Trains and Railroads Books

This is one of my favorite books to read to my 3 year old son. I enjoy the rhyming text and the illustrations are very good. We've read this one so many times, my son is able to finish my sentences when reading aloud! Here's an exerpt: "head conductor dressed in black, peering up and down the track, checks his watch, now hear him shout: ALL ABOARD, she's pulling out!"

This is a great book! My 2-1/2 year old toddler loves it and so do I! Its fun to read - the book flows nicely with fun rhyming lyrics. The illustrations are also nice too. Great for the train lover or anyone! Truck Song, by Siebert is also a family favorite. If you like Truck Song, you will love this book too!

In the story there were different kinds of trains.There were strong trains and big trains. There were coaches, clubcars and dining room cars, too! They go to different kinds of places. If you like trains,you should read this book.

This is one of my all-time favorite children's books. The rhythmic text evokes the rhythm of a train, and the illustrations are almost eerie to me in their ability to transport me to a different place and time. I can almost hear the screen door creak, smell the smells and feel the heat as the train travels its cross country route. I also recommend "All the Places to Love", also illustrated by Mr. Wimmer. To me he has that rare ability to pull you into his paintings.

My 2 year old loves hearing this story and I love staring and the rich illustrations. This is, by far, the most beautifully illustrated book I've encountered so far. ...shopping for other Mike Wimmer-illustrated books so I can buy them all.

Ed Emberly's books are so great. If your child can follow visual directions and draw a line, circle and color in, then he or she can draw these things. My son is five and can draw these. He is quite smart and loves trains and trucks, so those are probably factors. When he isn't drawing from the book, he loves to look at it. Great for boys.

I bought this book for my five year old boy. Based on the description, it sounded age appropriate. However, it was a little advanced for him so we returned it. Maybe better for eight and up.

Every little artist will enjoy the simple step-by-step drawings and colorful illustrations that Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Trucks and Trains contains. Smaller children will learn new words while their older siblings can use the book to learn how to draw more complicated pictures than just stick figures. While Mr. Emeberley works with some stick figure designs, he cleverly weaves in triangles, circles, rectangles and squares to make learning fun and easy. An age recommendation on the book itself would make buying the book a little easier for parents and gift-giving relatives. While amazon shows an age of 4-8, it was too complicated for my almost four-year-old son to use. It is, however, a book that children that age could grow into with time.

Christine Louise Hohlbaum, author of DIARY OF A MOTHER (2003)
SAHM I AM: TALES OF A STAY-AT-HOME MOM IN EUROPE (2005), resides with her husband and two children near Munich, Germany.

This is a book that uses stick figures and basic shapes to help children learn to draw more complicated pictures. This is an interactive book to teach drawing. Every little artist will enjoy the simple step-by-step drawings and colorful illustrations that Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Trucks and Trains contains. Smaller children will learn new words while their older siblings can use the book to learn how to draw more complicated pictures than just stick figures. However, it is somewhat difficult for the four-year-old child. An age recommendation on the book itself would make buying the book a little easier for parents and gift-giving relatives.

I bought this book because my son loves trains and is not very good at drawing. He is six years old. While I could follow the instructions, it was really rather complex for my son and the pictures were rather complex too. I wanted to help him make simple 6 year old drawings that he could be proud of and this wasn't the book to accomplish that.

While alot of the drawings in the books simply require you to be able to make a triangle or a square etc, often it's a tiny traingle placed in an obscure part of the picture. You are also required to change color to follow along step by step or you can get lost, instead of just being able to draw the out line in one color first, then filling in the details. This was just too complex for what I was trying to accomplish.

Vranich explains in simple language the many failures of the Amtrak system, some of those are Amtrak's fault alone while others have been put on it by Congress and other institutions. This book has statistics that show that while parts of the system are profitable there are vast expanses that consume any possible profits. There also examples of what could happen to the Amtrak system if it followed one of many paths that former nationalized rail systems have taken in Europe and Japan as well the take over short haul passenger trains by states unhappy with Amtrak's service. Overall an excellent read for those interested in why we don't have the great rail service that the rest of the world enjoys.

