Trains and Railroads Books

Rhoda Blumberg brings in the many aspects, peoples, andcultures involved in building the transcontinental railroad, andconsiders it from many view points. A wonderful way to learn about this important part of American history.

A super new 224 reference book on the popular collectible. Contains many large sharp black and white detailed photos and some very nice full color pictures. There's a wealth of interesting and useful info in the book, covering from basic data to dream layouts, track planning, track, electrical wiring, running two trains, scenery, building and structures, action accessories, steam and diesel locomotives, freight and passenger cars, operations, to a complete glossary and sources of supply. The train enthusiast will certainly find this to be an enjoyable and useful reference source. Add it to your library.

From Civil war times until the end of World War II the country expeienced a great boom in the construction of railroads. They were to all intents the only way to move a lot of the goods and people around. While most of the history is written about the big major roads, such as the transcontenential railroad, the major lines were fed by literally hundreds of short lines who served the smaller communities.

This book is the painstakening researched story of several of these short lines serving northeastern Georgia. It carefully tracks the history of some eight different railroads from their inception until their end, sale or merger. They provided that part of the country with transportation when the alternative was wagons. They continued to serve until they were replaced by trucks.

While this book is on NE Georgia, this is a story that with different names could have been repeated in nearly any area of our country. It makes for very interesting reading even if you are not familiar with the region being discussed.

Brand new, year 2001 book contains a wealth of information in its 128 pages. There are more than 100 great full color, sharp photos. It covers all the important information about buying, setting up, maintaining, and running your railroad. In includes a very useful glossary of terms. Major sections include: Lionel Legacy, Today's Lionel, tracks, layouts, maintenance, and much more. Handy Appendix covers references, on-line, clubs, and suppliers. Train enthusiasts will find it a very useful and enjoyable publication.

This book is similar in style, layout, and contents to Sulzer's other books. It has lots of anecdotes and human interest stories about hardscrabble lines (and pieces of bigger roads) that operated for a time in Kentucky, and then vanished. You'll find a wealth of material in here about local history and economic development in the Blue Grass State. Buy it - you'll enjoy it.

Could things get any worse for Choon-yi, born with only one arm in a poor peasant family in China? She makes the best of the situation by creating and selling paintings. She is rightfully concerned when her beloved father accepts a perilous job building railroads in America. When she travels to see him, she endures heartbreak before discovering that her magical talent can help her father and many others.

The beautiful oil paintings have a gloomy dark brown tint that adds to the melancholy mood of the text. This winner of the 1997 Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Medal effectively uses the subdued pictures to compliment the text. I found this to be a powerful book, even though it is written and illustrated with a gentle touch.

When at primary school, my class and I loved the Usbourne Puzzle books, spending hours pouring over them, trying to figure out the mysteries that they held - and the spookier they were, the better! Usbourne no doubt caught onto this popularity, and released the Usbourne Spinechillers, a series of six that delved into the world of ghosts and past mysteries. Among them was "Ghost Train to Nowhere", one of my favourites.

Alf and Chrissy are spending a holiday with their uncle Jack and his cat Salmon in Seabry, an old railway town. Jack himself lives in what used to be the old station, with its old relics still in place: the ticket office, the tiny kitchen, and the shelves of uncollected luggage. But despite the cheerfulness of the place, the twins feel oddly disjointed there, and come to the conclusion that it has something to do with the old railway engine that was closed down many years ago. After strange hooting noises that they take to be an owl, and smoke appearing above the treeline in the woods, they go exploring and run into hte elderly Harold Masters, who tells them the eerie tale of the "Gypsy Bell" - the train that plummeted over the washed out bridge during a terrible storm, taking with it Harold's twin brother.

But apparently that's not the end of the story, as locals have claimed to experience the same phenomena that the twins have - the hooting of whistles and the chugging of steam, even the ghost train itself hurtling down the old track! It seems that somehow the twins are linked to the train, and are the only ones who can possibly hope to right the past wrong, and the journey takes them to the old train tunnel deep in the woods, the abandoned mine, and into their own minds as they come to grips with their own powers.

"Ghost Train" was lucky enough to have excellent illustrations to match the mood of the story, whether it be the warmth of the station-house, the sunny woods with a hint of otherworldliness to them, or the dark mysteriousness of the mines they explore. Human expressions are always very clear, and like in all Usbourne books in this series, little clues and red herrings are scattered throughout the illustrations - if you look hard enough, you can keep one step ahead!

Phil Roxbee Cox also created two other books in the Spinechillers series: "The Haunting of Dungeon Creek" and "Nightmare at Mystery Mansion", and incorporates some great ideas into "Ghost Train", such as a crack that slowly and mysteriously winds its way up a window pane, a silver train whistle that goes from shining new to rusted in minutes, and a huge black cat with glowing yellow eyes. The spookiness of the tale is perfectly for young readers, and I also highly recommend the other books in the the Spinechiller series "The Midnight Ghosts", "House of Shadows", and "Stage Fright".

This is a great overview of the A.C. Gilbert period of manufacturing American Flyer toy trains in S Gauge. This is a real "page-turner" for the collector and operator of AF trains. It is bound to be a "classic" in the true sense of the word! Gilbert American Flyer fans, buy this book! Thanks for a collector's well-researched book well-done, Pastor Nelson! (No, I am no relation to the author!!!) (-;

An outstanding addition to Kalmbach's acclaimed "Classic Trains" series, GM's Geeps: The General Purpose Diesels is a beautiful, highly recommended photographic tribute to the first generation of bidirectional, accessible, all-purpose diesel locomotives as they plied North American rails from the end of World War II down through the early 1960s. An informative text is enhanced with additional technical illustrations and photos that will enable the dedicated railroad buff to spot the subtle differences between various production models of GP (for General Purpose) engines manufactured from 1949 to late 1963.

My kids (3/4 and 6/7 years) laughed so hard the first time we read this book, we simply had to own it. The bugs are darling and there are a ton of different vehicles in it, so my boys adore it. WARNING: this is definitely a picture book, but it's got LOTS of words, so it takes awhile to read through! Well worth it, though - they (and I) love this!