ILLINOIS TERMINAL, IN COLOR, Volume II

Authored by William D. Volkmer - Morning Sun Books, 9 Pheasant Lane, Scotch Plains, N.J. 07076.

Hardcover, 8-1/2" x 11", 128pp., 2001. $54.95 (plus $3.50 postage.)

One of the country's great interurban systems, the Illinois Terminal Railroad, was the subject of an earlier volume from this publisher, also edited by William Volkmer, and centered on the photography of Gordon Lloyd. In this second volume, which is really independent from the first, except that it covers the same topic, the focal point is the photography of Eugene Van Dusen, whose slide collection was made available to Volkmer to arrange and organize.

Undoubtedly, Van Dusen is a first-rate photographer, as this book makes abundantly clear. He has the practiced eye of a natural lensman, focusing his camera not only on the cars but, more important, on the environment through which they ran. Thus, there are many "scenic" shots here, which add greatly to the appeal of the book. Volkmer, notes in his introduction that the IT constantly rebuilt and modernized its equipment and sometimes purchased new cars, but that even as late as the early 1950s, the period depicted most of the shots, it had all the trappings of the interurbans of the 1920s. Thus, Volkmer has organized the photographs topically "in an attempt to recreate scenes that we'd like to imagine could have existed in the early 1920s...."

While novel and interesting, this approach does not quite work, in this reviewer's opinion, partly because so many of the shots show the cars in the more recent blue paint and also because contemporary auto- mobiles often are in the background. Nonetheless, the shots are of such quality that they hold the reader's interest even if the imagination falls a little short. Among the topics depicted are stations, bridges and trestles, power plants, freight services, various locomotives and cars and numerous locales, including Danville to Champaign, the Bloomington line, Mackinaw Junction, the Springfield and St. Louis areas, Alton, Granite City local service, the streamliners, and many more. Captions provide additional detail, sometimes specific and sometimes more general.

Reproduction is excellent, as usual, in this series. The one full-page map is limited, in that it shows the post-1956 IT, when segments of the system had been abandoned, but most of the photos were taken prior to that date. Other graphics and timetable reproductions add more interest. In summary, the book is a feast for the eyes of the traction fan, with Illinois Terminal's classic cars rolling through the small towns of mid-America in the early 1950s. Traction fans will enjoy it immensely, but anyone who appreciates good photography will relish this book.

Reviewed by: J.N.J.H.

TRAINS ACROSS THE CONTINENT, Second Edition

Authored by Rudolph Daniels - Indiana University Press, 601 North Morton Street, Bloomington, Ind. 47404.

Softcover, 8-1/2" x 11", 258 pp., 2000. $22.95. ($45.00 hardcover).

This book was written to be a textbook for a course taught by the author at Western Iowa Tech Community College in Sioux City, Iowa. For that reason, it is not a typical book for railfans, or even rail historians. The book attempts to cover the history of railroading in the United States and Canada from its inception, and is written for an audience that is largely ignorant of the importance of railroads in the past, let alone the present. For that reason, coverage is very broad, and to keep the book at a reasonable length the author necessarily omits detail in many of the famous developments in history that readers of this Bulletin could recite.

However, many U.S. readers will find information about Canadian history about which they were ignorant. The book is organized in six parts, divided chronologically. Each begins with an historical overview of developments in the U.S. and Canada during that time period, followed by one or more chapters with detail. A book that attempts to cover such breadth is bound to impress any reader with certain elements of history that should have been explored further and others that could have been omitted. However, just about every important story in rail development or history is covered here and the omissions are minimal considering the audience.

Naturally in a book of this kind, there are errors. A list of passenger trains in the post-World War II era has several errors and a 1997 photograph of a diesel purports to be owned by the Jersey Central, which ceased existence over two decades earlier. The time frame and budget given to produce the book, as explained by the author, lead to a collection of photographs that is less than representative in coverage. The one quibble this reviewer has is the common introduction of model numbers (GP7, M-l) and railfan terms (e.g., "meatball" for the AEM7) without explanation. Since the book is meant to be broad, details such as these seem irrelevant if not explained more fully or in context. On the other hand, a large glossary of rail slang (not used in the text itself) is included, as is a time line of rail history, list of movies in which rails play a key part and a detailed bibliography and index. Academics may wish to consider this as a textbook or supplemental reading; others may want to use it to introduce a younger generation to a general history of railroading.

