Best of
Trains

2016

The Dining Car


Eric W. Peterson - 2016
    While striving to appease the eccentric, finicky Horace, and Wanda, the Pioneer Mother's enigmatic chef, Jack falls under the spell of Giselle Lebeau, a gorgeous celebrity chef whose designs on him test his self-control and his loyalty.But when tragedy rocks Horace's insulated white-linen world, Jack must take charge of a simmering stew of quirky yet powerful personalities--all while staying in Wanda's good graces and keeping an eye on their newest passenger.A story of service, serendipity, and second chances, The Dining Car is more than a mouthwatering read--it's a marvelous, exuberant work of fiction.

The Big Book of Trains


National Railway Museum - 2016
    Different types of trains are featured on their own spreads, and each page features multiple images to give a close-up view as well as informative text about each train. See the differences among monorails, passenger trains, and TGVs. Learn about pistons, fireboxes, boilers, and coupling rods, and find out exactly what they do to help the train travel down on the tracks.See key features of each train model and discover the difference between steam trains and diesels. Find out how trains are designed for certain jobs and tasks, including mountain trains, snow trains, and freight trains. Look at the biggest and fastest trains in the world.With incredible pictures and informative text, The Big Book of Trains is the essential book for young readers who want to know everything about trains.

Steam Train, Dream Train Colors


Sherri Duskey Rinker - 2016
    All aboard for a rainbow of train cars and their lively animal crew! Vivid colors and cozy rhyming text inspired by the bestselling Steam Train, Dream Train will make learning colors a rich experience for the smallest readers.

TRUNKY (transgender junky): A Memoir of Institutionalization & Southern Hospitality


Samuel Peterson - 2016
    After a decade of sobriety and relentless devotion to becoming a writer, Trunky finally finds himself on the brink of success and widespread acclaim. But as fate would have it, he spirals down into depression and begins using heroin again. This relapse is different from those that came before, however, as Trunky ends up institutionalized in a recovery center in the south among a diverse group of dopers--thugs, criminals, white supremacists, professional athletes and business men--all of whom are looking for something they're terrified of finding. As Trunky navigates his path from addition to recovery and female to manhood in this cast of characters, he find himself on an unexpected journey into the depths of the human soul where he discovers its fundamental flaws and the redemption we experience from honest vulnerability when we have the courage to take the plunge.

Train: A Journey Through the Pages Book


Mike Vago - 2016
    Move the red steam engine out of the depot and to the front of the book, where the sun is just coming up over a bay, and then take a journey across wide plains, up mountains and down hills, into a city at night with its beacons of light—and finally, back to the rail yard. The panoramic landscapes are filled with marvelous details that young children will delight in discovering, and the sweet, simple rhyming language pulls the story along and will be happily repeated when it’s time to start the journey all over again. All aboard!

Train Doctor: Trouble Shooting with Diesel and Electric Traction


Roger Senior - 2016
    Train Doctor is the story of Roger Senior's career in the railway industry, from 1968 when the author joined British Railways, until his retirement from Great North Eastern Railway.The book takes you from the 1970 s period, with its first generation Diesels, through to privatisation in 1994 and the electrified East Coast main line.This will be of interest to enthusiasts and modern railway historians, with its inside look at the railway industry during a time of considerable change.The author began his career with first generation diesel classes, on the Eastern Region, of what was then British Railways and went on to work with the High Speed Train Fleet, when they were first introduced to main line service, in the 1970s.This is a story of troubleshooting, with many different types of modern traction over a period of twenty-five years, an insight in to the trials and tribulations of keeping the railway running, in all weathers and at all costs.Roger Senior later worked with electric traction, both before and after privatisation, on the East Coast main line, finishing his career with Great North Eastern Railway as the Resident Engineer for the refurbishment of the MK1V fleet known as the Mallard project."

Pennsylvania Main Line Railroad Stations: Philadelphia to Harrisburg


Jim Sundman - 2016
    Costly to build and maintain, and never attracting the traffic needed to sustain it, the state was eager to let it go. Keeping the rail portion and combining it with its own lines, the PRR ultimately developed a well-built and well-run rail line from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh all while keeping the “main line” moniker. The eastern section between Philadelphia and Harrisburg was especially successful, particularly after the railroad built new communities along the line that were at first summer destinations and later year-round homes for daily commuters. Other towns and cities along the main line had a strong industrial or agricultural base needing rail access, and many of these communities had attractive train stations. Images of America: Pennsylvania Main Line Railroad Stations: Philadelphia to Harrisburg documents many of these passenger stations through vintage photographs and other images. Most are gone, but fortunately some still stand and are in use today.

