The Historical Guide to North American Railroads (Trains Books)

VERY SATISFIED WITH THIS PRODUCT

The larger size for this new third edition is certainly a plus, as is the switch to glossy paper and the addition of color. Photos are larger and, in some cases, in color, and many of the maps are also significantly larger and in color as well. The addition of a comprehensive index may be the best change of all, which makes up somewhat for the deletion of the interesting biographies of great railroad men, which have been deleted in the new edition.Unfortunately, the results should have been better. While the maps of all the current mega-railroads are excellent, those for many of the great "fallen flag" roads, such as the New York Central and Northern Pacific, are pretty poor. They are smaller, still in black-&-white, and devoid of detail, and seem to have been carried over from the smaller previous edition unchanged, which is a waste of the larger page size. Particularly bad are those for the New Haven and the Penn Central, which are virtually useless. Furthermore, some of the smaller roads listed in the second edition have been deleted; a few of these, like the Kettle Valley, made for interesting reads. Chapters on interurbans and narrow-gauge railroads have also been deleted, but that is a smaller loss.I hope that Kalmbach improves a future fourth edition by making more maps larger and in color, particularly for the larger railroads of the past, and puts back some of the ones deleted in this third edition. For now, by all means get this new edition, but if you have the second edition already, I'd suggest hanging on to it.

Kalmbach has re-released one of the hobby's best references on North American Railroads and done a great job of it. The book features short histories about roads running from the Akron, Canton & Youngstown to the Yosemite Valley. The old, small format has been expanded to book size (roughly 8"x10.5") although still softbound. They've included color photos now along with black & white and some maps have been improved with a lot more information. While the historic roads, like ATSF get more coverage (four pages in Santa Fe's case) you'll also find accurate information on the histories of many other, smaller outfits now lost to history. This will probably be a book you keep close and pull off the shelf regularly to answer questions like "when did Seaboard System start?" or "Where did the Midland Valley run?". Highly recommended.

Being totally taken by the original "historical guide" published in the 1990s I wasn't too sure about this new edition at first, but have to say that Kalmbach have really done an excellent job at bringing this reference work up to date while also adding colour and many new entries (while dropping a few others). If you have any interest in the history of North American railroads at all, this is a great book. It provides general information on many single companies and thus lets you arrive at the bigger picture by adding it all up. The only thing I miss is the carry-it-everywhere format of the old guide - this is more of a coffee table book.

I recently have gotten into railroad history, and this book has more on a lot of railroads than most. Unfortunately, most are 'fallen flags', which is logical since it is a history, and the railroads has merged and merged and merged. No master ancestry tree, but there are other books that can provide that, and a master tree would be really big.... I liked that it provided number of loco's/cars at a railroad's zenith. And let me add that while a lot of railroads are no longer in existence, the book has listings of a surprising large number of new railroads that have sprung up. Note - this is not a book on tourist railroads you can go ride on.

This is an excellent overview of its subject matter and much of George Drury's content remains. All of the pertinent roads are covered and the editing is excellent. I agree with another reviewer that the maps could be better, especially since Kalmbach has moved to a larger format for this edition and since Trains magazine and its sister publications have published so many excellent maps within their pages, this is a bit disappointing. Oh, and to the reviewer that noted that the content of this book is word for word from Wikipedia, he should check the references at the end of the Wikipedia articles as many of the posted railroad histories on Wikipedia are actually copied from this book or previous editions of it.

I am still in the process of reading this book, having only just begun. It is interesting, but my depth of knowledge of railroad history is very shallow. Therefore, I cannot say if the material is mostly accurate or barely adequate. All I can say at this point is that most of what I have read is interesting. I have caught myself, a few times though, of skimming some of the materials as being too data-driven.

It's amazing how much information is contained in this book. The photos are wonderful, the type easy to read, and the glossy pages make it feel like a much more expensive coffee table book. Some descriptions of historical hardships get bogged down with too many details like people's names who were in charge of bankruptcy proceedings etc which, I found, confuse the backgrounds. But that's a nitpick. Overall, this gives railfans and model railroaders a wealth of information on so many hard-to-remember fallen flags that you'll find yourself re-reading the book in no time; there is THAT much interesting to read. Well done TRAINS!

The book has a brief history of over 200 NA railroads. Most of the railroads come with a network map if possible. For this reason I found it much more enjoyable than Solomon's "North American Railroads: The Illustrated Encyclopedia"

北米に存在する(した)鉄道会社ごとの歴史を紹介する本。各社ごとに文章のほか路線図と創業期・現在(廃止時)の路線長や車両数の簡単な表、それにだいたい各社1枚の写真という形で約170社を網羅してます。さすが私鉄の国という感じ。米鉄道雑誌やネットの記事などで知らない鉄道会社が出てきたらこの本で調べるとだいたいわかると思います。北米の鉄道に興味ある人は必携では。基本的に載ってるのは大手(クラス1と2の一部)で、ヒストリカルガイドというだけに過去の鉄道がメインなので現代の小鉄道などは載ってませんので、その点は注意。

A very good resource book.

Well most folk interested in Railroads are going to have at least one Kalmbach Title, and quite possibly it'll be one of the "TRAINS" Guides? This 3rd Edition of this particular title brings to the party a more conventional format. It's twice the height of the earlier Trains Guides and that makes for a better binding IMO. However what a missed opportunity? Many of the Maps, and photographs, are exactly the same as in the 2nd Edition! One criticism of those was that their small format, obviously scaled for the 2nd Editions size, meant that only a few major place names were possible on each map. Frustrating then to read the obviously well researched histories ...only to find significant places mentioned in the text are not on the map. That COULD have been addressed in the new larger format. On the Plus side there are some excellent Double Page and Full Page Coloured Maps that are really helpful in understanding development of entire regions. The new edition also features a good few Colour pictures and these are reproduced extremely well. All in I'd recommend this even if you do have the second edition. I just wish they'd gone the extra mile with some of the original content and if that meant more pages and a higher price I think most Rail fans would have still been happy to buy it? I do hope the new format will be used for new additions to the excellent Trains Guides to North American Steam and Diesel Locomotives because there the addition of colour would definitely be a plus. But Come on Kalmbach ...Go the extra mile?

Railway history can be complicated, something I've come to learn after a lifetime of interest in the railways of Britain. By comparison, and having had only fleeting visits,, the North American continent's railway history can seem truly bewildering. This excellent book is a great way to familiarise oneself with railway history of the USA, Canada and Mexico. The bulk of the book provides background history to over a hundred major railroad companies (and a few minor ones) and explains the many mergers and takeovers that have taken place over the decades. The book has provided me with several evenings enjoyable reading and continues to be dipped into frequently.