Railroad Book Collectors

12 comments on "Railroad Book Collectors"

• MasonJar
  September 15, 2008 at 7:26 pm
  

  Not that "high end" for me, although I do try to keep it very focussed. My collection (if you can call it that) includes a couple of out of print items on my home town, which are the ones that fall into the "don't leave the house" section. The others are about Canadian National, pre-1960, and about many of the CPR and CNR predecessors in eastern and southern Ontario.
  
  Andrew
• Ralph
  September 15, 2008 at 7:31 pm
  

  The only out of print one I have is The Ulster and Delaware: Railroad Through the Catskills. I keep my eyes open for Penn Central Power.
  
  Ralph
• railohio
  September 15, 2008 at 7:53 pm
  
  Originally Posted by Ralph
  I keep my eyes open for Penn Central Power.
  I got it for $20 last month.
• Ralph
  September 16, 2008 at 4:10 am
  

  Nice!!!!
• jbaakko
  September 16, 2008 at 6:02 pm
  

  My Books:
  Houghton County's Streetcars and Electric Park
  Keweenaw Central Railroad and the Crestview Resort
  The Copper Range Railroad
  The Mineral Range Railroad
  Intermodal Equipment & Operations
  Intermodal Modelers Guide Vol 1
  Intermodal Modelers Guide Vol 2
  Intermodal Railroading
  Santa Fe Car and Locomotive Plans
  Santa Fe Steel Rails Through California
  Trade Marks Of The Santa Fe Railway
• TrainNut
  September 16, 2008 at 8:41 pm
  

  I only have one really old railroad book. It was given to me by my father in law with strict instructions never to get rid of it. It's a book titled "The Curse of Tramp Life" written by a famous tramp better known as A-no. 1. It's #3 of the 13th edition with a copyright of 1912. It's pretty frail. Again, due to its condition, it can't be worth much of anything except to somebody like me.
  
  Front cover...
  
  
  Portrait...
  
  
  First page...
  
  
  Back cover...
  
  
  EDIT: I did find another copy for sale a while back that was in much better condition than mine. At the time, it was selling for $200.
• decapod
  November 22, 2008 at 10:23 pm
  

  This thread is 2 months old so nobody may read this, but I am a huge RR book collector. I have close to 700 volumes, mostly hardback, plus all of the issues of Trains magazine back to 11/1940 except for about six, and all of Railfan (and Railfan & Railroad) back to when they started in the 1970's. I prefer first editions, but also try and get all the various editions for my favorite authors. Of course the first guy on the list is Lucius Beebe, and if I had a dollar for every Ebay listing that calls a Beebe book a FE and it's published by Bonanza, I'd have enough money to buy a few. I have all of his stuff in the Bonanza reprints, but also the original editions also by Appleton-Century, Grosset & Dunlap, etc. The originals are much higher quality, and not much more expensive, just harder to find. And Beebe signed thousands so it is not hard to get inscribed copies, I've got several. I've got his "Great RR Photographs" which was limited to around 1000 copies, but have yet to get "Two Trains to Remember" which was limited to 350 I think - not much of a book and it usually goes for several hundred dollars.
  
  You mentioned Bob Olmsted, I love his stuff. I have all of his books except the one out this fall about UP E units; I'll pick it up at one of the upcoming tran shows. I think he is up to nearly 40 books total, the hardest to find being Rock Island Rails (not Rock Island Recollections - very common) which I have only seen listings for 3 or 4 copies of in my life. Also hard to get by him are "Four to Remember" and "No More Mountains to Cross." I'm a black and white RR photo nut myself so I love his stuff, not so artistic but very well done.
  
  I personally model the Western Maryland so I have everything ever published about it. Especially nice is "The Western Maryland Steam Album." I have a copy signed by Bill Price, the author, that supposedly came from Bill's personal collection. I bought it from author Harry Stegmaier (sp) at a train show shortly before Bill died - Harry said Bill was selling stuff to pay medical expenses. I paid $90 for it - a fair price I didn't hesitate to pay. In my opinion to best collection of 1940's and 1950's color steam photos ever published.
  
