books

I thought I’d tell you folks about a railroading book I read recently. If any of you have

books or videos that you’ve seen or read of interest, maybe you could enlighten me and

others as well in this thread.

Ok, here goes:

1. Nothing Like It in the World : The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad

1863-1869

by Stephen E. Ambrose

Hardcover - 431 pages (August 29, 2000)

Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 0684846098

I’m a big fan of Mr. Ambrose, who left us in the Fall of 2002. In my mind, he was the

best historical writer of modern times. His detail of Easy Company in “Band Of

Brothers” is one of the greatest re-statings of history on the books, if you ask me. At the

same time I would mention that the music for “Band Of Brothers”, by Michael Kamen, is

my all time favorite credit roll (intro/exit) music. He also left us recently, another early

loss. Mr. Ambrose also steered the same two moviemakers, Speilberg and Hanks, as a

consultant for “Saving Private Ryan”, another unbelievable feat.

But Stephen Ambrose’s telling of the building of the Trans-continental railway was so

overly written as to make me beg for the book to be half as long as it was. After what

seemed like years of reading about rail and tie shipments, there were more pages of rail

and tie shipments. I read this book while going cross country on rail, and this book made

the actual journey seem rapid.

The next book I”ll review is much better.

Frank

Funny thing, I bought a copy of that book because I had a US History Paper that I chose to do on the transcontinetal railroad. From what I read, it was a very good book, but I'll try to read it once I have the time.

I've got it and it's collecting dust. Too busy to read it. I think I'll go take a nap now. :lol:

Viewliner,

You wrote "but I'll try to read it",.....that's my point exactly. At times you have to force yourself to pick this book back up to start again.

Granted, there are some very enlightening chapters, my favorites being the struggle through the Sierra Nevada's....but these exploits are soon overshadowed by thousands of paragraphs about minutia that would bog down even peat moss.

Bat 51,

You wrote that your unread copy is collecting dust. My read copy is also. Maybe I'll pawn it off on E-Bay? Seriously, I'd love to hear a contrarian view on this. Maybe I'm just missing it and that some railfan out there feels that an historical treatise of this nature demands an accounting of every spike driven during this time period. Who knows.

Frank

But here's one that is a must read for any rail enthusiast.

"Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad That Crossed an Ocean".

Author: Les Standiford

Binding: Hardcover, 372 pages

Publisher: Thorndike Press

Published Date: 03/01/2003

List Price: USD $28.95

ISBN: 0786249439

Now this is a seriously good read, whether you're a railfan or not. It's non-fiction told so eloquently as to make you believe it's a dreamy novel. It's informative, exciting, and hard to put down. I read it from beginning to end in one sitting. Couldn't stop.

For those of you unfamiliar with Henry Flagler, he was Standard Oil, period. Multi-wealthy baron. He decided, at all costs, to build a railroad across the ocean, more specifically, the Florida Keys. He pumped so much money and energy into this venture that it's hard to even imagine the cost.

But there was one problem, a hurricane of such intensity as.....oooops, nuff said. I don't want to give away the ending.

Compelling from the very first chapter to the last. Way too cool. Exciting as Hell. Three thumbs up.

Frank

Ok, I'm bored. Here's another of my favorites.

American Experience, Streamliners, America's Lost Trains. PBS.

Excerpt:

"On the morning of May 26, 1934, a shimmering silver locomotive pulled out of Denver's Union Station bound for Chicago. The Zephyr was unlike any train seen before. Powered by a revolutionary compact diesel engine, the train was known as a "streamliner" for its smooth, sleek look. Breathless press releases, scores of radio bulletins and marveling crowds followed it on its mad dash across the country. The Zephyr covered the 1,015 mile-trip in a record-breaking 13 hours and five minutes -- two hours quicker than predicted -- and in doing so launched a new era in train travel."

What's not to like about this film? It's historical and sexy and makes you pine that it's lost. I sorely miss the mindset in America at this time. Rail travel was posh. Stainless. Beautiful.

I can and have watched this very well done film many times over.

Frank

Frank, you struck a chord with me, as many on this forum already know, with the word "Flagler".

First, I agree the book is a good read and, most importantly, it is not really too long. Mr. Flagler and a Mr. Plant and a couple of ther people were very instrumental in many ways----not just railroading------but highways, buildings, hotels, schools, etc----- in getting Florida on the map as a fit haven for people as well as for alligators and swamps. They helped boost it both as a year round living place and as a tourist place and they did an excellent job even if the hurricanes.....oooops.......sorry.......don't want to give it away, either.

IN 1939 a beautfiul new streamliner named the "Henry M. Flagler" was built, named after him, of course, and ran on his beloved FEC R.R. from Jacksonville to Miami.

About a year later it was extended to run between Chicago and Miami and renamed the "Dixie Flagler". Two other streamliners were built at that time, the South Wind and the City of Miami. Each train operated every third day in rotation. Each had a different route north of Waycross, Ga. But by each operating every third day in concert with the others a daily through CHI to MI schedule was provided. That was a MIRACLE of interline cooperation in a day of private ownership of competing railroads.

THe Dixie Flagler was re-equipped and renamed Dxieland in 1954, and then discontineud in 1957. The City of Miami was axed when Amtrak came along in 1971. The South Wind was taken by Amtrak and soon re-named the Floridian, and was discontinued in 1979.

Anyway,the personal touch in all this for me is that at the ripe old age of three (in 1947) I was taken on the Dixie Flagler overnight round-trip from Chattanooga to Daytona Beach and that was my first train ride ever. This is the time I became for ever addicted to train travel.