Reviewed by: R. G. P.

MICHIGAN CENTRAL TRACKSIDE WITH EMERY GULASH

Authored by Geoffrey H. Doughty - Morning Sun Books, 9 Pheasant Lane, Scotch Plains, N.J., 07076.

Hardcover, 8-1/2" x 11", 128 pp., 2001. $54.95 (plus $3.50 shipping).

Perhaps railfans today know the name Emery Gulash as synonymous with videotapes, since about 40 tapes have been produced from his film footage over the years. This book, however, features his color photography from 1941 to 1968, when the New York Central (of which the Michigan Central had long since been a part) merged into the ill-fated Penn Central. The book, after a three-page introduction to the photographer and three more pages of historical background, has no chapters; the photographs are arranged chronologically. Although most photos are taken along the mainline from Detroit west to Ann Arbor, the book does range as far west as Porter, Ind., and both north and south from Detroit. Coverage is heaviest of passenger trains, at first the Mercury, then after its demise, largely the Michigan, Twilight Limited and Wolverine. However, freight service, local service and buildings are not ignored. Although Gulash was not a professional photographer, the quality of his photographs suggests he could have been. In addition to capturing his main subject, he includes its surroundings as well. Quality of reproduction is uniformly good, and although a few typos were noticed the captions say more than just the obvious (not surprising considering the expertise of the author). Emery was sometimes just lucky in getting the pictures he wanted (an example is a dead RDC being towed by Geeps while alongside passes a Grand Trunk Western steam excursion), but mostly he planned his surrounding well. A favorite is alongside the Huron River, not a location that most Central aficionados associate with the Water Level Route. Several other locations appear repeatedly in the photographs, but it is hard to tire. If one finds the locations repetitive, the reader can note the decline of the paint jobs, right-of-way maintenance and the length and quality of the passenger trains or view the change from steam to diesel, then the changing diesel models. Fans of the Michigan Central or the New York Central in general, will enjoy this volume. R. G. P.

A CENTURY OF PASSENGER TRAINS...AND THEN SOME

Authored by Jackson C. Thode - Rocky Mountain Railroad Club, P.O. Box 2391, Denver, Colo. 80201-2391.

Hardcover, 8-1/2" x 11", 144 pp., 2001. $39.95 (plus $4.00 postage).

This book was first published in 1972 and celebrated a century of passenger service by the Denver & Rio Grande Western (and predecessors). The book sold out quickly and now has been reissued with three new words in the title and additional text and pictures to bring the story up to the point when the road discontinued its last passenger train, the Rio Grande Zephyr, in 1983. The additional pages are largely the work of James L. Ehernberger, whose name should be familiar to many western rail historians. The original text, unchanged from the first edition it appears, gives most of the details of the beginnings, changes and ends of passenger trains and routes over the entire railroad.

While the story is detailed, it reads easily. The new chapter, while it has fewer trains to detail, is equally readable and enlightening. Pictures and maps accompany the text, and while all black and white are clear and well captioned. Appendices include many roster shots of passenger equipment, both narrow and standard gauge, including interior views. Several equipment rosters are also provided, as is a synopsis of train names (though not including all variants over the years), bibliography and index.

Do you wonder what the Uncle Sam trains were, where you could ride the San Luis, or how you could get a direct sleeper to Cripple Creek? It's all here in this book. Passenger train buffs and fans of the Colorado railroads in general, as well as the Rio Grande in particular, will enjoy this reprinted volume, and even those lucky enough to have an original printing will probably want this new edition.

Reviewed by: R.G.P.