End of the Line: The Failure of Amtrak Reform and the Future of America's Passenger Trains is the best analysis of the efforts to reform Amtrak ever to be put into printed form. The fact that the book is written by Joseph Vranich, a former spokeman for, and ardent supporter of Amtrak (now a critic of) speaks volumes about the troubles facing this storied government agency.

Vranich has an insider's view of the history of the railroad having helped lobby for its creation and from being there in its early years on through to helping convince Congress to pass the authorization for the Acela Express program in the early 90s as President of the High Speed Rail Association.

Vranich does an excellent job of laying out the particulars of the problems with reform efforts to save Amtrak. With details that reminds this reviewer at times of characters straight out of an Ayn Rand novel, Vranich does an excellent job of telling the story in a way that takes dry material and makes it interesting yet informative.

END OF THE LINE: THE FAILURE OF AMTRAK REFORM AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICA'S PASSENGER TRAINS is a hard-hitting survey of an impending major failure: it comes from an Amtrak advocate-turned-critic who here offers evidence Amtrak should be replaced, as it's wasting taxpayer dollars. Exactly how that's happening, what's wrong with the system, and how to fix it is profiled in dozens of reports from numerous offices gathered to support Vranich's claims that Amtrak is a fiscal failure, operating a potentially disastrous system.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Reading a recent Wall Street Journal prompted me to post this review of what I thought to be and still think is a most timely and accuate book. Also, on reading the most recent, and critical review of Mr. Vranich's book on this site, I decided to put the Google to work and do a little research of my own...

You always know when you've read a stimulating book if you can later think of it when keeping up with new developments. Such is the case with End of the Line, whose author I'm starting to think is clairvoyant. The book argues that major reforms are necessary if the U.S. is to have passenger trains running on marketable routes instead of political pork-barrel little used routes. In so doing, he explains why Amtrak wouldn't exist much longer in many foreign nations where monopoly railroads, have been, or are being broken up.

Here's three things that have happened since the book's publication: First, socialist France will do away with the French National Railways (SNCF) and the old state-owned monopoly will now become a market-driven company. The Wall Street Journal reported last week (Nov. 20): "The European Union Commission has ruled that in 2010, all EU passenger rail routes will be opened up to competition through auctions of rights to private-sector railway companies." Get that? And France to boot! Just as nations throughout Asia, South America and Africa have privatized, franchised, contracted out or devolved their Amtrak-like railroads (a story Mr. Vranich tells so well), so now will EU nations. Second, the author tells how Congress's refusal to truly reform Amtrak is costly to U.S. taxpayers. A subsequent Bureau of Transportation Statistics report confirmed Amtrak loses money big-time. It found in an apples-to-apples comparison that the average subsidy to Amtrak was $186 per thousand passenger miles compared with $6 for airlines, while highway users actually ended up paying Washington nearly $2 per thousand passenger miles. Third, it turns out that Vranich actually understated Amtrak's financial deterioration. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a new report that disproportionately generous Amtrak subsidies will worsen as operating losses will increase by 40% in the next four years.

In short, new disclosures are reinforcing the book's credibility. And, End of the Line's focus on events since publication of his other Amtrak book ten years ago (with, by the way, virtually no material being repeated) means it offers a wealth of information not found elsewhere in one cohesive work. This is a serious and well annotated work. People interested in trains, the future of transportation or the federal government's reckless addiction to spending will find this book to be highly readable and highly accurate.

Joseph Vranich's latest book is a disappointment, continuing his predictable and repetitive criticism of Amtrak and intercity (long-distance) passenger trains. A large part of End of the Line is a regurgitation of factoids, suppositions and misrepresentations from Vranich's earlier book.

Amtrak has many, many legitimate problems -- quite a few of which are problems of their own making. Unfortunately, this author fails to address these issues in any meaningful way, instead seeming to focus on obscure, abnormal operational details when they can be used to support his preconceived viewpoint that Amtrak is one of the great social ills of America.

