The Complete Book of North American Railroading Review

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The Complete Book of North American Railroading ReviewA book which is good in practically all respects: informative text, good covering of its subject, fine photographs, good printing. Very good value.The Complete Book of North American Railroading OverviewThe year 1827 marked the completion of the United States' first railroad--and the beginning of a transformation of American life. This book, spanning nearly two centuries, offers an exhilarating tour of the railways' inroads into the economy, society, and culture of North America.

Illustrated with more than 400 historical and modern photographs and period advertisements, The Complete Book of North American Railroading takes readers back to the birth of the railroads, then travels through the "Golden Age" from 1900 to 1950 and on to the railways of our day. Locomotives, from steam to electric and diesel; passenger travel; freight operations; and infrastructure, including stations, bridges, depots, roundhouse, railyards, and signaling are all thoroughly examined and amply illustrated. Authors Kevin EuDaly and Mike Schafer delve into the history, the culture, and the technology of the railroads as they have carried travelers across the continent, brought goods to market, connected businesses in peacetime and war, and enriched the canon of American folklore and the quality of everyday life.


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Rival Rails: The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad Review

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Rival Rails: The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad ReviewI became a fan of Walter Borneman (Alaska, 1812, The French and Indian War, Polk) after reading "1812," and have since then pre-ordered each of his books as they become available through Amazon. "Rival Rails" is another excellent, focused book from this established historian.
While touching on a century of railroad expansion and development in the vast southwest territory between Kansas City and the West Coast, this latest book from Borneman focuses on a relatively brief period from the 1860s to the 1880s during which a network of thousands of miles of railroad was built westward from Chicago and Kansas City to the west coast, with the dramatic accompanying population shifts and development of agricultural, mining, and other resources of these vast new western lands. Through these rail connections, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California were rapidly incorporated into the commercial, social, and political sphere of the greater United States. The arrival of the railroads dramatically transformed the West Coast. Once connected with Chicago, Los Angeles rapidly grew from a sleepy coastal town into one of America's great cities.
This expansion of a network of railroads westward was complex in its engineering challenges as well as in its political-financial processes, as entrepreneurs like Huntington, Gould, and Crocker, east coast and European investors, Congress, and even state and federal courts were regularly involved. Many players (some successful, some not) were involved in this expansion, and keeping these sorted out was a bit challenging as the book progressed. Fortunately, Borneman was kind enough to provide the reader not only with a series of railroad route maps within appropriate chapters, but also with two list, one of the Railroads and another of the Railroaders, just after the introduction. My coherent reading was greatly aided by my bookmarking to maintain easy reference to these list and to the maps. A substantial section of historical photographs adds to the enjoyment of the book
Though largely consolidated today, the trains still run over the rail beds originally laid down by these entrepreneurs, builders and engineers, and many, many thousands of workers who almost entirely by hand dug tunnels, built rail beds, and laid the tracks. Railroads are still vital to the U.S. economy (ask Warren Buffett), and Amtrack's ridership is at record levels. "Rival Rails" gives an excellent and readable overview of this brief but critical phase of U.S. development from a country largely operating east of the Mississippi to a country socially, politically, and commercially integrated from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast.Rival Rails: The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad Overview

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Katy Northwest: The Story of a Branch Line Railroad Review

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Katy Northwest: The Story of a Branch Line Railroad ReviewThis book is a fine study of the Katy's Northwestern District. The extensive rare photographs, many by the author, are a wonderful complement to the well organized text. The detailed coverage of the last days on the District is particularly poignant.Katy Northwest: The Story of a Branch Line Railroad Overview"Katy Northwest will be of interest to scholars who are concerned withthe economic, social, and political ramifications... of all light railroad branchlines... Will be warmly received by rail buffs and by loyal friends of the Katy." --from the Foreword by John W. Barriger, Special Assistant, Federal RailroadAdministration, and former president of the Katy"If you arecoming to this book for the first time, dive in! If you're picking it up again afteran absence, welcome back. The Northwest District may be gone, but it lives foreverhere." -- Fred FinleyMore than just a history of a branch linerailroad, this is a premiere book, with not only facts and figures, but alsoexcellent historical writing. It details Katy Northwest's birth, maturation, anddecline as well as the devastating effect of its death on the communities itserved.

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Next Year Country: Dust to Dust in Western Kansas, 1890-1940 Review

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Next Year Country: Dust to Dust in Western Kansas, 1890-1940 ReviewThis book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what life was and is like on the unforgiving Great Plains. Although this book focuses on Western Kansas, it provides a vivid picture of the hopes and dreams of those who populated the Great Plains between 1890-1940.
Being a fifth generation resident of Western Kansas, this book gives me a startling view of what challenges my ancestors went through, and makes me proud that we have survived to this day in "Next Year Country."
Craig Miner's personal connection to Western Kansas makes this book especially poignant, and his attention to detail is vast.
Most importantly, the book causes one to ponder the future of the Great Plains as a whole, and gives one hope that our forbearers survived obstacles much greater than we face today.Next Year Country: Dust to Dust in Western Kansas, 1890-1940 OverviewWest of Highway 81, there lies another Kansas. While it accounts for two-thirds of the state's land area, it is sparsely populated and nearly desert dry. Before 1940, it was still distinctly rural-a place that some residents called the "Edge of the World."Several generations of the Miner family have lived and farmed in Ness County, providing Craig Miner with a rich and very personal backdrop for this heartfelt and compelling portrait of western Kansas. In Next Year Country he recounts the resilience of his fellow Kansans through two depressions and the Dust Bowl, showing how the region changed dramatically over fifty years-not for the better, some might say.In this striking regional history, Miner blends the voices of real people with writings of small-town journalists to show life as it was really lived from 1890 to 1940. He has fashioned a richly textured look at determined individuals as they confronted the vagaries of raw Nature and learned to adapt to the machine age. And he captures the drama and vitality of rural and small-town life at a time when children could die in a blizzard on their way home from school, in a place where gaping holes of cellars and wells from abandoned homesteads posed real hazards to nighttime travelers.No mere nostalgic reverie, Miner's book chronicles the hard challenges to these Kansans' ambitious efforts to create a regional economy and society based on wheat in an area once thought only marginally suitable for cereal crops. His diverse topics include the history of agricultural experiment stations, new approaches to irrigation, and the impact of the tractor and the combine; the role of women's clubs in developing culture, the growth of higher education, and the rise of the secession movement; and how people responded to pests, from prairie dogs to grasshoppers, and to radical groups, from the IWW to the KKK. Next Year Country depicts the kind of rugged individualism that is often touted in America but seldom seen anymore, a testament to how people dealt with both Nature and transformative change. It is both a love song to Kansas and the best kind of regional history, showing that life has to be taken on its own terms to understand how people really lived.

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Railway Maintenance Equipment: The Men and Machines That Keep the Railroads Running Review

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Railway Maintenance Equipment: The Men and Machines That Keep the Railroads Running ReviewThis book is excellent value for money and is filled with good information and color photos, some of them spectacular. In some cases, such as the discussion of how track is currently constructed, a good line drawing with labels would have been much better than a thousand words of descriptions. And I would have liked to see more on equipment of the steam era; most of this book focuses on current technology. But definitely worth the money!Railway Maintenance Equipment: The Men and Machines That Keep the Railroads Running OverviewYou may have seen some of these machines and tools as you roll alongside a rail bed. But what to call them, or knowing how they work, may allude you. Find the true identity of the different tools used to build and maintain railbeds and lines including tie pullers, rail grinders, and much, much more. Detailed photos show the machines and tools in action. This is a handy reference guide for fans of full-size railways or modelers.

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