ize the magazine. R&R: How did you become so familiar
with the nuts and bolts of both the op- eration of the car and the lifestyle of its occupants? EP: Since starting the manuscript
for The Dining Car, I’ve taken several trips on board private cars, starting with Beebe’s Virginia City, which we rode on one of Wade Pelizzer’s Snowflake trips from Emeryville to Reno/Sparks. I sat with Wade for more than an hour and peppered him with questions. Later, we did a cross-country trip from Wash- ington, D.C., to Los Angeles aboard the Union Pacific sleeper Pacific Sands and the business car Scottish Thistle. I asked the car owners a lot more questions. Finally, we took Pacific Sands and the business car Kansas from Los Angeles to Emeryville on Amtrak’s Coast Star- light, and then rode the cars on the back of the California Zephyr to Chicago. By this time I was far enough into the man- uscript to know what I didn’t know, and I took a lot of notes. Pacific Sands owner Doug Spinn and Wade were both prompt in replying to my e-mail questions as I fi- nalized the manuscript. I sent Doug and Wade advance reading copies of the nov- el. Doug commented that, “I did catch a few technical errors in train stuff, but nobody but me and the car owners would ever know! Like, you would never get Amtrak to assemble a special train in a week if God had died!” So the book isn’t perfect. R&R: Where did the car’s name Pio- neer Mother come from? EP: Pioneer Mother is a sculpture that
sits in Penn Valley Park near the Santa Fe Trail in Kansas City, Mo. It’s a tribute to the women who traveled west on the Santa Fe Trail with their families, brav- ing the dangers of Indian attacks, prairie fires, disease, hunger, and stampeding buffalo along the way. My thinking was this — the magazine Sunshine Trails mimics Sunset magazine, which bills it- self “the magazine of western living.” I wanted Horace Button to be a man of the West, a pioneer in his own way. His col- umn in the magazine is called “Window on the West.” I came across a photo of the sculpture in a book about the Santa Fe Trail and knew instantly this had to be the name of Horace Button’s private car — as a gay man, of course, there’s some fun for Horace identifying with the name Pioneer Mother. R&R: You mentioned that the car’s
owner, Button, is modeled after the leg- endary Lucius Beebe. In what ways, and how did you learn that about him? EP: Lucius Beebe was a prolific writ-
er. All I know of him is what I’ve gleaned from his writings. He had a keen sense of humor, a wicked tongue, and a fierce independence. That gave me a starting point for Horace Button. But this book
Join us for Conversations 2017
PHOTO BY KATE BOTKIN
Join us for a special three-day conference April 28-30 in Lake Forest, Illinois, where we explore the world of railroad photography and art from many perspectives. Presenters include Drayton Blackgrove, Katherine Botkin, Jean Bubley, Alexander B. Craghead, Dan Cupper, Nick Fry, Eric Hirsimaki, Kevin P. Keefe, John P. Kelly, Alan Miller, Adam Normandin, James J. Reisdorff, and Dave Styffe. Don’t miss out on the conversation. Register online today!
www.railphoto-art.org/conferences 313 Price Place, Suite 13, Madison, Wisconsin 53705 (608) 251-5785
Lehigh & New England
The Lehigh & New England was a bridge carrier stretching from Anthracite country in northeastern Pennsylvania to the gateway yard at Maybrook, New York. This Carstens Classic features rare photos of this anthracite carrier in its final twenty years. Enjoy great photos of Camelbacks and conventional steam, to transition era diesels including Alco FAs and road switchers.
A NORTHEAST CLASSIC! $
13.95
S/H per book: $5 US, $9 Canada, all others, call or email for rates.
Order item CRS-LNE
Toll-free (877) 787-2467 • Overseas (660) 695-4433 P.O. Box 48, Bucklin, MO 64631 •
info@WhiteRiverProductions.com
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