Hi,

I want to thank Wayne Laepple for his kind review of my book.

It was a work of love as much as anything. Most people do not think of transportation in the context of what was historically happening at the time. My original goal was to target rail historians and to try to include model rails and historians in general. (Hopefully to get the book to pay for itself).

His comment on some of the photos being (in my words) "dark blobs" is well taken. I had to find a publisher I could afford and found out that they were not well equipped for some types of photo reproduction.

I am trying to reprint the color photos and the historical B&W ones that came out bad in a 2006 and a 2007 Gainesville Midland Calender. I can print them with much better quality. I am also including historically significant dates (when they could be found) for the railroads.

A sample chapter of the book is located at my web site.

I was very honored to meet Dave Lathrope when he was working to restore 209. I felt his work was an important chapter in the history of the GM.

Thanks to all who helped me in this endevor.

Doug vV