Readers are reminded on several occasions that Vranich was an employee of the National Association of Railroad Passengers (a pro-passenger train lobbying group) and later was employed by Amtrak in what was essentially a non policy-making, public relations capacity. These reminders were presumably included in an attempt to lend some credibility to Vranich's opinionated viewpoints. In typical fashion, the full story is not revealed -- Vranich held both positions for only brief periods of time during his career, and departed from both positions almost 25 to 30 years ago. Travel demands, Amtrak, and the entire railroad industry have changed drastically since the time Vranich worked for Amtrak.

This book is marginally useful as a catalog of the time-worn arguments that frequently appear in policy debates involving USA passenger trains. However, readers would be well advised to compare End of the Line commentary with more impartial, documented sources or primary source material. In many cases, a more complete review of facts will result in the reader taking a position contrary to the views espoused by Mr. Vranich.

The title of this book implies a meaningful discussion of the future of passenger trains in America, but the contents fail to deliver on that promise. Read the book at the library, or pick up a used copy from the bargain table of your local bookstore; for most readers, this book is a one-time read.

This books' illustrations are crude and unimpressive. So is the writing which attempts to rhyme pleasantly but fails. HOWEVER, I learned what the different types of cars are called and what roles they provide behind the engine. I've enjoyed talking about that with my son (20 mos) who LOVES trains. I don't read the text to my son--I just improvise and point things out. You would do better to learn some interesting facts about trains and get a different book. I highly recommend "chugga-chugga choo-choo" by Kevin Lewis with pictures by Daniel Kirk. I got it at the same time and it is a BIG hit. And by the way "chugga-chugga choo-choo" by Kevin Lewis is also an excellent bedtime story. It starts out exciting and active like "good night moon" and slows down and the illustrations become calmer and darker at the end when everyone goes to sleep after the big day.

I stumbled upon this one at my local library. This is a cute poem about train lovers and it has large childlike pictures. There's even additional information about trains on the back and front inside covers which is cool. My son loves the rhymes and insists on me reading the facts and points out things he knows about trains. This inside cover facts are great way for engaging your child about trains, outside of the story itself.

BTW: The "secret stuff under wrap" is a space shuttle, not a weapon as the one reviewer thought. It's a children's book after all! Don't let one clueless reviewer's comments deter you from a great book. Check it out at your local library and see for yourself ... and then buy a copy.

I bought this book as a Christmas present for my 3 year old nephew who loves trains. He was so excited about this book! We read each page together, me reading and pointing to the words and then him reading while I pointed to the words. The text is so simple that after we read the book once, he practically had it memorized and was really impressed that he could "read" the book. As a Kindergarten teacher, I know that this is one of the first steps to actually reading, so I was very pleased that this book could offer this for him. Also, the page with the "secret stuff" seemed to be a space shuttle or airplane, covered with an American flag. At least that's what I thought, and my nephew (who also loves space stuff and airplanes) thought the same.
I also got the book "This Train" to go with this book and I would give it 5 stars as well.

My 2 1/2 year old son has loved this book for over a year, and has it completely mesmorized. I have taped the pages so many times, I am going to have to break down and by another one. The inside cover naming all the diffent types of train cars is awesome. You have to have this book, it is THE BEST.

I bought this book for my three-year old nephew, who is a serious train-lover. I was delighted with the simple, rhyming text and the comparison of the different uses of engines. i was, however, a little taken aback by the page that depicts what appears to be an American missile (too small to be a spaceship)on a journey to a destination unknown. The description of "secret stuff that's under wrap" also made me think of a weapon. I felt really uncomfortable giving this to my nephew, and ultimately decided not to. An almost perfect book! It was a shame.

My son is almost 3, and these books are way ahead of his listening level. But he likes to look at the pictures and I make up abbreviated stories for the pictures. B/c the size he does pick them to look at pretty often.

