NEW PRODUCT NEWS AND REVIEWS BY OUR STAFF E-Book Review goldenspikeent2014_Layout 1 5/5/2014 1:38 PM Page 1
Conrail and the Mountain: A Look at Con- rail’s Crossing of the Allegheny Mountains by Stephen M. Timko; Morning Sun Books, 9 Pheasant Lane, Scotch Plains, NJ 08076; 908/755-5454;
www.morningsunbooks.com; $19.95 digital download ebook. I admit it. I feel really old here. Oh yeah, I may be only 50 years old and barely halfway through life. That’s not that old when you think about it. But I feel old. And
why do I feel old, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s a “one-two” railfan
railroadbooksbizinch_railroadbooksbizinch.qxd 6/10/2014 1:00 PM
railroadbooks.biz International Service.
Domestic Shipping FREE over $50.00
WRP_GrandTrunkHeritage_Jan15_6v_Layout 1 11/30
www.railroadbooks.biz chuck@railroadbooks.biz
PO Box 4, Bloomington, IN 47402-0004 U.S.A.
Grand Trunk Heritage
IN NEW ENGLAND
Journey with the legendary photographer Phil Hastings as he takes us trackside in New England to witness steam’s last holdout on the old Grand Trunk. Though steam had vanished from the rest of the Canadian National system, Hastings captured the end of an era in brilliant black and white photography.
STEAM ERA CLASSIC
Plus shipping & handling Order Item #GTNE-CRS
$11.95 (877) 787-2467
WHITERIVERPRODUCTIONS.COM P.O. BOX 48, BUCKLIN, MO 64631
26 JUNE 2015 •
RAILFAN.COM
punch here. First, I can’t buy slide film any- more. Kodachrome 25 went goodbye, then Ko- dachrome 64. The post office lost my last roll of Fujichrome for three months, and that was a roll of film I was lucky to even be able to buy. I’m being dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age here photography-wise. And now this... Another important part of my “railfan”
has 1,700+ new titles, all at discount ORDERS: U.S. 800 554-7463
BUSINESS & INTERNATIONAL: 812 391-2664 SEND: $2.00 for paper books list E-MAIL FOR FREE PDF LIST.
world has changed with the times. Morning Sun Books has gone “digital” too. Not with all their book titles, however, just with some. And as much as I love the smell and feel of a brand new, shiny, all-color railfan book, I’m afraid Morning Sun has called my bluff here. At under $20 a title, these digital “ebooks”
simply can’t be beat for those of us with com- puters (or iPads and such). For the price of one hardcover print book, I can get three dig- ital titles instead. Now, my head does tricks here. I know the
value of a print book. I know what it’s worth and I can hold it in my hands and feel what I paid for. In the case of a digital book though, what is it worth? What value is there at- tached to it? Having thought about this quite a bit, I
believe I’ve figured it out. First, I can always print off the pages/photos I really like. Sec- ond, I can read a digital book on a 25-inch computer monitor and really “see” the images quite a bit better. Third, I can easily replace a digital book if I lose it, damage it, want to keep it on a second computer, and so forth. Fourth, do the math. For $19.95 I can have a 267-page ebook versus $59.95 for a 128-page print book. Personally I’d rather have all my titles be print books, but a railfan’s budget can only go so far. Fifth, and I think this is the most important point, it allows me to sup- port publishers like Morning Sun Books by buying more titles and therefore encouraging them to take risks and digitally publish other titles that may well interest me (and a whole bunch of other people, too) and yet not may be quite as commercially viable if the same title were printed as a print book. Morning Sun currently has 21 digital titles
in stock and I’m not so sure that some of my favorites (Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad —The Last 30 Years and CSX: Five Years of Change in the Rust Belt 1985-1990 would have made Bob Yanosey enough money to ever be worth going to print with. I salute people like Bob and John Taibi for being “early adopters” and making high-quality material instantly
available at a very affordable price. Okay... So all that is well and good but what
about the actual content in this digital ebook? I’d give it a 9.5 out of a possible ten. We start out in Altoona, Pa., and work our way west to Conpit Junction. From there we tour both the Pittsburgh and Conemaugh Lines as they work their way to Pittsburgh. Quite the visual feast awaits within the
digital “covers” here — Juniata Shops, the deadline in East Altoona, helper units wait- ing to tie on and shove west at Alto, burly SD45s in pristine Conrail blue... And that’s all before we even pull out of Altoona. Next it’s a trip up to and around Horse-
shoe Curve (in both three- and four-track eras) and on to Benny, the Gallitzin Tunnels, and Cresson. A wide variety of motive power (and eras) is covered. We see everything from former Penn Central and Erie Lackawanna units right through Conrail’s widecab era in the mid- and late 1990s. Lilly, the famous railfan bridge at Cassan-
dra, C Tower in Conemaugh, Johnstown, and Conpit Junction follow. Each location is seen in multiple eras, varied weather, and all four seasons. We then head towards places like Derry, Latrobe, and Jeanette before we wind up in Pittsburgh proper. A short tour of the Conemaugh Lines ensues, followed by a look at some of the motive power and equipment that Conrail used over the years. All this and more are in this 267-page tour-de-force of Conrail in some of its busiest locations, backed up by some really gorgeous scenery. Please do yourself a favor and try one (or
more) of Morning Sun’s digital offerings. This Conrail title would literally be enough material for two of the 128-page hardcover print books at $59.95 list price each. There is so much value for money in these digital editions it’s not even funny. I’m quite certain you’ll be impressed. — FRANK GARON
Book Review
Chicago & North Western: The 400 Club by Bruce C. Nelson; South Platte Press, P.O. Box 163, David City, NE 68632; 402/367- 3554;
www.southplattepress.com; 11”×8.5” horizontal format, softcover, 88 pages; $29.95 plus $6.00 shipping, NE residents add 5.5% tax.
The Chicago & North
Western
used EMD’s F7 cab units in just about all kinds of work, from hauling
freight
to powering both long-distance and
commuter passenger trains. The F7s were delivered to the railroad in four orders starting with ten “A” units and five “B” (cabless booster) units in March 1949. Lat- er that year another 38 cabs and 13 boost- ers were delivered. In April 1950 another 36 cab units entered the roster and, final- ly, four booster units arrived in July 1952. This book chronicles the F7s in general and five units in particular — the five cab units that were tapped for business train service in the 1980s. The book starts off with a prologue by author Nelson and an introduction by rail-
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74