It was my sister who bought me this Flagler book for Xmas. A fitting thing too---inasmuch as it was she, nine years my senior, who walked me back and forth from one end of the train to the other many times and is no doubt hugely responsible for me picking up the "train bug" in the first place.

Thus, the name Flagler has a lot of meaning to me. The book tends to paint Mr. Flagler as a relatively decent human being, not TOO many skeletons in his closet or so it seems. Was relieved to note that.

Bill,

The determination that Flagler posessed towards building a rail line through Florida was second only to his determination to be the one to lavish tourists at his resorts along the way. Being involved myself in architecture and construction, I can't help but admire his Hell-bent attitude and frankly his good taste in the form and function of what he produced along the tracks way back when. Some of his landmarks are still going strong. The same can't be said for most if not all of his contemporaries.

You mentioned a streamliner, the South Wind. The Southern Railroad's private jet back in the late 70's was a Grumman Gulfstream III, named the South Wind. I'm sure that's no coincidence.

Bill, you also mentioned that Mr. Flagler is depicted as being a relatively decent human being, a fact that I'm glad that you paid homage to. Not only was he a decent human being, it's obvious that he cared about all of his workers to his financial detriment. That characteristic doesn't seem to be that relevant these days.

And the heroics displayed by his men toward their fellow railroaders attempted rescue deserves merit. Many of them laid down their lives to attempt to save the lives of others. A notion all too familiar these days in war torn Iraq.

I'm reminded here of another icon of this era. James J. Hill, the empire builder himself. I've been studying this guy for several years and can find no contemporaries of him in corporate America today. He was a problem solver beyond compare. And much like Flagler, he did it all on his own. Not much help along the way.

I don't consider Trump a visionary. He inherited a few hundred million dollars. Ted Turner's a similiar situation. So many of today's billionaires are simply holding onto what they've been handed, riding the coat tails of ancestors.

Hill and Flagler are an entirely different breed. They not only grew their fortunes from their own ideas, with absolutely no money, but they did it with a social conscience. In the era of Enron and Tyco and offshore corporate tax shelters, these two come across as being models of corporate do-rights. A lost breed, I'm afraid.

Ok, changing the subject almost completely, if any of you railfans/architecture buffs find yourselves in the Twin Cities, you owe it to yourselves to visit the James J. Hills House, in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is still the largest house in Minnesota, and the woodwork and design are truly exciting. This is a mansion worthy of a visit.

As a further sidebar, I once wrote a travelog of an Empire Builder journey I took back in 2002. I questioned whether or not many of the derilct farms were abandoned all the while cursing James J. Hill, for coaxing them out there in the first place. While I'm sure that this took place, I feel the need to set the record straight here, as it pertains to James Hill.

While it's true that he probably single-handedly caused the settling of Montana and North Dakota, something like 80% of Montana land was grabbed up in two years, he can't be blaimed for the ensuing dust bowl. Immigrant farmers didn't know what they were doing, and these prairie winds do tend to howl.

The reason I bring this up is to explain that J.J. Hill spent the latter part of his life traveling around to state fairs and other ag exhibitions, extolling the need for crop rotations and proper farming techniques. Even though he was a cazillionaire, he still worked towards the betterment of everyone.

There are few people today that I can compare to these two individuals.

Frank

ps. I'm off once again on this truly great rail journey. I leave this weekend to watch the snows melting in Glacier and the Cascades, and maybe even glimpse the apple blossoms that dot every single hillside in central Washington. What could be finer?

Frank, thanks for the response, and to interpreting Flagler's character the same way I had and the reference to Mr. Hill, and further explanation of events. Yes, he too was a great visionary(and worker---not just a vision!).The pre-Amtrak Empire Builder was famous for having a big portrait of Hill in its dining cars.

I am a little surprised by the name "South Wind" being used by a Southern Railroad plane, however, as Southern was not part of the nine railroad effort that conspired to produce the three great streamliners. Be that as it may.

Something I kind of left dangling. When I spoke of the various every-third-day trains being discontinued I may have left the impression that the pattern of daily service was broken. It was not. When the Dixieland (nee Dixie Flagler) was discontinued in Nov. 1957, the South Wind and the City of Miami each went on permanent every other day service. And when the City was dropped as Amtrak chose the South Wind, then the SW became itself a daily train. (later named the Floridian).

In truth, the Cof M and the SW had sometimes been going two days out of three or every other day several timetable periods when the Dixie Flagler/Dixieland was still mostly every third day. So,in later years, there were days when two of the trains ran on the same day.

Also, I do not want to leave the impression that these were the ONLY mid-west Florida trains--nope, quite a few more. Just as I noted the many N.E. to FLA on that very long post about Silver Service the other day.

Anyone have Empire Express (big book over 800 pages). It is about the building of the first transcontinental ralraod to. I have it sitting on a shelf, but I am to busy to read past page 20. :lol:

Although this Florida East Coast Railway story and Henry Flagler seem like they were set eons ago, it's cool to discover that his private railcar is alive and well in a museum in Florida.

And as history states, most executive railcars in the late 1800's were built with luxury but not overdone, as shareholders wouldn't go for the extreme nonsensical expense common in today's corporate world.

But, this railcar was financed by Flagler, and is considered one of the world's finest.

I say we band together as a forum and purchase this car. We would then each get a week's time share in this private car, rolling behind Amtrak somewhere. What say? I've got a couple of hundred bucks burning a hole in my pocket. Just how many members are on this forum anyway?

Frank

257 registered members. If you look on the main page down at the bottom there's a little section with stats like number of memebers, newest member, largest number of users on at one time, and number of posts made by members.