yards, and sidings. You’ll also find in-depth discussion of the various industries, compa- nies, and towns that lined the railroad and detailed information on the many coal and lumber operations served by the railroad from its inception through today. More than 30 pages are devoted the pas- senger operations, including excursions, as well as the transition from steam to diesel operations. An even hundred pages are used to describe freight operations between the line’s construction and the Norfolk Southern merger in 1982. You’ll get the whole picture as N&W’s operations in connection with L&N and Interstate are outlined in detail. Several important locations, including the junction with the Clinchfield at St. Paul and the joint facilities and yards at Norton, are given very thorough coverage.


The coverage continues with the story of Norfolk Southern’s assimilation of N&W, Southern Railway, and Interstate trackage into the Clinch Valley Extension of the Poc- ahontas Division. In this chapter you’ll also learn of the Westmoreland Coal Dump Train, which Wolfe covered in this magazine about ten years ago. More than 40 pages of color coverage bring the story to a close, in- cluding 12 pages of steam in color before the transition to diesels is followed up to the present day. A bibliography and index are al- so provided. Norfolk & Western’s Clinch Valley Line is beautifully printed on heavy, gloss paper and the photo reproduction, especially b&w, is excellent. Photo selection is nothing short of astounding in its variety and quality, and the 100-year old photographs look as good as those shot in the 20th century. In addition to the expected N&W power ranging from tiny 2-8-0s to 2-8-8-2s, Geeps, Alcos, and General Electric Dash 7s are many photos of the con- nections’ equipment including Interstate and L&N Alcos, L&N Mikados, Seaboard System Dash 2s, and more. Any fan of the Norfolk & Western or of Ap-


palachian coal railroading in general will find this book to be of great interest. Collect the whole set!— WALT LANKENAU


NEW PUBLICATIONS


The Race Underground by Doug Most and published by St. Martin’s Press tells the story of Henry and William Whitney of Boston and New York, brothers who vied to build the first commercial subway in the United States as congestion threatened to strangle the cities and forced mass transit to go underground. Most tells of Alfred Beach and his pioneering one-block long, two-sta- tion pneumatic subway which, while only a demonstration project, was the first on these shores. It was built surreptitiously, right un- der the noses of New York City officials. He goes on to discuss early tunneling methods and Marc Isambard Brunel’s tunnel shield which made subway building possible, and the steam-powered London Underground, which made Americans realize that electric- ity was the best way to power an under- ground railway. Frank Sprague’s multiple unit system of controlling several electric cars from one cab, which allowed locomo- tives to be eliminated from subway trains, also plays a part in the story along with Thomas Edison, Sprague’s nemesis. Engi- neer William Barclay Parsons, Jr., and piano maker turned transit commissioner William Steinway are also part of the story. Henry


Whitney’s trolley tunnel under the land- mark Boston Common, hallowed ground of the American Revolution, turned out to be the first subway in the United States, al- though it was not very long. William became a force to be reckoned with in the New York streetcar business and pushed the city’s In- terborough Rapid Transit subway to comple- tion. The book not only describes the physi- cal aspects of building these first subways, comparing Boston’s cut-and-cover technique with New York’s tunnel shield, but also delves into the political forces that were in play which affected the outcomes of both projects. This 416-page, 6¹/₈″×9¹/₄″ hardcover includes 16 pages of photographs and illus- trations including Frank Sprague and his electric traction testbed, views of tunnel con- struction in Boston and New York, a test run of the Boston subway, and the tunnel shield used in New York. It sells for $27.99 from St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010-7848; us.macmillan.com/theraceun derground/DougMost or buy it at your fa- vorite bookstore. Railtown by Ethan N. Elkind is another transit-related volume of a more modern era from the University of California Press. Elkind traces the development of the mod- ern Los Angeles Metro rail system from the first, hotly-contested Blue Line light rail line to Long Beach which opened in 1990 to today’s sprawling system of nearly 100 route miles of subway and surface lines. The story begins with background on the privately- owned Pacific Electric streetcar and interur- ban system which ran its last cars in 1961 and then switches to the political machina- tions which started in 1974 and birthed the Blue Line years later. Due to class divisions in the politically correct 1980s, politics influ- enced the system’s development more than it did New York’s 100 years before. This 6″×9″ 313-page volume includes 11 b&w photos and 19 maps. It retails for $29.95 in softcover and $65.00 hardbound plus $4.00 shipping; order from The University of Cali- fornia Press c/o California/Princeton Fulfill- ment Services, 1445 Lower Ferry Rd. Ewing, NJ 08618; www.ucpress.edu. NJ and CA res- idents add sales tax. Riding Around America is a self-pub-


lished digital book by Mike Rogers which is adapted from a blog Mike produced in 2004 during an 8000-mile Amtrak trip around the country. The journey began in New York on the Crescent to New Orleans; then the Sunset Limited to Los Angeles; the Coast Starlight to Portland, Ore.; a Cascades to Seattle; the Empire Builder to Chicago and back to St. Paul, Minn.; and yet again back to Chicago; and the Lake Shore Limited to New York with stopsoffs here and there along the way. The narrative is mainly a travelogue about Rogers’ experiences, the people he met, and the places he visited, and the photography is all black & white. He’s actually a heck of a b&w photographer with a good eye who has nailed the art of on-train and from-train photography. He also tells a good story and likes to ferret out unusual ex- periences that the casual tourist might not anticipate. Rogers also visits several major league ballparks including Safeco Field (the Seattle Mariners), the Metrodome (Min- nesota Twins), U.S. Cellular a.k.a Comiskey Park of the Chicago White Sox), and Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs). You can order it in iBook or pdf format for $4.99 at www.riding aroundamerica.com.


49


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