hometown Fort Dodge, Des Moines, & South- ern. Other electric lines include the Cedar Rapids & Iowa Falls; Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern; and Mason City & Clear Lake. You’ll find more long-gone goodies includ- ing Milwaukee Road steam, Erie-built diesels, and gas-electrics. The views of the modest CMStP&P facilities at Spencer, Iowa, are interesting, as is the workaday Sioux passenger train made up of light- weight equipment powered by an E unit but otherwise not much different from RI 19 and 20. Most Midwestern favorites will be found within these pages; Wabash; Illinois Central and ICG; Burlington; Great Northern; Du- luth, Missabe & Iron Range; Northern Pacif- ic; Chicago & Illinois Midland; and Litch- field & Madison.
While the book places great emphasis on
The Heartland, the author also explored Ne- braska and Colorado, where he found Union Pacific, Ideal Cement, San Luis Valley South- ern, and Rio Grande steam of the narrow and standard variety. In fact, an entire chapter is devoted to regular-service Rio Grande nar- row gauge operations. In Oklahoma, Santa Fe and Katy main and branch line opera- tions came under his gaze, along with little, 44-tonner powered Hollis & Eastern. And in Texas Hofsommer recorded Santa Fe, Burlington Northern, and Frisco operations in the 1970s and ’80s, and he made it as far East as New London, Conn., and Island Pont, Vt. Coverage approaches the present day near the end, with images of Iowa, Chicago & Eastern and Iowa Interstate. This book is a fine record of everyday rail- roading in the classic era of manned depots, cabooses, branchline passenger trains, and fascinating motive power. — WALT LANKENAU
The Angola Horror By Charity Vogel.
Published by Cornell
University Press, 512 East State St., Ithaca, N.Y.;
www.cornellpress.cornell.edu; 800/666- 2211. Mail orders: CUP Services, attn: Orders, P.O. Box 6525, 750 Cascadilla St, Ithaca, NY 14851-6525. Hardcover, 296 5¹/₂″×8¹/₂″ pages, b&w; $26.95 plus shipping and sales tax. This book describes the events leading up to the December 1867 derailment of the Buffalo & Erie Railroad’s New York Express on a bridge in a small New York town just west of Buffalo that became known as The Angola Horror, as well as the changes the accident
helped to inspire in the industry. Two years after the Civil War, the nation’s railroads were a rapidly growing, loosely con- nected, and largely unregulated industry. Safety appliances were crude, track gauges were varied, and operating practices were still developing. Trains were slow and short, cars were uncomfortable, built of wood, heat- ed with stoves, connected by link and pin couplers, and slowly brought to a stop only by handbrakes. The telegraph was just coming into use, the very first signal systems were being developed, steel rails and wheels had not yet been widely accepted. Timekeeping was difficult, since standard time had not yet been adopted and “local time” often dis- agreed with “railroad time.” Not only that, but several railroads, possibly using differ-
ent gauges, connected cities which, by today’s standards, were not that far apart such as Cleveland, Ohio, and Buffalo, N.Y., the end- points of the ill-fated New York Express which at the time operated over several rail- roads using slightly different gauges. (One thing that’s not exactly clear is which rail- roads, other than the B&E, were traversed by the New York Express; several connections are named, but the route is not specified.) Af- ter the wreck the roads were united in the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, later part of the New York Central, and today a vital CSX main line. Vogel does a fine job of describing rail op- erations of the time, the slow speeds of even “express” trains, the use of “compromise cars” whose wheelsets were designed to be used on more than one track gauge, and the methods of lighting and heating passenger cars. Her description of riding the cars in those days makes flying in a cramped 737 sound downright appealing. The coaches were dimly lit and drafty, with streams of spit pooling into vile puddles on the floors, with no toilets or food service to be found on board, even in “first class.” The sleeping car had yet to be invented. Vogel vividly describes how trains were stopped on a whistle signal from the engi- neer by brakemen riding the cars who alter- nately applied and released their hand- brakes in an attempt to stop at the designated spot. Early in the book she dis- cusses at some length the replacement of a switch frog at the east end of the Angola which figured prominently in the tragic de- railment later in the day. In setting the stage, Vogel provides back- ground information on many of the New York Express’s passengers on the day of the wreck and follows them through the acci- dent and its aftermath. Her description of the wreck itself spells out exactly the se- quence of events from the initial derailment and its probable cause to the cars falling off the bridge to the ensuing fire and nighttime rescue operations in the small, remote town. The reason for her earlier ruminations on the cars’ lighting and heating sources be- comes evident as one car bursts into flames as it strikes the valley floor and its stoves spew hot coals into the flammable interior. In minutes, dozens of passengers are burned alive, putting the “horror” into the Angola Horror as Vogel describes their demise in unblinkingly clinical terms. As the event unfolds, villagers attempt to rescue passengers after descending the steep valley walls and a relief train carrying doctors and supplies is summoned from Buf- falo, 20 miles to the east. The injured are evacuated to Buffalo hospitals, and the dead, temporarily stored in the Angola freight house, are alter taken to Buffalo for identification and, for 19 corpses burned be- yond recognition and never claimed, burial in a common grave. After covering the trials that followed, the author discusses how the wreck raised the public consciousness and helped lead to improved safety devices such as steam heat and automatic air brakes, along with increased governmental supervi- sion of the railroads. This book provides a clear window into mid-19th century railroading and society. Anyone who’s interested in the development of railroad safety systems and early railroad engineering and operating practices will cer- tainly enjoy it. — WALT LANKENAU
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