Trains and Railroads Books

I have booked a holiday travelling from one side to the other of Canada by rail. This book is just what I need giving me a mile by mile guide of the track. I will be taking it with me to increase my enjoyment of the trip.

A good book covering postwar to UP merger C&NW freight service. Heavy emphasis on the Overland Route train symbols and numbers. Nice sections on TOFC, ore service and coal trains. The ore service chapter includes some information on docks at Ashland and Escanaba. Too few photos of equipment. Only a small smattering from each type. A car roster would have been a good addition.

Civil War Railroads by George Abdill is a wonderful browsing book on railroading in the 1860's. One can open to most any page and find an interesting story, anecdote, biography or fact about Civil War railroading. The book is organized chronologically with no clear academic theme. It draws few conclusions. It is, however, flooded with over two hundred photos mainly from the Library of Congress and the National Archives. There is a wide mixed spectrum of topics including locomotives,rolling stock, structures, yards, track, car ferries was well as burned and destroyed trains and bridges on both sides. Somehow Abdill seems to have identified by name almost every locomotive pictured. Devastation is certainly a common thread. Book length topics like the Andrew's raid (the great locomotive chase) and the Lincoln funeral train are covered in only a few pages.

Readers should note this is a word for word reprint of Abdill's 1961 book of the same title. The Indiana University Press digitally enhanced reprint on glossy paper greatly improved the photo quality from the muddy first edition. For the modeler it has no scale drawings, track layouts or even color lithographs. It is very pleasing blend of many railroad topics. I was never bored.

I would recommend it to Civil War buffs, model railroaders and anyone interest in a fascinating part of our history.

Helps a collector get a better understanding in the identification process and the approximate value of toy trains. This will allow the person to know what they are purchasing and/or bidding on. I have volume 3 and just ordered volume 4. A must for beginners.

This book is not Huxtable's newest edition by the same name. While it is a beautiful book, it is not the same as the 2002 edition which is 50 pages longer. I made the mistake of buying this book because I did not know that there are two versions of it on the market.

Again, nothing against this book, just be sure it is the one you want. The books, while having some of the same pictures, are different altogether; each has stuff that the other does not have.

Plenty of photos, reproduced brochures, etc make this an informative and entertaining volume.

Especially useful is a roster of all dome cars produced in North America. Zimmermann is, as always, a lively and imaginative writer.

If you loved riding the domes, get this book.

I enjoy Thomas The Tank Engine a lot. When I was younger Duck was my favorite engine (James now is my favorite engine) someone probobly got me this book. When I read it last week, I noticed a few mistakes. One, most of the pictures don't come from the real story. Some of them come from Percy Runs Away, Percy Proves A Point, Pop Goes The Diesel, and Percy and the Signal. Two, with some Thomas books you get exitied ,like you are watching a tape. This one didn't get me exitded. It was okay. Other than those two things it was okay.

This is a book for the young child who is learning to read and count. An energetic counting rhyme brings the reader on a journey throughout India, with colourful references to bright saris, beautiful temples, Himalayan mountain tops and many others. The magical illustrations evoke a sense of wonderment at the beauty and richness of India. This is a book that could be read to a young audience to introduce them to the sounds and sights of faraway places.

(I showed this book to an eleven year old pupil from Bangladesh and while she was too advanced for its contents, she was pleased to see some familiar references e.g. the Ganges river, eastern dress etc. This also initiated a very positive discussion with the rest of the class about her way of life before she came to Ireland, about the climate, the food and the animals of this part of the world.)

I thought a good overview of contemporary railways in India but thought could have given the Brits more credit for building a universal system that really made possible a democratic India. Personally I have riden most of the system several times and am impressed with volume of passenger traffic but thought India made a mistake when so quickly converted to diesel instead of retaining steam locos which are labor intensive and just what India needs and invest their capital in other fields.

Horatio Alger was one of America's most popular authors. He was born in 1832 and died in 1899. Over 250 million copies of his books were published. Horatio lived in poor parts of New York City and thus was able to write in detail about how the poor lived. His Rags-To-Riches stories excited the imaginations of the youth of the day. It is sad to see that books written for teenagers over a hundred years ago are now stored in the adult section of the library. The vocabulary is much richer than youth books being published today. When looking for Alger stories always try to get an unabridged version.

But be warned, some of the Horatio Alger stories are not as good as this one. For example "A Rolling Stone" is very racist.

The hero in the "The Erie Train Boy" is Fred Fenton, a hard working 17 year old boy. We first meet him on a train where he sells travelers food, magazines, and books. He is struggling to provide for his widowed mother and his younger brother. Early in the story they almost get kicked out of their apartment because they don't have enough money to pay the rent. It is such a contrast to see how times have changed. For example their rent back then was $10 a month, and they had very few possessions.

Fred has a number of adventures in New York City. He also does some traveling, first going over to Niagara Falls, and then later up into Canada. At Niagara Falls Fred is suspected of being a thief, but is able to prove his innocence and help find the real crock. Later in the story he ends up working for a wealthy man and is entrusted with a mission to go into Canada to recover some stolen bonds.

This is a fun book. It is very well written. My children kept asking me to read the book. If you want an entertaining story about life in America over a hundred years ago, this is a great book to buy.