Transit Street Design Guide


National Association of City Transportation Officials - 2016
    As cities work to become more compact, sustainable, and healthy, their work is paying dividends: in 2014, Americans took 10.8 billion trips on public transit, the highest since the dawn of the highway era. But most of these trips are on streets that were designed to move private cars, with transit as an afterthought. The NACTO Transit Street Design Guide places transit where it belongs, at the heart of street design. The guide shows how streets of every size can be redesigned to create great transit streets, supporting great neighborhoods and downtowns.   The Transit Street Design Guide is a well-illustrated, detailed introduction to designing streets for high-quality transit, from local buses to BRT, from streetcars to light rail. Drawing on the expertise of a peer network and case studies from across North America, the guide provides a much-needed link between transit planning, transportation engineering, and street design. The Transit Street Design Guide presents a new set of core principles, street typologies, and design strategies that shift the paradigm for streets, from merely accommodating service to actively prioritizing great transit. The book expands on the transit information in the acclaimed Urban Street Design Guide, with sections on comprehensive transit street design, lane design and materials, stations and stops, intersection strategies, and city transit networks. It also details performance measures and outlines how to make the case for great transit street design in cities.   The guide is built on simple math: allocating scarce space to transit instead of private automobiles greatly expands the number of people a street can move. Street design and decisions made by cities, from how to time signals to where bus stops are placed, can dramatically change how transit works and how people use it.   The Transit Street Design Guide is a vital resource for every transportation planner, transit operations planner, and city traffic engineer working on making streets that move more people more efficiently and affordably.

Boy: A Journey


James Stryker - 2016
    Jay was a frustrating parent - always urging Luke to go to mortuary school, disapproving of his Broadway aspirations, and favoring his other children. He even had the audacity to die mid-argument, forcing additional guilt on Luke for never meeting his expectations. However, Luke's assumptions about Jay are thrown into turmoil at the funeral when an enigmatic stranger, Tom, expresses gratitude that Jay finally shared his past with his children. When Luke can't hide his confusion, Tom realizes his mistake and bolts. Riddled with questions, Luke confronts his family. He is shocked to discover that everyone guards the truth that Jay was a transgender man who'd been raised as a female. Practiced at keeping his father's secrets, they're unwilling to reveal anything further at Luke's demand. Devastated by Jay's lack of trust in him, Luke feels forced to abandon the family who deceived him although leaving them behind won't answer his questions. To discover the reason his father hid his gender identity, Luke seeks the only other person with answers, Tom. In Luke's eyes, he is owed an explanation, even if it's a difficult one. However, Tom harbors a deep protective devotion to Jay, a loyalty he feels the truth would betray. Additionally, as a man suffering with terminal cancer, he has no desire to drudge up painful memories by playing Luke's Virgil. Luke must earn his trust before the secret past of both men dies with Tom.

Full Steam Ahead: How the Railways Made Britain


Peter Ginn - 2016
    Full Steam Ahead will reveal how the world we live in today was entirely shaped by the rail network, charting the glorious evolution of rail transportation and how it left its mark on every aspect of life, landscape and culture. Peter Ginn and Ruth Goodman brilliantly bring this revolution to life in their trademark style which engages and captivates. They explore the everyday lives and the intangible ephemeral history that makes up the stories of the people who built, worked and were affected by the railways. From the very first steam railways to the infrastructure that is still used in part today, they look at the men, women and children who lived and sometimes died constructing Britain's railway heritage. Immersing themselves in the story of how the railways made us what we are today, the authors uncover compelling social history along the way, exploring the railway's impact on everything from food and medicine to warfare and the class system.They tell the stories of the historic characters whose lives were changed by this radical mode of transport, describing the wider social history and geography of each particular region of Britain. As they trace the emergence of the Industrial Revolution across the country, the authors discover a hidden layer of social history, using rail transportation as a backdrop to reveal Britain's radical change in social attitudes and culture across the 19th and early 20th centuries, including the rise of the working class, women's rights, industrial growth, economic decline, warfare and the birth of the great British holiday. Beautifully illustrated with photographs and artwork throughout, Full Steam Ahead is a passionate, charming and insightful look at Britain through the lens of one of its most momentous eras.