The content of the stories is more for 6 and up, in my opinion. They are explaining morals, and sometimes a little harsh. But I feel like -- until a certain age, kids don't understand cause and effect enough to know why things are happening in a story like this. (Like, why was one engine mean to another one? There is a reason an older child could understand and learn from, but maybe a younger child would just see the bad behavior without understanding the context.)

A must have for a little Thomas fan. And the box is fun too.

My three year old loves all things Thomas and he enjoys these stories as well. As the original stories they are less sugar-coated than the later picture books. Most focus on a train who misbehaves then gets his comeuppance. The illustrations are beautiful.

The physical packaging is quite nice. Both the box and the books have stood up to pummeling by my son.

The stories included are:
* Thomas and Gordon, Thomas' Train, Thomas and the Trucks, Thomas and the Breakdown Train
* Coal, The Flying Ripper, Gordon's Whistle, Percy and the Trousers, Henry's Sneeze
* Toby and the Stout Gentleman, Thomas in Trouble, Dirty Objects, Mrs. Kyndley's Christmas
* James and the Top-Hat, James and the Boot-lace, Troublesome Trucks, James and the Express
* Off the Rails, Leaves, Down the Mine, Paint Pots and Queens
* Percy and the Signal, Duck Takes Charge, Percy and Harold, Percy's Promise

I bought this set for my son's second birthday. He is a through and through "choo choo" fan and we needed more reading material for storytime at night after the local libraries inventory gave up. We like the number of stories (even though he insists on sticking to his favorites over and over again), the classic drawings (not the digitalized comic pictures) and the story content.

I was a bit surprised by the rather small format of the books only 5x6.5 inches each. I would have preferred a bigger format, but it seemingly does not matter to my child. I expect that we will get much more use out of them for the next months to come.

These are the books I grew up with-small books that contained wonderful pictures. I read them to my own children, and they in turn are reading them to their children. Rev. Audry's pictures have a charm lost in the present day Thomas The Train tv series.These stories benefit from Rev. Audry's original illustrations. These stories are gentle and amusing .In a sometimes cold world , they invite you in to the gentler, kinder, and infinitely warmer Earth celebrated in these stories . Thomas the Tank Engine, Gordon and many others live on in these stories. My father was a railroad buff- so I suppose it was natural that I should have enjoyed these stories so much. I think that anyone with similar interests would enjoy them for their children or grandchildren. I think that the number of children who go on railroad adventures everywhere would find these books an added enrichment.

If you have children of an age of around 10, who are interested in Steam Locomotives, this may be the book for them. But if you are an adult with some background in railroads, well see above...
Paul

I have hundreds of railroad books. Mostly they contain photos of steam locomotives in their smokey glory.
This book has not one photograph. (Well, except for the author!)
Instead, David Weitzman's beautiful line drawings perfectly illustrate the task at hand; BUILDING a steam locomotive.
If you ever waned to know how was done, this is the book for you. It also works for any age of person. The young one will find the story compelling and the older one will find themselves saying "So that's how! "
Out of those hundreds of books I own, this is one of the special ones.

This book describes how gigantic steel and iron parts were fabricated and assembled into giant steam locomotives years ago. It is a fascinating read for any one with any mechanical aptitude or interest. The illustrations -- meticulously drawn and rendered by the author -- are spellbinding. You can't help but say "Wow!" when you see some of them. The only negative I saw was the overly warm and folksy background story as told in an autobiographical style by the author.

I'm rekindling my fascination with steam locomotives again. I had read this book about 10 years ago and came across it again on my bookshelf. I'm re-reading it with the same joy/fascination I did the 1st time ! (and I'm no kid at 42 years old - would be nice to have a son to share it with!!) I'm glad I haven't lost that child-like wonder at these huge machines of yesteryear. I feel like I'm the young apprentice in the book, ravenously learning the complexicities of designing and building one of the magnificent monsters !

Can't recommend it highly enough for steam loco-fans of all ages !!