  I also like Don Ball's stuff. While common and cheap, Don got me started both in RR books and photos. His compilations are very nice, very reasonably priced, and I love his writing style. I still remember reading in Trains magazine when he died way to young. It's been over 20 years ago, and I don't think anyone has replaced him yet.
  
  Best buys I can recall
  - Bookstore in Colorado Springs - got "Steam's Finest Hour" and "UP in the Turbine Era" for less than 10 bucks each...
  - Train show in Dayton - Steinheimer's "Diesels over Donner" for $15
  - show in Columbus got the first 5 volumes of the juvenile "Ralph on the Railroad" series WITH DUSTJACKETS for a total of $10. While the books are common, but copies with DJs sell for $25-50 each.
  - show in Lima last Christmas got "N&W Diesels" volumes one and two, "Lehigh Valley" by Archer, "Kansas City Railroads" and 2 other softcovers I can't recall for a total of $60. The N&W volumes sometimes sell for nearly $100 each. I got to the show 10 minutes before it closed and got the guy just as he was packing up to go.
  - I bought a whole pile of books for $10 each from a hobby shop in Brooklyn I got hooked up with on Ebay, including Prince's "NC&StL" ($100+), and several others worth nearly as much. Several more I already had, and resold them on Ebay for much more than $10.
  
  My favorites (as I can think right now):
  - "WM Steam Album" by Price
  - "WM in the Diesel Era" by Salamon and Hopkins
  - "Rails" by Don Ball (B&W photos)
  - The Narrow Gauge Series (first 5) by Richard Dorman - "The Southern; Durango; Gunnison; Alamosa/Salida; Santa Fe"
  - "Passion for Trains" by Steinheimer (a shame about his declining health)
  - and from a B&W photographer's perspective, anything with stuff from Steinheimer (the best), Ted Benson (a close second), Bob Olmsted (not artistic but very well done), O. Winston Link, etc. Color doesn't do as much for me beyond a historical recording aspect, but I do like Canadian Greg McDonnell's (sp?) stuff - I don't like Canadian railroads, but his books are very good. The late Gary Benson's stuff was terrific - for a color work by one photographer "Rolling Thunder" is excellent. His photos floored me. The text by Fred Frailey is entertaining also, I think Fred is the best RR writer out there today. His book on the "Blue Streak Merchandise", while on I think a boring subject (for a whole book), was nevertheless one of the best RR reads I have ever had.
  
  Sorry to numb your brain
  
  Jon
  Troy OH
• eightyeightfan1
  November 23, 2008 at 7:20 am
  

  Two months old...And I missed it!
  OK.....
  Connecticut Railroads (Good info on the original Central New England)
  Country Depots in the Connecticut Hills
  Civil War Railroads and Models
  New York Central:Hudson River Division(history of the Hudson River Line, from conception to Today.
• railohio
  November 24, 2008 at 12:32 pm
  

  This is going to be fun!
  
  

  Originally Posted by decapod
  You mentioned Bob Olmsted, I love his stuff. I have all of his books except the one out this fall about UP E units; I'll pick it up at one of the upcoming tran shows. I think he is up to nearly 40 books total, the hardest to find being Rock Island Rails (not Rock Island Recollections - very common) which I have only seen listings for 3 or 4 copies of in my life. Also hard to get by him are "Four to Remember" and "No More Mountains to Cross." I'm a black and white RR photo nut myself so I love his stuff, not so artistic but very well done.
  I need to get Six Units to Sycamore yet as well as the various Milwaukee Road volumes. At this point I'm ready to grab whatever shows up at Summerail next year at any cost.
  
  
  
  Originally Posted by
  I also like Don Ball's stuff. While common and cheap, Don got me started both in RR books and photos. His compilations are very nice, very reasonably priced, and I love his writing style. I still remember reading in Trains magazine when he died way to young. It's been over 20 years ago, and I don't think anyone has replaced him yet.
  I agree his stuff is good for the price. My favorite is America's Railroads The Second Generation since it covers the decidedly diesel decades of the 1960s and 1970s. I do have have a deteriorating copy of America's Colorful Railroads, a 1978 Bonanza edition, that was given to me by a friend to has since passed; it will always be on my shelf regardless of it's wear, but I am looking for an economical copy to replace it in daily use.
  
