I decided to do a separate thread for this after reading some of the replies in the 'Fate of the N&W 0-8-0' thread. Wilkinsd listed the books mentioned in that thread in one post and it gave me the idea for what other books out there are a must read or atleast recommended.

There's many of us out there that like books and may not know about some of them. I thought it would be wise to list them in one thread so it'll be easier to keep track of them. A brief description of the book would be helpful too.

I'm going to look for the "Men Who Loved Trains" since I saw that one mentioned a few times.

I think you need to better define the nature of the list. What is the subject(s)?

We can do lists of many different kinds:

Post WWII railroading
Regional Histories
Photographic essays and surveys
Railroad specific histories (many of the major railroads, and a few small roads, have had many works written about them and their operations/equipment.)
Railroad development
Railroad financing
etc.

It is indeed a broad list and I choose not to narrow it down to any one or few particular subjects. What interests me may not interest others, and vice versa.

If you do recommend anything you could also mention what catorgory it fits in. I figured it could be quite a list of varying subjects but having everything in one thread may make it easier to find.

Impossible Challenge, all of the parts. They're informative, and I love the way he writes.
Hidden Treasures by Ed Cass. The OR&W was a quirky railroad, to put it mildly, and his book sums it up nicely.
The Brasspounder by George Saunders. This one is hard to find but worth the trouble if you'd like to read about one man's railroading in the Golden Age.
There are a whole lot more, but those three jump out at me.

The Ma & Pa: The History of the Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad by George Hilton. Beautifully written, it contains a nice mix of operational and corporate history of the railroads that became "The Ma & Pa" at the beginning of the 20th century. It's been reissued a couple of times in revised editions, so it is still in print.

I like books that are informational, so pretty much anything by Commander William D. Middleton or Professor George W. Hilton and there's Frank Swengel's The Evolution of the Steam Locomotive, Alfred W. Bruce's The Steam Locomotive in America, the John F. Kirkland books [Dawn of the Diesel Age, The Diesel Builders Volumes 1-3 (ALCO/MLW, F-M & L-H, Baldwin).

But for biographical narratives, Brownie the Boomer (Brown, Grant, editor), Life on a Locomotive (Williams), and Set Up Running (Orr).

Steve

Years ago I found a fun railroad read - "Abduction of Virginia Lee" by Frank O'Rourke (1970), the story of how a millionaire's mistress hijacks his private car. I always thought it would make a good movie.

Wesley

Quick shots:

The Mohawk That Refused To Abdicate, by Morgan and Hastings. Recently "republished" as three special "In Search of Steam" magazines by Kalmbach.

Twilight of the Great Trains by Fred Frailey, recently republished in a new edition by Indiana University Press. A look at the last of American passenger railroading before Amtrak.

From Steam to Diesel, Albert Churella. Excellent overview of just why diesel replaced steam, from a business/economics standpoint.

For both photography and the stories behind them, almost anything from the Boston Mills Press railfan line: Steel Wheels Rolling by J. Parker Lamb, One Track Mind by Benson, Passing Trains by McDonnell, etc.

If you like Canada and can find a copy without killing someone or mortgaging your home, Lines of Country: An Atlas of Railway and Waterway History in Canada by Christopher Andreae is worth the effort and huge size--combined encyclopedia, atlas, and history. The one copy on Amazon is listed for nearly $1,000!

More to come.........

Some books to read:

These books by Maury Klein:
Union Pacific: The Birth of a Railroad, 1862-1893. New York: Doubleday, 1987.
Union Pacific: The Rebirth, 1893-1969. New York: Doubleday, 1989.
The Life and Legend of Jay Gould. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1986.
The Life and Legend of E. H. Harriman. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

Other books
Lavender, David. The Great Persuader. New York: Doubleday, 1970. [Biography of Collis P. Huntington of the Central and Southern Pacific]
Orsi, Richard J. Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the American West, 1850-1930. [Richard Orsi is a professor of history and after spending one chapter on the construction of the railroad he covers the railroad's policies regarding land, minerals, natural resources, water, politics, etc.]