I discovered this book at a friend's house several years ago. It was quick bedtime reading. Upon returning home, I got my own copy, and have since given away other examples as Christmas gifts.

Although suitable for children, it appeals to all ages, to anyone with the least interest in how things work and how the great engineered artifacts of yesterday -- such as the mightiest steam locomotives -- were built. Today, when we look at an old steam locomotive, we are looking at an entire lost world; the basic principles of steam power are well known, but except for a few enthusiasts who keep old locomotives running, the details of steam-propelled vehicles have almost disappeared from human memory. As with the Saturn V moon rockets, the skills and facilities to make such magnificent machines, indeed the blueprints themselves, are gone. Reading this book, and looking at the drawings of a locomotive frame being cast, or machined in a huge planer, it's sobering to realize that it is very likely we no longer have the foundries or the machine shops in this country that can handle such massive projects, even if we wanted to.

But enough of pinin' for the past; it's gone for a reason, and history and technology have moved on. Still, there are basic lessons to be learned from this book, about work, and problem solving, and making things as a team that none of us could achieve alone.

Beware: books like this are infectious. It was books like this, and frequent visits to all manner of museums with my father, that eventually turned me into an engineer.

This is well illustrated and nicely written. It about a 10 minute read. It is great for bedtime. My boys loved it. The story is interesting and easy to understand. The hardcover art is also well done and is indicative of the overall quality of illustration.

I purchased this book for my two year old granddaughter who has fallen 'in love' with the Thomas trains. She likes the brightness of the pages and the story as grandma reads it. I would recommend it to add to one's library for children's books.

This is another good Thomas book that's not scary just nice. My son, who's 3, loves getting this one read to him before bedtime.

Kids seem to love anything that has to do with Thomas and his friends.

Tommy Stubbs's illustrations are beautiful and friendly-looking; the book is of great quality, with a cloth binding and nice paper. The details (like a visit from an owl) are cool and fun to talk about with my almost-two-year-old. My only problem with this book is that Thomas sneaks out past his bedtime without telling anyone but a sleepy [and irresponsible] Gordon. I'm not saying kids will imitate Thomas, necessarily, but if my son had insomnia I'd rather he read a book than sneaked out of the house! Of course, it wouldn't be easy for a train to read a book, so I don't know what I'm suggesting for the storyline in Thomas and the Shooting Star, but it does bother me just a little that Thomas slips out on his own.
My son really enjoys reading the book, though, and he'll ask us to read it several times in the same day. It's definitely a fun story.

The pictures are just lovely--colorful. However, the story isn't really a story---there are only a few words on each page basically just describing types of trucks. I wish it had a rhythmic story to catch my son's attention.

This book not only has beautiful pictures and text, but describes each type of truck. The character is lovable and easy for the child to relate.
Not just another truck book.

My 2 1/2 year old son is a huge truck fan. This book is great. I love the information on the front cover and first page, and back page and cover give. It's a bunch of facts that make the book that much more fun to read. The actual book is simple and easy to read. I can do "short form" by just reading the book, or I can do "long form" and go over all the trucks on the pages and covers. Whatever we do, we have a great time reading this together. What a great book!

Perfect book in size for small hands, and vivid colors for inquisitive eyes. Any little tyke who enjoys trucks will love this book. My grandson is one of these tykes.

We discovered this book at the library & took it out so much, we ended up buying our own board book version. It's very loved. Last night my 3 year old son woke up at 4am calling for his "truck book!" And he slept with his arms around it. The illustrations are so simple and clear, and the rhyming is very catchy. I do have to admit that while we like the other books by this pair (Trains, School, etc), this is the best & the favorite in our house.

