Here's a short, incomplete list of known tourist railroad and railway museum guidebooks and their years of publication. I'm missing several trolley museums, too. Can anyone share additional titles absent from this list?

STRASBURG RR "The Road to Paradise" (62,66,71,83,96)
RR MUSEUM OF PA "Guidebook" (85, 97, 02)
WOLFEBORO RR "Rails to Wolfeboro" (75, 84)
VALLEY RR "The Valley RR Story" (83)
BR&W "The Black River & Western Story" (73)
WK&S "Does This Train Go Up Hawk Mountain?" (03)
MID-CONTINENT "Whistle on the Wind" (1997)
WP&Y "WP&Y Guidebook" (00)
D&S "Cinders & Smoke Mile-By-Mile Guide" (65-94)
EBT "A Ramble Into the Past" (71,79, 97)
WILMINGTON & WESTERN "Red Clay Valley Rails" (92)
BM&R "The Blue Mountain & Reading Story" (86)
ORANGE EMPIRE "Railway Odyessey" (90)
CONWAY SCENIC "Struggle & Triumph" (75, 88)

K.R. Bell
RR Museum of PA

C&TS Ticket to Toltec : a mile by mile guide for the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad
by Doris B. Osterwald (76, 99)

Gerber, Rudy, Grand Canyon Railroad, Illustrated Guidebook, Primer Publishers, Phoenix, Arizona, 1990

B & O Transportation Museum, 1970 (guidebook)

The B&O Railroad Museum : a visitor's guide, Adele Gutman Nathan Publication Fund of the B&O Railroad Museum; (1994)

Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Trail of History Guide (Pennsylvania Trail of History Guide) by Dan Cupper

Colorado Railroads and the Colorado Railroad Museum by Corneluis W. Hauck (Editor)

History on steel wheels : trains at the North Carolina Transportation Museum (1996)

Pennsylvania Trolley Museum: Preserving Pennsylvania's Transit Heritage
by Bruce P. Wells (Paperback - March 1993)

BERA/Shore Line - Ride Down Memory Lane



eledbetter@rypn.org

EBT: "Quick Review of the East Broad Top: The Narrow Gauge of the East," 1960. Original version printed with buff-colored cover; subsequent edition (contents unchanged) printed with orange cover. Image of cover and other publication data are available at link posted below.

Dan Cupper
Harrisburg, Pa.

East Broad Top Railroad Information--References
cupper@att.net

Kurt,

As you might guess, I have a bookshelf full of these things--collected over the past 35 or so years of visiting tourist railroads and museums.

Here are a few more guide books, not yet mentioned, off the top of my head...

Morris County Central RR
Edaville RR
B&O Museum
National Railway Museum (Green Bay)
National Museum of Transport (St Louis)
Age of Steam Museum (Dallas)
Cass Scenic RR (several semi-official guide books/booklets published over the years)
Puget Sound & Snoqualmie Valley RR Museum
Oregon Pacific & Eastern RR
California Western RR
California State Railroad Museum

Regards,
Jim Robinson

Kurt,

There are a LOT more guides than that and the ones others mentioned, ranging from single photocopied pages to two chapters in the Michael Farrell book "The History of Baltimore's Streetcars" on the Baltimore Streetcar Museum (and part of the early splinter that formed the National Capital Trolley Museum). Many of them are on file at the Maryland Rail Heritage Library courtesy of yours truly; contact me for more information. Many, of course, are out of date (such as Edaville and Steamtown rosters).

LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

> Here's a short, incomplete list of known
> tourist railroad and railway museum
> guidebooks and their years of publication.
> I'm missing several trolley museums, too.
> Can anyone share additional titles absent
> from this list?

On the shelf next to my computer (and elsewhere) I have the following:

Orange Empire: "Railway Odyssey" (1st Ed) 1987 (2nd Ed 1990)
Illinois Railway Museum: "A Museum in Motion..." 1992
"The Story of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum" 1977
EBT: "A Ramble into the Past on the East Broad Top Railroad" 1971
Branford Trolley Museum: "Ride Down Memory Lane" 1965 (6th edition 1975)
"Historic Cars of the Seashore Trolley Museum" (5th edition 1967) (5th ed. 2nd printing 1970 -- copyright 1954, 1955, 1958, 1962, 1967. 1970)
Connecticut Elec Ry Assoc (Warehouse Pt) "Trolley Museum Souvenir Booklet" (n.d. c. 1963)
Bay Area Elec. RR Assoc (now Western RR Museum): "California Railway Museum" (n.d. c. 1967)

By the way, Orange Empire Trolley Museum (now Railway Museum) had a guide book entitled "Where Travel means the Trolley." I cannot find my copy -- shame on me.

