May 9, 2009, is the second annual National Train Day and May 10 is the 140th anniversary of the driving of the final spike that joined 1,776 miles of rail at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, and marked the completion of our first transcontinental railroad in the United States.
Here's a nod to these celebrations and to the avid train buffs across America and around the world. Let me know if I missed your favorite train book.
Trains Across the Continent: North American Railroad History, Rudolph Daniels--A comprehensive volume about the history of railroads across North America.
Railroads Across North America: An Illustrated History, Claude Wiatrowski--If you love photographs, illustrations and memorabilia, this one's for you.
Nothing Like It In the World : The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869, Stephen Ambrose--Learn about the people--great and small--who contributed to bringing America together by rail.
Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad, David Haward Bain--If you still want more history of the first transcontinental railroad, you'll find more than 800 pages of it here.
And from Paul Theroux:
The Great Railway Bazaar--The journey that takes him on a loop eastbound from London's Victoria Station to Tokyo Central, then back from Japan on the Trans-Siberian.
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar--Thirty years later, he retraces the journey recounted in The Great Railway Bazaar.
The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas--In 1979, he travels from the East Coast of the United States to Patagonia, on the southern tip of Argentina.
Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China--His epic journey through China. He heads out of London with a tour group bound for China's border. He then spends a year riding the rails in that country.
Let's end with the ultimate coffee table book about trains:
The Call of Trains: Railroad Photographs by Jim Shaughnessy--Here's the book description because I can't say it better. "Jim Shaughnessy is a revered name among railway photographers. This collection, the best of his work over a forty-year career, features photographs taken between 1946 and 1988, with an emphasis on the American railroad culture of the fifties and sixties. Jeff Brouws - a railway authority and photo historian - has contributed a biographical essay that traces Shaughnessy's beginnings photographing steam locomotives in Troy, New York, to his documentation of the dramatic steam-to-diesel transition, with an emphasis on the northeastern United States and Canada, where the concentration of railway action and often deep snow resulted in beautiful and unusual images. Not just a compendium of photographs of locomotives, this book covers the whole railroad world - the sheds, tunnels, viaducts, station yards and more. It is a wonderful document of what is arguably railroading's most compelling era."
Cheers to trains, railroads and those who love them!
You might also enjoy:
140th anniversary--Golden Spike and Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Summit
Amtrak & National Parks--Trails & Rails, National Train Day
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