Here is a new book that I saw in one of the stores, suggested it as Christmas gift and received it. It looks to be a very good book.
Borneman, Walter R. Rival Rails: The Race to Build America’s Greatest Transcontinental Railroad. New York: Random House, 2010. [This is the story of building the railroads through the American Southwest with particular emphasis on the Santa Fe.]

probably more books at a later date.

Here are the books I mentioned in the original thread. The publication date on some is the most-recent edition. To make it easy, these should all be available through your favorite internet bookseller, local book store, or used on eBay.

Saunders, Richard Jr., Merging Lines: American Railroads, 1900-1970 (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2001).

Saunders, Richrd Jr., Main Lines: Rebirth of the North American Railroads, 1970-2002 (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2003).

Loving, Rush, The Men Who Loved Trains: The Story of Men Who Battled Greed to Save an Ailing Industry (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008

Daughen, Joseph and Peter Binzen, The Wreck of the Penn Central (Beard Books, 1999).

Salsbury, Stephen, No Way to Run a .: Untold Story of the Penn Central Crisis (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981)

Grant, H. Roger, Visionary Railroader: Jervis Langdon Jr. and the Transportation Revolution (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008).

Just yesterday, I received a classic:

Taylor, George Rogers and Irene D. Neu, The American Railroad Network, 1861-1890 (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2003).

This is a reprint, the original edition dates from the 1950s. Taylor also authored an important work The Transportation Revolution which is also a must-read.

In the autobiographical vein, I would add to the list, "Rio Grande Glory Days," by Gilbert A. Lathrop, "No Royal Road," by Ed Custer, "Railroad Man," by Chauncey Del French, and "Daring and Suffering," by William Pittinger (the Great Locomotive Chase of the Civil War).

Bill Knapke's "The Railroad Caboose" is also recommended.

Anything by John White, former curator of the Museum of American History and Technology at the Smithsonian simply can not be overrecommended, due to the really good research he brings to the table. His classic trilogy of "The American Steam Locomotive," "The American Railroad Passenger Car," and "The American Railroad Freight Car" can have as much information in footnotes as whole articles by anyone else.

Most people would consider anything by Lucius Beebe to be quite lightweight, but his work is still fun for the wit he brings to the page. His best book is the classic, "Mixed Train Daily," originally published in 1947, even if it is a semi-copy of Archie Robinson's "Slow Train Through Arkansas" with photographs (as Beebe himself admitted).

Railroad fiction can be great if well done. My initial recommendations here include "The General Manager's Story," by Herbert Hamblen, "One Way to Eldorado," by Hollister Noble, and "Slim" and "High Tension," by William Wister Haines. (Both of these latter two are really about electrical workers, but "Slim" has a segment on railroad electrification, and "High Tension" is entirely set on the PRR electrification project of the 1930s in Maryland.)

I do like the books, but I'm not certain their appeal would be universal; I'm talking about the works of Edward Hungerford, who was something of a PR writer, but who did write extensively about railroads from 1900 to about 1950.

"A Treasury of Railroad Folklore", published about 1953, is a good addition to the list.

Howard P.

Set Up Running: The Life of a Pennsylvania Railroad Engineman, 1904-1949 by John W. Orr


Tops of my mandatory railroad reading list.

Rob

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this one yet:

"Workin on the Railroad - Reminiscences from the Age of Steam ", edited by Richard Reinhardt.

It contains a number of selections from books allready mentioned. Fairly cheap to find on "AbeBooks"

A very good list is developing here. Most of the books I was going to mention already have been -- including anything by Klein, Hilton or White.

Let me add a couple new ones:

Albro Martin -- especially Enterprise Denied: Origins of the Decline of American Railroads, 1897-1917.

Empire Express, David Haward Bain.

Glen Brewer
Railroad Glory Days
http://railroadglorydays.com