Mailing May is the delightful tale of how a family living in 1914 ingeniously figures out an inexpensive way to send their little girl to her grandmother's house for a visit. May desperately wants to see her Grandma Mary, but unfortunately her family does not have enough money to buy her a train ticket. She attempts to find a job at Alexander's department store, and is crushed when he has no positions for young children. After returning home distressed and upset, May is woken up that night by her father, who has a special surprise. Her parents bring her to the Post Office and successfully convince the postmaster to mail her as a package. Stamped and addressed, May boards the train escorted by her cousin Leonard, who is in charge of the mail. After a long journey across the state, the mailman and his precious package reach the end of the tracks. Leonard delivers the package to Grandma Mary who is eagerly awaiting her arrival. May is able to visit her dear Grandma, but only with a little help from the US Post Office.

I think with the postal service (as with many other institutions we take for granted), children often wonder "What would happen if . . ." Michael O. Tunnell's "Mailing May" plays with this idea. May, a little girl in the book, wants to visit her grandmother, but her family doesn't have the money for a train ticket, so May's father and Leonard (the post-man) must come up with an alternative solution. Ultimately they mail May like a package, and even the grumpy conductor of the train can't help but laugh at the idea. That the story apparently is true, and not merely a "what if" tale (according to the back of the book) seems to only increase reader delight.

Note on the illustrations: The illustrations are 3/4-page watercolor paintings, with smaller paintings of postage stamps, photographs, tags, and railroad documents, thus adding to the story's sense of reality and historicity. They help establish the early 1900s setting, and develop the characters through facial expressions.

This is a wonderful story, a true story, and made me think of the many afternoons with my dad when I was tiny singing the Guthrie tune "I'm gonna Mail Myself to You". The drawings are superb, they seem like paintings rather than illustrations in a children's book. Sweet and lovely. Worth every penny.

I really liked the book Mailing because it was an interesting, funny, and cute little story. It was about a five year old girl who didn't have $1.55 for a ticket to go visit her grandma. SO instead they mailes her as a baby chick through the US Postal Service. Instead it only cost her $0.53 than the $1.55 it would cost to buy a ticket. The pictures in this book were fantastic, they showed al ot of action. THis was a true story.

This is a very cute book and it has a good story line. I liked the pictures because they look like they were really taken in 1914. These pictures are also bright and colorful and ful of emotion. May is also a very spunky little girl, so that makes it even more fun. And i especially like how they worded it. This story is about a girl named May who really wants to see her grandmother who lives 1000 miles away. But her father and mother can't afford it.But they see how dissapointed ahe is. So they decided to mail her. This adventure is a great book for all boys and girls. Over all i liked it!

The delightful rhymes and simple illustrations sum up summer perfectly. This is a must for a young child's library.

My three boys, all under 4, love this book. It's loaded with ice cream eating, marshmallow roasting, firefly catching fun. If your kids -- or kids you know -- love to swim, eat watermelon, play with pups, or swing up high, they will love this book. My four year old has memorized many of the rhymes and loves to add his own twists. The others are not far behind. The drawings are big and colorful with lots of smiles. Pup always seems to be in a situation the kids find hilariously funny. Whenever we need a dose of summer, we read this book and summer is in season -- even in the dead of winter.

I am such a fan of Roy Mckie's illustrations. This is a similar book to 'snow' which is also illustrated by McKie using the same two children. In this book, Summer, they explore the lovely things to do in summer, things like Watermelon, going to the beach, swinging and catching fireflies.

The pictures are enormously appealing to my 2 and 4 year olds, and my 4 year old is beginning to enjoy early reading attempts. The rhymes are simple and so are the illustrations.

There is also a bit of nostalgia for a bygone era, of hay rides and horses.

I was happy with my purchase at first until I realized this book is missing two pages that the original version has.
I have an original version I just wanted a newer book to read to my grandchildren. The two pages that are missing ended up being my granddaughter's favorite parts. She was very disappointed

This has been my son's favorite book since he was 12 months old. He carries it around the house and brings it to me to read to him. We can bury this book in a mound of others and my son will still find it for me to read. It's the only book that he hasn't damaged in some way. He's 18 months old now and will sit in my lap quietly while I read this to him.

The writing is superb and easy for the kids to follow. The pictures are gorgeous and colorful. Kudos to both the author and the illustrator!