Railroad Books

These books are unusual in their focus on the history of technology, explaining how it works, and how it changed over time. It gives a comprehensive account of the development of these cars with many fine pictures.

This book is a great federal overview of railroad laws in the early 20th century.
John Ethan Rahl
The Wallkill Valley Railroad Company

This two volume book is awesome. It covers the whole lot, from the 1830's right through wooden cars, steel cars, stainless, RDC's and motors. If you are an American railfan, and you want to know about passenger cars, this is the book. Wheels, trucks, seats, roof construction, White has once again distilled all of the available information into a highly readable treatise.
There are enough drawings reproduced for most modellers requirements, and the historical photographs are the best available.

The ideal companion to "The American Railroad Freightcar" this book is a must for anyone modelling the steam era.
A serious book for the student of Railroad history.

Part of the outstanding "Greenwood Guides To Historic Events, 1500-1990" series, American Railroads In The Nineteenth Century is a detailed reference to the history of railroads in historic America and how they changed the nation forever. Chapters cover the technology, financing, regulation, economy, and much more concerning railroads, with a special look at their use and impact in the Civil War. Meticulously researched, American Railroads is nonetheless written in terms accessible to the lay person and is an engaing and welcome addition to railroad history and reference shelves for casual and scholarly readers alike. An exceptionally interesting guided tour of how a commonly accessible means of transportation changed the country as a whole.

The Souters have set a new standard for books about American toy trains.

The photographs in this oversize publication are magnificent. They include prototypes and models, catalogs and layouts, and portraits of the industry giants. Most of the photographs are in spectacular color--enhanced by the coated paper.

The text is authoritative and a pleasure to read.

Most toy train books focus on one manufacturer. Hollander's All Aboard--The History of Joshua Lionel Cowen and His Lionel Train Company-- is a good example. The Souters seem to have used Hollander's excellent blend of text and photos as a template. Their chronological history starts in 1830 and 160 pages later ends in the late 1990s. Along the way they cover every major manufacturer including Lionel, American Flyer, Ives, and Marx as well as many of the lessor known companies. Their up to date treatment includes MTH, Williams, Weaver, and New Marx Trains.

Surprisingly, they didn't include a bibliography, although they refer to several of the classics in the text.

Every toy train collector and enthusiast should have Souter's The American Toy Train on their bookshelf.

I was doing research on early American depot architecture. This book was most helpful in describing the many different styles and who the architects were as well as what they designed and where. Also there are nice color pictures showing the stations today, as well as historic photos.

For someone who has many books on Amtrak, this one is a treat. All the pictures are in color. They are up-to-date and complement the text perfectly. The cover pages show an Amtrak map from 1972 and another for 2004. For a recent book there is still plenty of red hoods and candy stripes. The text is one of the more realistic treatments of Amtrak's history. Buy the book then buy a ticket! Printed in China.

Frank N. Wilner has a new book, published August 1997 (also by Simmons-Boardman Books of Omaha): Railroad Mergers: History, Analysis, Insight. A history of railroad mergers -- and public policy toward them -- from 1830 through current Conrail merger application. Includes rare maps. Holman Jenkins of Wall Street Journal said: "Frank Wilner gives us a fascinating and timely account of what has aptly been called The Hundred Years War over America's railroads." Dave Young of Chicago Tribune wrote: "A wonderful reference work on the corporate histories of American railroads, complete with a genealogy of all extant rail corporations . . . "

".......
This book deals primarily with the interpretation rather than with the preparation of the accounts and statistics.

It is the author's hope that a study of the following pages will make the vast fund of information contained in the accounting records and statistics more available to railroad men and to other students of railroad operations without accounting training.

He also has tried to give railroad accounts a clearer idea of the operating man's point of view and the use that can be made of the figures prepared by the accounting department in analyzing the operations of the railroad.

While the purpose and general contents of this book remain the same, certain changes have been made in arrangement and presentation of the material in the Second Edition, in addition to BRINGING IT UP TO DATE on accounting rules and statistical practices of the Interstate Commerce Commission......"

[from the book of the foreword to the second edition
by Joseph L. White,
Washington, D. C.,
October, 1946]

During the summer of 2007 I had the pleasure of helping Lyn with the data file for this wonderful book. At the time I had no idea that the encrypted data file that we worked to clean would turn into such a historically relevant piece of work. Every time I open the book to read I see an amazing story about the life and memories of those who knew a Pullman Porter. An Anthology of Respect brings history to life. It is an enthralling trek down the railway of historical narrative. It is a pleasure to read.