MY SISTERS TELEGRAPHIC: WOMEN IN THE TELEGRAPH OFFICE, 1846-1950

Authored by Thomas C. Jepsen - Ohio University Press, Scott Quadrangle, Athens, Ohio 45701.

Softcover, 6" x 9", 231 pp., 2000. $21.95.

This book is a combination social and industrial history, which starts with a study of telegraphers using Morse Code in the rail industry early in the industrial age (or even before it), and expands to the telegraph industry in general. Far from being just a story of women telegraphers, it draws parallels with modern times, there being considerable similarities between the ability to work with the telegraph and today's work with computers and between the ability to communicate over the telegraph (when work was not pressing, personal messages were often sent) and chat rooms in the cyberspace of today.

The book is organized into seven chapters. Besides introductory and summary chapters, the text describes daily life in the telegraph office, the telegraph operator's status in society, women's issues and women telegraphers in literature and cinema, as well as in the labor movement. The book shows that problems of women attempting to earn equal pay for equal work are far from recent and the lack of the women to achieve equality was not attributable to any single cause. Women were often considered inferior in ability to men, both physically and mentally, and the fact that women often accepted less pay for equal work made them a threat to men who saw themselves as vulnerable to being replaced by a worker who would accept less pay. Press coverage of women who participated in union or strike activity was often blatantly sexist. Jepsen's detailed analysis shows us, however, than no single sentence or paragraph can sum up all the complex issues raised here and any claim for or against the women telegraphers can be both supported and contradicted by examples quoted. Many women active in the industry and in its administration, come alive in the pages of this book. Detailed endnotes, bibliography and index make this a useful compendium of information for those interested in further investigating this little-known facet of American railroading history.

Reviewed by: R.G.P.

TROLLEYS IN THE LAND OF THE SKY: STREET RAILWAYS OF ASHEVILLE, N.C. AND VICINITY

Authored by David C. Bailey, Joseph M. Canfield, and Harold E. Cox - Harold E. Cox, 80 Virginia Terrace, Forty Fort, Pa. 18704.

Softcover, 8-1/2" x 11", 96 pp., 2000. $14.00.

Little has been written on the electric railways of this North Carolina mountain town, until now. The authors of this book have gone to great lengths to rectify this situation in this new volume, from the reactivated press of Harold E. Cox. Unlike most cities, Asheville never had a horsecar line, as its population in 1880 was only 2,616. As railroads penetrated the region, the town grew and the need for a public transportation system led to a number of abortive attempts to establish a trolley line. In 1888, the Asheville Street Railway succeeded, with regular service beginning the following year. Other lines were constructed, with the last opening in 1911. The usual corporate machinations took place, and by 1912, the property became part of the Carolina Power and Light Company, itself part of the Electric Bond and Share holdings. The company's history is similar to that of many small town operations: there were strikes, in 1913 and 1926; floods along the French Broad River in 1916; inflation and labor shortages during and after World War I; and declining traffic as the automobile gained in popularity. In 1934, the company decided to convert its operations to buses, and the last car ran in September. Interestingly, the company ran only single-truck passenger cars; the last fleet modernization was between 1924 and 1927, when 24 Birney cars were purchased. The book is organized topically. There are chapters on the history; the cars; the routes; other regional lines, operated mostly by a former Rhode Islander named Richard Howland, who promoted a number of short-lived enterprises and one of greater duration; proposed lines; and on some of the people, high and low, who kept the cars rolling. Layout and design are vintage Harold Cox, with soft covers, staple binding, three column text pages, and numerous photographs, with reproduction ranging from adequate to good. There are 15 maps and many illustrations of advertisements, tickets, transfers and related items. Neither an index or bibliography is provided. Nonetheless, a wealth of information is presented here, in a generally readable style. We owe a debt of gratitude to the authors for documenting the history of these remote and long-gone traction operations. With a very reasonable price, this book is recommended for all with an interest in the history of urban transportation.

Reviewed by: J.N.J.H.

MILWAUKEE ROAD IN COLOR, VOLUME 4 IOWA, MISSOURI, MINNESOTA & THE DAKOTAS

Authored by William F. Stauss - Morning Sun Books, Inc., 9 Pheasant Lane, Scotch Plains, N.J. 07076.

