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Chicago Railroad Scenes In Color Vol. 1 is a surprising full-color softcover which fea- tures the color work of well-known b&w pho- tographer Robert P. Olmstead that’s now available from The Railroad Press. Packed with crisp, well-printed images, the book is divided into two sections that cover the years 1956-’66 and 1984-’96. In the old- er category, you’ll enjoy seeing first genera- tion diesels in their delivery paint, including an Erie 750 h.p. General Electric testbed leading a set of EMD F units; a pair of Bal- timore & Ohio F3s doubleheading with a T3 4-8-2 on a reefer train; Nickel Plate PA’s leading the New Yorker; multiple Chicago Great Western and Soo Line maroon F units on freight; Pennsy five-stripe E7s, Illinois Central E units, Erie PA’s on passenger trains; and Rock Island RS3s, F units, and a DL109 on still more passenger trains. Steam power includes a good variety of Grand Trunk Western engines, B&O’s handsome homemade Mountains, double- headed Nickel Plate Berkshires, and a gold- en Burlington 4-8-4 pulling commuters on the Racetrack. Electric fans will enjoy the South Shore m.u. cars and 800 class electric motors. In a more modern vein, Olmstead lensed Burlington Northern’s famous com- muter service E9m’s; Conrail, Chicago & North Western, BN, Soo Line, Santa Fe, Milwaukee Road, and Union Pacific freights along with RTA commuter and Amtrak pas- senger action. Happily, the “vintage” mater- ial greatly outnumbers more current sub- jects by approximately three to one. This full-color, 48-page 8¹/₂″×11″ softcover sells for $24.95 plus $3.00 shipping from The Railroad Press, P.O. Box 444-R, Hanover, PA 17331;
www.alco628.com. Otto Perry and the Union Pacific Nebras-
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ka Division by Michael M. Bartels and James J. Reisdorff is a new title available from South Platte Press. Along with Richard H. Kindig, Perry was one of Col- orado’s preeminent steam era photogra- phers, and this book presents an excellent selection of his b&w work comprised mostly of well-executed traditional ³/₄ action shots but also including many good roster views. Subjects include a wintry 1949 view of a 4-12-2 on Archer Hill in Wyoming; double- headed Mikados in 1930; St. Joseph & Grand Island 4-6-0 No. 31, also in 1930; several views of UP Harriman Pacifics and Moun- tains on Depression-era passenger consists; a Burlington Hudson at Omaha Union Sta- tion; and a UP baggage/mail/coach motor car. As the years go by, the handsome Alco 4-8-4s appear along with the pioneering M10000 streamliner, shrouded Pacific No. 2906, and then, more internal combustion power including EMD E units and sets of Al- co FA1s along with General Electric gas tur- bine electrics. It’s not all main line action, as Perry also enjoyed investigating many ob- scure branch lines. This 80-page, 8¹/₂″×11″ softcover sells for $24.95 plus $5.00 shipping from South Platte Press, P.O. Box 163, David City, NE 68632; www. southplat-
tepress.com. NE residents add sales tax. Pacific Electric Railway by Steve Crise,
Michael A. Patris, and the Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society, is a new release in the “Then and Now” series from Arcadia Publishing. The book is organized into four chapters covering PE’s Western, Southern, Eastern, and Northern Divisions and pro- vides a fascinating side-by-side look at Southern California history through the use of vintage images, shot decades ago, and modern-day photographs of the same scenes presented together on each spread. Some places have hardly been touched by the hands of time, while others are hardly rec- ognizable today. Traction fans will enjoy the sight of PE Blimps, Tens, PCC’s and freight motors in their natural environment juxta- posed with modern light rail and in many cases, buses (well, they might not enjoy the buses so much). A surprising number of ar- tifacts from the “old days” remain, including several bridges and landmarks such as the stations at Fullerton, Bellflower, North Hol- lywood, Rialto, and Sixth and Main Street, L.A., the old Bekins building at Hacienda Park, and the Watts Towers. Following the usual Arcadia format of well-printed b&w photos accompanied by extensive captions, this 96-page, 6¹/₂″×9¹/₄″ softcover sells for $21.99 plus $2.60 shipping from Arcadia Publishing, 420 Wando Park Blvd., Mount Pleasant, SC 29464;
http://www.arcadia
publishing.com/9780738575865/Pacific -Electric-Railway. It’s also available at local bookstores and at
amazon.com.
BOOK REVIEW
Billion Dollar Coalfield By Alex P. Schust, Two Mule Publishing, 286 Princes Lane, Harwood, MD 20776; billion-
dollarcoalfield.com. Hardcover, 634 pages, 8¹/₂″×11″. $75.00 plus $5.00 shipping in the U.S. This thick, compre- hensive volume tells the history of the soft coal industry in Mc- Dowell County, West Virginia, home of the well-known Pocahon- tas “smokeless” coal fields. Schust follows the story from when the first coal was shipped out over the
railroad in 1888 through the peak produc- tion years of 1916-1957 to 1988, when pro- duction was at but a fraction of its peak lev- els and still declining. The first two chapters lay the ground-
work and discuss the concurrent develop- ment of the coal companies and the railroad, as well as the different types of coal and their uses. Since the Norfolk & Western Railway was instrumental in establishing the coalfields and moving the product to market, the rest of the book is organized around the railroad with 15 chapters devot- ed to various sections of the N&W main line and branches, including the North Fork, Tug Fork, Spice Creek, and Dry Fork Branches, with descriptions of every mine along every rail line and many, many photos of rail and coal facilities. Six appendices cov- er subjects including a court case concerning
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