Best of
Trains

2003

Green Light for the Little Red Train


Benedict Blathwayt - 2003
    Children love the bright, busy pages of the Little Red Train series.When Duffy the driver is told to keep going until the lights change, that’s exactly what he does -- and he doesn’t even notice that he’s driven Little Red Train right under the sea to France!

Mallard: How the Blue Streak Broke the World Speed Record


Don Hale - 2003
    This engrossing history covers the rise of the Mallard, a tale that goes back to the late 19th century when the rival railway companies first began to vie with one another to set speed records. It charts the technological development of the steam engine through the early decades of the 20th century into a hugely powerful and truly locomotive machine. Above all, it focuses on the singular and larger-than-life character of Sir Nigel Gresley, the Mallard's designer and one of history’s most gifted engineers. Packed with interviews with surviving crew members and their relatives, this account also provides an hour-by-hour timeline of the first time the “Blue Steak” attempted to break the record and thunder into the record books.

Getting Started with Lego Trains


Jacob McKee - 2003
    LEGO insider, Jacob H. McKee, shares some of his most fascinating and original train designs, while including descriptive articles on basic building techniques, plus high-quality building instructions for several different projects. Veteran LEGO® trains fanatics and curious beginners alike will find this book the easiest way to get started with LEGO® trains.JACOB H. MCKEE is a well-known figure in the LEGO trains community and the LEGO Community Development Manager for North America. Jacob has worked on more than 400 websites and countless community projects, including the official LEGO® Trains website www.lego.com/trains. He has been building LEGO creations since he was a young boy.

Railroad Signaling


Brian Solomon - 2003
    In this paperback rerelease of the successful 2003 title, the otherwise-arcane world of railroad signaling is explained in concise language and brought to life with nearly 200 fantastic photographs that depict signaling history and all aspects of modern operations. Author and photographer Brian Solomon brings his wealth of knowledge and photographic talent to a subject that has not often been tackled in book form, yet is integral to the American railroad experience.

Arthur King and the Curious Case of the Time Train


Dean Wilkinson - 2003
    Then there's the strange nightly rumblings beneath the town--some say it's the sound of a ghost train. Arthur and Lawrence embark on an adventure more perplexing than any of Sherlock Homes and Dr. Watson's--can their detective ancestry (or something) help them crack the case?

Journey to Tangiwai : the diary of Peter Cotterill, Napier, 1953


David Hill - 2003
    This means travelling to Auckland by train on Christmas Eve, a journey that Peter will never forget.

Classic Trains


Hans Halberstadt - 2003
    Firsthand accounts of life on the rails, more than 150 dramatic photographs, and a close look at how trains transformed the continent's landscape, society, and history make this a thrill for any railroad aficionado. The story begins with the dawn of the steam era and goes through the golden age of railroad travel and on to the current day. The classics on these lavishly illustrated pages include the tiny, treasured Best Friend of Charleston, the celebrated Twentieth Century Limited Streamliner, and high-speed models that cross the country today.

Canadian Pacific: Stand Fast, Craigellachie


Greg McDonnell - 2003
    Remarkable photography and essays cover the entire CPR system, from the east coast to the west coast including Nova Scotia's Dominion Atlantic lines and Vancouver Island's Esquimalt & Nanaimo. Some of the best steam and diesel photographs ever published appear here along with 1950s-vintage photos of steeple-cab electrics and passenger trains on the Electric Lines subsidiaries: the Grand River Railway and the Lake Erie & Northern.Canadian Pacific Railway captures the pleasure of lingering in wood-frame stations where time was marked to the beat of a Seth Thomas clock, the stainless-steel glamor of the Canadian, the gritty drama of SD40s grinding up mountain grades, and the loneliness of the prairie.

Workin’ on the Railroad: Reminiscences from the Age of Steam


Richard Reinhardt - 2003
    The railroad founded cities, populated states, created governments, destroyed the wilderness. It was the great speculator, the political tyrant, the recruiter of immigrants, the opener of new lands, the cynosure of poets and pioneers, the symbol of adventure, opportunity, escape, and power. . . . Yet, the railroad man, for all his historic importance, his archetypal stature, and his economic power, has achieved only a minor position in American literature.”--from Workin’ on the RailroadIn Workin’ on the Railroad, Richard Reinhardt presents firsthand accounts from engineers, brakemen, porters, conductors, section men, roundhouse workers, switchmen, telegraphers, surveyors, and other neglected pioneers who worked the railroad during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Age of Steam.

Philadelphia Trolleys


Allen Meyers - 2003
    After the Civil War, the horse-drawn omnibus gave way to a comprehensive network of streetcar lines with some routes measuring nineteen miles in length. By 1915, the electrification of the streetcar increased the number of routes in Philadelphia to a total of eighty-six. During the trolley's heyday, the city provided a vast test track for such companies as J.G. Brill, Kimball and Gorton Car Manufacturers, and the Budd Wheel Company. The Wharton Railroad Switch Company revolutionized the manufacture of switches and tracks. Of the lines that once operated in Philadelphia, five are still running today. Philadelphia Trolleys contains a variety of rare images, including a postcard of the Point Breeze Amusement Park, photographs of motormen's uniform badges and buttons, architectural drawings, early stock certificates, and a photograph of the Toonerville Trolley used in the silent movies produced by Lubin Studios in the 1920s.