Hardcover, 8-1/2" x 11", 128 pp., 2001. $54.95 (plus $3.50 shipping).

The title of this book should be self-descriptive; this is the fourth of six volumes on color coverage of the Milwaukee Road. The remaining two volumes will cover the West Coast extension.

The book begins with a detailed coverage of the history of the Midwest Hiawatha, which ran from December 11, 1940, to April 28, 1956, with pictures covering the entire period. The remainder of the book is arranged geographically by state, ending with a look back at Wisconsin and Illinois, including some apparently recently discovered early color pictures.

Coverage is broad, and many of the less photographed lines of the railroad are highlighted in this one. Many pictures show some of the earliest color schemes, and there is plenty of steam-powered action as well. Although a page is devoted to the rebirth of the 261, the rest of the steam coverage is truly vintage, and includes several different wheel arrangements, from 4-8-4s down to ten-wheelers and switchers. Other oddities are included as well, including the road's railcars, the half-locomotive, half-express units 5900 and 5901, and the only non-air conditioned open-windowed, stove-heated, gas-lighted streamline cars in the U.S. (They were combines for branch line service.)

Although coverage runs into the 1980s, a large percentage of the pictures date from the 1940s and 1950s. Milwaukee Road fans will especially enjoy this volume, but many others will find this book a refreshing respite from the standard Milwaukee Road coverage most of us have seen elsewhere. The captions include much information about the equipment (locomotives and rolling stock). One note: when you read this book, have a railroad atlas handy, as the small map at the start of the book is virtually useless in locating all the place names mentioned in the extensive captions.

Reviewed by: R. G. P.

NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE WORLD: THE MEN WHO BUILT THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD

Authored by Stephen E. Ambrose - Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10020.

Hardcover, 9-1/2" x 61/4", 432 pp., 2000. $28.00 (plus $4.98 shipping).

The professional historian who has gained a world-wide reputation for writing about World War II has now turned his attention to railroads. Stephen E. Ambrose, author of Citizen Soldiers and D-Day, has written about one of the most exciting events of U.S. history: the building of the transcontinental railroad. Since he could not use personal interviews for his sources, Ambrose assigned family members to research newspapers, corporate records and archives.

Ambrose, tells the story in a flowing, dynamic style. Chapters on the Central Pacific and Union Pacific hopscotch over each other to bring to life the cross-country race. He sets the difficulties the Central Pacific had in getting supplies and blasting tunnels against the desolation of the prairie and Indian attacks the Union Pacific faced. There is no doubt that he brings out the hardships and determination of the workers in building a ribbon of iron from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean.

Ambrose recreates the task, which is often compared to the construction of the pyramids in Egypt, in his Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869. The book is easy reading. While there are a few places that grammar is sacrificed to style, they are understandable, given the mood that Ambrose tries to create. He uses many quotes quite skillfully. The same holds for printing texts of telegrams and newspaper quotations. Rather than slowing down the reader, they actually add buoyancy. Chapters also contain many numerical details-from the number of spikes used per rail to financial figures. It is difficult to 'put the book down' when one begins reading.

The book has one photo section on slick, good quality paper. The 51 photos are reproduced with good clarity. They are the usual frames that occur in most Union Pacific-Central Pacific histories. Ambrose, however, does not give proper photo credits nor does he mention the respective collections. This failure could be a legal matter. While the book is easy reading, it needs transition paragraphs at times when moving from topic to topic. These transitions would help most readers who do not have a passing acquaintance with railroad history. In the same sense, the book does contain maps. It would be more useful, however, if the major construction sites along the track lines were identified.

