Trains and Railroads Books

This book is a great resource for those individuals who are interested in the repair and restoration of toy trains. I have been able to perform many restorations of pre-war trains and accessories using the advice and diagrams of this book.

The subjects are separated by chapters that deal with the reasons, mechanic's and instructions of equipment operation.
You get a real sense for the hobby as it existed prior to World War II.

The diagrams are remarkably clear with supplimental new text along side of the original operating diagrams. This makes for much easier reading.

Of special interest is the chapter on the assembly of the Lionel 700E kit. This section is a treasure of diagrams, pictures and assembly procedures for this famous Hudson.

There is not too much to say: a must if you like railfaning. Stefano C. (Boston MA)

The Harcourt Street Line was a double-track suburban railway that ran in Ireland from Dublin through Dundrum and Foxrock to Bray. It was shut down and abandoned in 1958. Some forty years later in May 1998, the Irish government launched a major investment of capital to create a new railway (Luas Line B) that would run along the identical trackbed of the old Harcourt Street Line as far as the Sandyford Industrial Estate (a distance of about eight kilometers). In The Harcourt Street Line: Back On Track, County Dublin native and railway enthusiast Brian Mac Aongusa presents the reader with an informed, informative, and colorful history of this local railway. Highly recommended reading for all railroad fans and a unique contribution to Irish transport history collections, The Harcourt Street Line is so well done that it could wonderfully serve as a template for others wanting to capture the history of their own local commuter lines.

I really enjoyed the story and thought it was told well. No glaring errors that I'm aware of. Students will enjoy this book and learn something.

There are plenty of train histories written for adults, and many a picturebook coverage: now older readers in grades 4-6 have a solid discussion of how trains have changed the transportation world in Milton Meltzer's Hear That Train Whistle Blow! Meltzer specializes in books of history, biography and social issues for young readers: his is a lively story telling of the railroad's development, its impact on lives, and the personalities and events which shaped it.

Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg are well known railroad historians and it is easy to see why when you look at this book. It's 415 pages are full of entertaining history, folklore and railroad anecdotes illustrated with 870 photos and prints. Nearly every page has multiple pictures and they are big pictures, too, not "thumb nails." The articles tend to be short, mostly one or two pages including the illustrations. I found this format to be very entertaining and a joy to read. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the development of transportation in America.

My three year old LOVES this book. The book is great because of the pictures and easy, rhyming text. He enjoys "reading" along. If you have a young one who loves trains, this book is a must!

The usual superb and scholarly effort we know and love from Mr. White, yet readable and benefiting from his enormous access to the best pictures.

Publisher's Description: "Through efforts that ranged from the homey touches of railroad car décor to advertising images celebrating female travelers and legal cases sanctioning gender-segregated spaces, travelers and railroad companies transformed the railroad from a place of risk and almost unlimited social mixing into one in which white men and women alleviated the stress of unpleasant social contact. Making themselves "at home" aboard the trains, white men and women domesticated the railroad for themselves and paved the way for a racially segregated and class-stratified public space that freed women from the home yet still preserved the railroad as a masculine domain."

Listening to Thomas on CD makes my sons heppy. They listento the stories on their MP3 player over and over again.