Trains have been a hobby for me since I was a boy. Over the years (now in my mid 50s) one aspect of the hobby that has remained a constant for me is armchair railroading. I thoroughly enjoy the historical aspect of our hobby that can be found in books. While I have built a sizable railroad library over the years, there are a couple of favorites that I have literally worn the covers off of. First, and a sentimental favorite, is my copy of Don Ball’s “Portrait of the Rails.” This book was handed down to me from my grandfather before he passed 1980. My grandfather retired as an engineer for the NYC when I was too young to remember, but he knew I was interested in trains and gave me his book. Outside of the sentimental value, the great photography (mostly steam!) and rich commentary by Mr Ball is fantastic. Another of my all-time favorites is “Decade of the Trains the 1940s” by the same author. The pictorial history of trains and the people who made them go in action during the war years is fascinating.
Those are two of my favorites – what is your favorite railroad read?
). That was followed by high school camping trips to Colorado and visits to some of the railroads and locations in that 1943 book, and the discovery of the Durango and Silverton area of Colorado. I have many books on narrow and standard gauge Colorado railroads, and related mining camps and ghost towns with emphasis on SW Colorado. Another well-worn book is Beebe and Clegg's "Mixed Train Daily", with its recording of the end of a steam world of teakettle locomotives fired up in tumbledown sheds, to make a weekly run to the Class One junction with a grain boxcar from the elevator. Tacked on the end may be a combine caboose with Saturday shoppers bound for a day in the big city. Newer books such as "Slow Trains Down South", and others, with a similar theme, are re-read.