A Railroad Atlas of the United States in 1946: Volume 1: The Mid-Atlantic States


Richard C. Carpenter - 2003
    A wooded cycling trail that traces an oddly level path through suburban hills. An abandoned high fill that briefly parallels the interstate. Today, little remains of the vast network of passenger and freight railroad lines that once crisscrossed much of eastern and midwestern America. But in 1946, the steam locomotive was king, the automobile was just beginning to emerge from wartime restrictions, passenger trains still made stops in nearly every town, and freight trains carried most of the nation's intercity commerce.In A Railroad Atlas of the United States in 1946, Richard C. Carpenter provides a unique record of this not-so-distant time, when traveling out of town meant, for most Americans, taking the train. The first volume of this multivolume series covers the mid-Atlantic states and includes detailed maps of every passenger railroad line in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. When completed, the series will provide a comprehensive atlas of the U.S. railroad system at its post-World War II high point—a transportation network that many considered the finest railroad passenger system in the world.Meticulously crafted and rich in detail, these hand-drawn color maps reveal with skilled precision—at a scale of 1 inch to 4 miles (or 1:250,000)—the various main and branch railroad passenger and freight lines that served thousands of American towns. The maps also include such features as long-since-demolished steam locomotive and manual signal tower installations, towns that functioned solely as places where crews changed over, track pans, coaling stations, and other rail-specific sites.Currently, there exists no comprehensive, historic railroad atlas for the U.S. This volume, with its 202 full-scale and detail maps, is sure to remain the standard reference work for years to come, as will the others to follow in the series.

Japanese National Railways Its Break-Up and Privatization: How Japan's Passenger Rail Services Became the Envy of the World


Yoshiyuki Kasai - 2003
    This title guides readers through first-hand accounts of the history of JNR's break-up, the political and internal obstacles faced in the rerform process, and the major lessons drawn through his experiences.

Shoah Train


William Heyen - 2003
    Now, Shoah Train collects more than seventy poems written over the last dozen years, lyrics of “discipline and honesty and courage and restraint,” as Archibald MacLeish described The Swastika Poems. Shoah Train was a National Book Award finalist for poetry in 2004.William Heyen is a former Senior Fulbright Lecturer in American Literature in Germany and has won awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, Poetry, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. His work has appeared in many leading journals and more than one hundred anthologies. Shoah Train was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry in 2004. He is professor of English and poet in residence at the State University of New York at Brockport.

Railroads of Pennsylvania: Fragments of the Past in the Keystone Landscape


Lorett Treese - 2003
    - Regional histories of the great railroads - Rail stories of the people and events that shaped history - Rails to Trails paths, tourist attractions, and more Divides the state into regions and explores the major railroads, recounts the lore, profiles the individuals involved, and identifies places one can go to experience the relics of rail culture.

Railroad Stations


Brian Solomon - 2003
    As gateways to cities and towns, they displayed the best each metropolis had to offer. Go on a worldwide tour of the most magnificent examples, from London's St. Pancras and Paris's sensational Gare d'Orsay to Tokyo's Shinjuko station, the busiest on earth. The exquisitely photographed journey begins with a look at the role of the railroad in the 19th and 20th centuries, from the passenger train's heyday to the present time, when nearly abandoned stations are being refitted for other uses. Find out about the different forms of stations, and how the needs of the region influenced the architectural style. Finally, see some of the classic stations that have barely changed since the first trains stopped there and take a fond look back at some lost terminals--such as New York's original Penn Station--that are gone, but not forgotten.

Perfecting the American Steam Locomotive


J. Parker Lamb - 2003
    The steam engine and the mechanical engineering profession both grew directly out of the Industrial Revolution's need for sources of power beyond that of men and animals. Invented in England when coal mining was being developed, the practical steam engine eventually found numerous applications in transportation, especially in railroad technology. J. Parker Lamb traces the evolution of the steam engine from the early 1700s through the early 1800s, when the first locomotives were sent to the United States from England. Lamb then shifts the scene to the development of the American steam locomotive, first by numerous small builders, and later, by the early 20th century, by only three major enterprises and a handful of railroad company shops. Lamb reviews the steady progress of steam locomotive technology through its pinnacle during the 1930s, then discusses the reasons for its subsequent decline.

Classic American Railroad Volume III


Mike Schafer - 2003
    While the book focuses on the golden age of American railroading from 1945 to the early 1970s, it extends to the present day where applicable, providing a colorful look at locomotives, passenger and freight operations, development, and, in some cases, demise. Marvelous color spreads for each railroad are illustrated with wonderfully preserved photos that capture these legendary roads as they roll past scenic backdrops.