Brian Norden
Chair, OERM

> Kurt,

I have:
Boothbay Railway Village by Carole J. Maconi
Edaville Railroad by same person 2 editions
edaville Railroad by Linwood Moody 1947

Historic Cars at the Seashore Trolley Museum
edited by O.R. Cummings many editions

California Railway Museum one edition cira 1975
don't have the date here at the computer

Railway Odyssey: A Guide book To The Orange Empire Railway Museum by Paul Hammond
First edition 1987 Second edition 1992

Hope this helps!

ted_miles@nps.gov

> Orange Empire: "Railway Odyssey"
> (1st Ed) 1987 (2nd Ed 1990)
> Illinois Railway Museum: "A Museum in
> Motion..." 1992
> "The Story of the Baltimore Streetcar
> Museum" 1977
> EBT: "A Ramble into the Past on the
> East Broad Top Railroad" 1971
> Branford Trolley Museum: "Ride Down
> Memory Lane" 1965 (6th edition 1975)
> "Historic Cars of the Seashore Trolley
> Museum" (5th edition 1967) (5th ed. 2nd
> printing 1970 -- copyright 1954, 1955, 1958,
> 1962, 1967. 1970)
> Connecticut Elec Ry Assoc (Warehouse Pt)
> "Trolley Museum Souvenir Booklet"
> (n.d. c. 1963)
> Bay Area Elec. RR Assoc (now Western RR
> Museum): "California Railway
> Museum" (n.d. c. 1967)

> By the way, Orange Empire Trolley Museum
> (now Railway Museum) had a guide book
> entitled "Where Travel means the
> Trolley." I cannot find my copy --
> shame on me.

> Brian Norden
> Chair, OERM

Thanks, Brian. I was just going to climb down off my soapbox long enough to mention the IRM "Museum in Motion", when I saw it included on your list. I suspect that there are and will continue to be several versions of many of these. As supplies run out there are second or third printings, often with revised or updated material. Kurt, what is behind your original question?

Bbo Kutella

68trolley@comcast.net

Here at the Trolley Museum of NY we have never created a museum guide book per se, but probably most of what would go into one is already on our web pages.

I'm curious for museums that have published one, how big a seller is it in your gift shop? What theme is most popular--focusing on the history and programs of the museum, or focusing on the nuts and bolts of the collection, or both? Could it be argued that producing a guide book is moot today given that the information can put on the Internet?

TMNY
n2xjk@yahoo.com

> I'm curious for museums that have published
> one, how big a seller is it in your gift
> shop? What theme is most popular--focusing
> on the history and programs of the museum,
> or focusing on the nuts and bolts of the
> collection, or both? Could it be argued that
> producing a guide book is moot today given
> that the information can put on the
> Internet?

It depends on marketing. There are institutions where guidebooks should be sold just to keep people from getting lost! On the other hand, for years if not decades it was almost impossible for any self-respecting RR enthusiast *not* to ride the Strasburg RR and walk away having bought that $1 or $2 or whatever "The Road to Paradise" by Bill Moedinger, sold by the conductor/trainmen originally, which arguably *could* be the biggest-selling railroad book of all time--I'm told it's estimated at least a million have been sold over the 30+ years it's been in print. In effect, it became both a huge money-maker and a huge propaganda piece for the line. The same could probably be said for the EBT's handy booklet sold in the gift shop.

The delicate balance, of course, is making the booklet informative enough yet cheap enough to be an impulse or souvenir purchase. The EBT and Strasburg booklets are definite winners in this category, if both in sore need of serious stylistic and information updates (a roster page for the Strasburg book, history since 1970 for the EBT one). A book like the B&O Museum's thicker tome, on the other hand, is more impressive and useful, but far less likely to sell in larger quantities due to its higher price (which I can't locate right now because it's NOT in their online gift shop!).


LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

History on Steel Wheels by Jackson McQuigg is an excellent narrative style guide to the rolling stock at North Carolina Transportation Museum. Jackson, who is now on staff at Atlanta History Center, interwove social and industrial history in a way that I have not seen in many settings.
It's way beyond a boring roster book.

Yours truly authored our 2001 guidebook, which I think is simply entitled "The North Carolina Transportation Museum." Both are available through The Gift Station by calling 704 636 2889.

http://nctrans.org
Wrinnbo@aol.com

> Kurt, what is behind your original question?

> Bbo Kutella

Just for kicks, I suppose. One of my academic areas of study is the history of railway preservation, railway museum history and the evolution of tourist lines in North America--a very arcane subject by a long shot. Just gathering information, typical of my Rypn participation. It's a great forum for information gathering and sharing!

K.R. Bell

> Just for kicks, I suppose. One of my
> academic areas of study is the history of
> railway preservation, railway museum history
> and the evolution of tourist lines in North
> America--a very arcane subject by a long
> shot.

Thanks. (Too bad I cannot type well enough to even spell my own name correctly - on the first post)

Bob Kutella


68trolley@comcast.net

> Just for kicks, I suppose. One of my
> academic areas of study is the history of
> railway preservation, railway museum history
> and the evolution of tourist lines in North
> America--a very arcane subject by a long
> shot.

As a postscript, if you have the opportunity, you should enjoy the last two issues of Rail & Wire, the newletter of the Illinois Railway Museum. Together, they offer a comprehensive look back at our first 50 years.

Bob Kutella


68trolley@comcast.net

TVRM Member and local photojournalist John W. Coniglio authored and published "Steam in the Valley" several years ago. I recommend it!

Steam in the (Tennessee) Valley
sfreer@tvrail.com