  
  
  Originally Posted by
  - Train show in Dayton - Steinheimer's "Diesels over Donner" for $15
  This is one of two Stein books still not on my shelf. Though I don't consider it his best work it is still Stein and that alone makes it worthy of my shelf. I do still need to get all of his books signed, sooner rather than later.
  
  
  
  Originally Posted by
  - "WM in the Diesel Era" by Salamon and Hopkins
  I picked up a new, sealed copy of this at Summerail this past August. It's a good book and I've spent a fair amount of time along the old Wild Mary. I have a project to collect everything that Old Line Graphics published and this volume put me to within three books of that goal.
  
  
  
  Originally Posted by
  - "Passion for Trains" by Steinheimer (a shame about his declining health)
  Wow, what a book! There are few photographers, both railroad and general, with the same power to make me pause. This is Stein's crowning achievement and rightly so as it encompasses a life's work of photography. There are a few scattered images that were skipped I would have liked to have seen included, but I certainly can't find fault with the inclusion of anything that is in there. Shortly after this book came out I had the pleasure of meeting Dick and Shirley and, in fact, Dick wanted to talk to me. I was speechless and to this day wonder if it wasn't all a dream.
  
  
  
  Originally Posted by
  Bob Olmsted (not artistic but very well done)
  I disagree that Mr. Olmsted is "not artistic." While he isn't as widely known as others he does bring a deal of creativity to railroad photography. Given how much he has shot in the dreaded flatlands he's had no choice but to take some chances. Not every one of his shots is a winner, he's had plenty of duds, too. If you study his photography you'll see his style of artistry shine through. The greatest example of this off the top of my head is the shot on page 30 of West End Rails of the Pennsy's General in Englewood. There is certainly a message there that may only be apparent after a bit of contemplation.
  
  
  
  Originally Posted by
  O. Winston Link, etc.
  I have both The Last Steam Railroad in America and Steam, Steal & Stars and I find both to be rather kitsch and passe. Link took a novel approach in the 1950s and mastered it quite well, I can't argue that. The problem is that his approach is now outdated and overblown. People today can shoot floodlit night photos with a digital SLR and a bank of synchronized digital flashes. There are a bunch of Link imitators these days but they really haven't evolved the style. (That is the definition of kitsch, isn't it?) In the end Link used a gimmick rather well to gain notoriety. Today we can look back and marvel at how much he worked to achieve those results, but, in the end, is there really much substance to them?
  
  
  
  Originally Posted by
  but I do like Canadian Greg McDonnell's (sp?) stuff
  Amen. My favorite book by far is Greg McDonnell's Heartland. It is mantra at times and my nemesis at others. It is, in sum, phenomenal. (Yes, Greg knows this. He heard all about it when he signed my copy a few years back.) I also have a smattering of his other books; Lake Boats, Rites of Passage, U-Boats, and Wheat Kings all come to mind though there's probably one or two I've forgotten.
  
  
  
  Originally Posted by
  The text by Fred Frailey is entertaining also, I think Fred is the best RR writer out there today. His book on the "Blue Streak Merchandise", while on I think a boring subject (for a whole book), was nevertheless one of the best RR reads I have ever had.
  Fred is a great writer. I've never met him but have had the pleasure of swapping e-mails back and forth from time to time. One of his best stories is actually the story of how he put together a recent feature for Trains magazine on Canadian winters. I never thought I'd see a national magazine editor use "LOL" in a story! It was a great story and gave some welcome background information on the published article.
  
  
  That was fun! Next!
  
  ~BS
• nkp174
  November 24, 2008 at 2:51 pm
  

  I'm looking to get an unabridged copy of the Pictorial Supplement to Mac Poor's Denver South Park & Pacific (my current is an abridged reissue), the 1879 and 1888 Car Builder's Dictionary, John White's American Railroad Freight Car, and a couple current books: Sundance's Colorado Central book and Next Stop Honolulu.
  
  Currently there is a $600 buy-it-now for Poor's book (I have a memorial edition already). There is a Pictorial Supplement for $210.