There are a number of serious historical inaccuracies. Only a few can be given as examples here. On page 157, Ambrose perpetuates the legend that the Chinese, drilled holes in the cliff at Cape Horn while "hanging from baskets." While the story emphasizes Chinese heroism, it is one of the myths in the building of the Central Pacific. It never really happened. The legend developed later and has been handed down without scrutiny for decades. Ambrose states it as if it were fact. On page 347, Ambrose writes, "After the spikes were driven in place, five to the rail...." This number is impossible. During the 1860s, spikes were driven into ties on both sides of the rail; a 30-foot rail, using Ambrose's base number, would need at least 10 spikes.

Most rail enthusiasts know of the famous Lucin cut-off across the Great Salt Lake. Ambrose states on page 333 that... "the Union Pacific put in the causeway at the beginning of the Twentieth Century." It was the Southern Pacific, not the Union Pacific, which built it in 1904. The Southem Pacific had to rebuild it again in 1959, to replace over 12 miles of wooden trestle which had caught fire.

There are also errors in his general history of the period. On page 43, Ambrose places the discovery of gold in California "...on a branch of the American River about forty miles west of present-day Sacramento." The reality is that gold was discovered approximately 35 miles to the northeast of then California's capital city, Colona. Civil War buffs would be displeased with Ambrose's reference to the Battle of Antietam. On page 292, Ambrose claims that Lee captured McClellan's uncoded orders before the battle. Actually, McClellan acquired Lee's orders.

When mixing general United States history with railroad history, the same problems occur. Ambrose uses a good illustration to point out how much the railroad changed people's movement and the perspective of life in general. On page 42, he states: "George Washington could travel no faster than Julius Caesar, but Andrew Jackson could go upstream at a fair pace, and James K. Polk could travel at twenty miles an hour or more overland." The Caesar/Washington example is good, but the Jackson and Polk one misses the point. In 1807, Robert Fulton's steamboat, the Clermont, traveled the Hudson River from New York City to Albany in 32 hours. By 1812, steamboats plied most navigable eastern rivers.

Therefore, Thomas Jefferson as president (1801-1809) could have traveled "upstream at a fair pace." There is no question that his successor, James Madison (1809-1817), could have done so. More to the point, Andrew Jackson was the first president to travel by train when he was Chief Executive (1829-1837). James K. Polk (1845-1849) could have traveled on the New York and Erie Railroad across most of New York state or the Pennsylvania Railroad a good deal of the way by rail to Pittsburgh. Of course, U. S. Grant, theoretically, could have traveled all the way from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco by train in about a week in 1869.

Nothing Like It In the World does a service by introducing the railroad and a most important event in its history to a wider audience than other authors and publications have been able to do in recent years. Ambrose, therefore, had an opportunity to write an accurate account and help bring an end to much of the mythology surrounding the construction. It is a disappointment that most readers today will believe that they have a credible account given Ambrose's reputation. His book, therefore, leaves open the chance for someone else to write a modern, more-accurate history of the building of the first United States transcontinental railroad.

Reviewed by: Rudy Daniels

THE RAILROAD PASSENGER CAR

Authored by August Mencken - Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles St. Baltimore, Md 21218.

Hardcover 7" x 9", 209pp., 2000 $27.95 This is a reprint of a 1957 book.

Mr. Mencken was a civil engineer and a published author, but not as well-known as his brother, the late, quotable H.L. of Baltimore newspaper fame. This book is not to be confused with John H. White's masterwork The American Railroad Passenger Car also published by Johns Hopkins. This volume is much smaller and can be sort of divided into two parts. The first includes the history of the development of railway passenger cars from the 1830s up to the Union Pacific's M10000 of 1934. The second part is a series of 35 contemporary accounts of passengers" trips dating from 1831 to 1891 with subjects about early accidents, baggage smashers, Indian attacks, etc.

For me, these "true tales" where fascinating and really made the book worth every penny of its price. While it is not on par with White's work, it still is a valuable contribution to the history of railway cars and it is an entertaining and informative book. I recommend it.

