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like to introduce you to — they’ve been around since 1986 and have printed over 100 titles, with the overwhelming majority of them in color. While not as well known as Morning Sun, Four Ways West has offered some very interesting and well-regarded titles over the years. This particular title is the third in a series
of New Haven Color Pictorials, with the pre- vious two covering the electrified lines out of Grand Central Terminal in New York City and the lines in Central Connecticut and Rhode Island. This third and final volume is a particular gem because it covers a lot of the former “Old Colony” lines in Massachusetts, an area without good photographic coverage of elsewhere. We start out our tour with an introduction
to New Haven’s fleet of cab units (interest- ing, but I personally could have done with more photos of the actual lines in question) and then by page 12 we’re off and running with some really outstanding coverage of long-abandoned lines around Providence, R.I. A New Haven RDC car crossing a wood-
en trestle near Barrington sets the pace for the rest of the book. We next see a set of Alco DL109’s and another RDC pulling trains to Narragansett Park racetrack. That’s followed by RDC cars blasting out of the East Side Tunnel — and we’re only at page 14. Now I don’t like to bandy about the words
“shock and awe” too frequently, but shock and awe it is as we are next treated to extensive coverage of several branchlines that have been abandoned for several decades now. It’s hard to imagine these lines were once bus- tling with both passenger and freight traffic, but here’s the proof in glorious full color! A quick sidenote worth mentioning: author Sweetland is to be commended for his style of photography, as he had a natural eye for in- cluding lineside structures like depots, towers (signal stations on the New Haven), and vari- ous lineside industries in his shots. This style of photography really helps a reader put the railroad in context with the areas it served and the passengers and freight traffic it car- ried. Great stuff here and all very enjoyable. Next, we’re treated to Worcester, Mass.,
and surrounding areas. A special treat here are the shots that show the Mack FCD rail- cars on fantrips. Page 34 then finds us headed up the mainline to Readville and Boston with a wide variety of motive power and locations alike. The lines north and west to Fitchburg and
Lowell follow, and then it’s on to a detailed look at Boston proper. Page 98 then starts our journey out to the commuter lines to Plym- outh, Kingston, Taunton, and New Bedford. This part of the book is like a virtual time ma- chine, what with photos showing manually operated crossing gates, semaphore signals, circus trains coming to town, and some real- ly solid coverage of New Haven’s use of RDC cars to try and salvage passenger traffic any way it could. The last ten pages or so find us crossing
the Cap Cod Canal and into Cape Cod prop- er. Alas, many of the shots here show scenes that can never be repeated as both the trains and the railroad tracks themselves have long since been scrapped. Our parting shots show the farthest east the New Haven ever made it, none other than Provincetown, Mass. We
go out in style here as we (sadly) come to the end of this most delightful title. One minor caveat, and this is not to take anything away from the quality of Four Ways West. Their color balance seems to be slight- ly different than Morning Sun’s, in that Four Ways West is perhaps less saturated and perhaps less vivid. One might say that the photos stand as is and aren’t as extensively touched up as some of Morning Sun’s seem to be. Both approaches work fine for me and I only tell you this since you are bound to no- tice the difference if you own books from both publishers. All in all this is a great book, and as an avid
fan of all things New Haven I am grateful Four Ways West saw fit to release this fine body of work. If you’re a New Haven fan, a lover of New England railroading in it’s prime (and it’s slow painful fade into obscurity), or just interested in seeing some high-quality color photography of 1950s and 1960s railroads, you can’t go wrong with this title. I’d happily rate it 4.5 out of 5 stars. — FRANK GARON
Zephyr: Tracking A Dream Across Ameri- ca by Henry Kisor; Henry Kisor/Create Space, 2951 Central Street, Apt. 305, Evanston, IL 60201; 357 pages, softcover, 6"×9", heavily il- lustrated with black & white photos; $20.00 with free shipping (USA) from the author at the above address or $14.95 plus shipping from
www.am-
azon.com or
www.barnesandnoble.com. One of the magical train rides on Am- trak’s system is the California Zephyr, crossing mountain and desert across western America. This book, first pub- lished in 1994 and updated this year, takes us on a tour of the equipment, crew, and passengers as we head west. A lengthy introduc- tion provides a histo-
ry of the Zephyr name in railroading. From there, the chapters take us east to west, start- ing in Amtrak’s yard in Chicago and finish- ing at the train’s 1994 terminus, 16th Street Station in Oakland. Along the way we are in- troduced to a variety of characters. There are teenage girls smuggling pets onboard (while a knowing conductor looks the other way), crewmen who know all the tricks of the trade, mysterious moves to pick up private cars, and more. Every chapter consists of several indi- vidual stories, and there’s a wealth of history woven in between the slices of life. The book features a few pages of b&w pho- tographs between the chapters. While the re- production is not outstanding, the photos do help convey what life is like in and around the train. As mentioned above, this book was first produced in 1994. The current edition brings us up to date with a capsule history of all that has transpired with the Zephyr in the inter- vening two decades, along with more photos. Of special interest is a “where are they now?” section that catches up with some of the cast from 1994. All in all, this is a delightfully easy read. — STEVE BARRY
TO HAVE YOUR NEW railroad books (except fiction), calendars, and videos considered for this column, please send review copies to RAILFAN & RAILROAD, P.O. Box 554, Andover, NJ 07821. For UPS/FedEx please send materials to RAILFAN & RAILROAD, 5 Lenape Rd. #554, Andover, NJ 07821.
Seaboard Coast Line arrived in 1967 following the merger of Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line, ushering in a modern era of railroading in the southeast. From unit phosphates to Florida orange juice, from long passenger runs and special circus moves, you’ll enjoy 116 pages of quality black and white photography.
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