open for us a real picture of evil time.

GeoFacts are a series of FREE one-page educational handouts by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological Survey. Please see their website, [...], to download FREE PDFs.