Reviewed by: F.P.K

THE TOLEDO AND WESTERN RAILWAY CO., 1890-1935

Authored by Wilbur E. Hague and Kirk F. Hise - Harold E. Cox, 80 Virginia Terrace, Forty-Fort, Pa. 18704

Softcover, 8 1/2" x 11", 80pp., 2000 $12.00

One of the many interurban electric railways that once doted the continent was the Toledo and Western, whose story is told rather well in this latest offering from Harold Cox. Although the general outline of its history is similar to that of many other such lines, it had some characteristics that set it apart from its contemporaries.

The idea of a railroad from Toledo toward Chicago through extreme northwestern Ohio first appeared in 1880. After several false starts, a group of promoters were successful in chartering the electric powered Toledo and Western Railway late in 1899. Construction began in October 1900, and the first cars started in March 1901, from Sylvania eastward to the western edge of Toledo, where the "y" used the local Sherry Street car tracks to reach down town.

As finally completed late in 1903, the T&WE consisted of two divisions; the main line, which extended about 55 miles from western Toledo to pioneer, and a branch from Allen junction, on the main line, to Adrian, Michigan, a distance of about 30 miles. There it connected with the tracks of the local street railway to reach the downtown area. Passengers were carried in heavy, wooden Jewett coaches or combines, which were rebuilt over the years, supplemented after World War I by three Cincinnati lightweights.

Interchanges were established with the steam railroads at several Cincinnati lightweights, and eventually the T&W developed an extensive freight traffic, served by a half dozen locomotives and a small fleet of box, stock, flat and gondola cars. A mail contract provided additional revenue.

The line changed hands several time, fell into receivership but recovered, and enjoyed relative prosperity in the 1920s, primarily from freight traffic. But growing competition from trucks and buses, operating on newly paved roads, complaints from the towns and property owners and the Depression led to retrenchment and abandonment in 1935. Portions of the line continued to operate under several owners, using gasoline locomotives, and a small remnant at Franklin still exists.

The book is organized chronologically and is well written (except for the over-capitalization errors). The text is supplemented by a map and by numerous photographs, most of which are clearly reproduced. There is a roster and a bibliography, but no index. The price is very reasonable. The authors have done a good job in bringing to life once more this classic interurban operation. I recommend the book highly.

Reviewed by: J.N.J.H

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD SYSTEM EMPLOYEE TIMETABLES VOLUME ONE: FEBRUARY 29, 1948

Reprinted by the Union Pacific Historical Society - UPHS Timetables, P.O. Box 4006, Cheyenne, Wyo. 82003-4006.

Softcover, 8-1/2" x 11", 326 pp., June 2000. $24.95 (plus $5.00 shipping).

This book does not parade under false colors. It is, quite unabashedly, exactly what it says it is, and that is a collection of employee time- tables and special rules that govern how a railroad employee of the Union Pacific Railroad was to operate trains. It is not a picture book.

The time frame is at the very beginning of the big push to dieselize the Class I railroads in the U.S. There should be lots of people who will want this book, including those interested in the Union Pacific Railroad as it was in 1948, those who collect employee timetables, and those who are interested in how a Class I railroad actually operated.

An employee timetable allows you to determine scheduled running times and speeds of trains. For example, in the Nebraska Division (page 6 of the first timetable), passenger train No. 28 covered the 144 miles from Grand Island, Nebr. to Omaha, Nebr. in 2 hours and 38 minutes for an average speed including stops of 55 mph. Streamliner No. 104 left 6 minutes later, passed No. 28 at Central City, and arrived in Omaha 25 minutes earlier, having averaged 68 mph. The back pages of each timetable show maximum speeds for anywhere on that division and the last page is a division map. The date on the timetables, February 29, 1948, is when the UPRR started renumbering their timetables at No. 1 except for the "Bridge Division" at Omaha with Timetable No. 558.

The UPRR had just completed splitting the Colorado Division into two parts that were appended to the Kansas and Wyoming Divisions and consolidating the Washington Division into the Oregon Division. This 1.5" thick book is cleanly and sharply printed on heavy stock paper and covers the three districts and seven divisions of the Union Pacific Railroad. Unless you are looking for a general "railroad" book or a picture book, I would highly recommend it!

Reviewed by: Robert A. Jefferi