Train books are education first, then fun

Railroads have a lot to teach us about how the world works. For those of us blessed to live in the United States, U.S. Railroads may have even more to teach than those of the Europe have for people of that continent. I do not make these statements lightly.

My collection of railroad-related literature, fiction and non-fiction, totals over 125 books. These range from the ponderous history Union Pacific by Maury Klein, through the entertaining photo albums of Beebe and Klegg, to the overly detailed nineteenth century work Railways of Great Britain & Ireland. In between, my “train book” train makes long stops at Chicago’s ‘L’, its long-gone street railways, and interesting interurbans, one of which still runs.

Klein’s work, alone, is a complete education in how American corporations came to exist in their present form, to say nothing of how the 19th century American entrepreneurial mind worked. Supplementing this are Merging Lines, by Richard Saunders, Jr., and Leaders Count, by Lawrence Kaufman. The first tells us how the U.S. federal government has failed railroading and other corporate endeavors in the 20th century through over regulation, and the second how corporate leadership, specifically in the matter of BNSF Railway, can overcome almost any obstacle to create a profitable and responsible corporate citizen.

If corporations are not your cup of tea, there are a few great train books that border on travel diaries but still convey the authors’ love of trains and all things railroading. Two of these are Paul Theroux’s The Great Railway Bazaar, and The Old Patagonian Express.

Two books with the same title, Night Trains, are educations on what western civilization has let slip away. The one by Peter Maiken is an elaborate look at Pullman Company and the trains it ran on many, I would go as far as saying most, American railroads during most of three quarters of a century. Pullman was a victim of the anti-trust demon, the same product of envy and political grandstanding that broke up Standard Oil and the old AT&T. I think I can pessimistically say that Pullmans standards of luxury and service will never be regularly seen on American railroads again.

The other covers European night trains, and is written by British journalist Andrew Martin. Suffering the same fate as Pullman, the popularly named Wagons-Lits (pronounced Vah-gone Lee), a Belgian company founded by Georges Nagelmachers, ran sleeping car trains all over Europe and into Asia, but was eventually regulated into oblivion by the One Europe people.

In addition to educating us on these grand entrepreneurial successes, these two books also educate on just what is possible, and just what we are missing, in the current state of passenger railroading. Without these “train books,” the current generation would have no idea of either.

For an education in the disciplines of architecture, urban planning, and historic preservation, nothing in my library beats Penn Station, by Fred Westing, or St. Louis Union Station and its Railroads, by Norbury Wayman.

Finally, if you’re even remotely involved or climbing the corporate ladder in the hospitality industry, there’s Appetite for America, by Stephen Fried, the comprehensive story of Fred Harvey and his family and the organization of hotels and restaurants that contributed greatly to civilizing rail travel in the American West.

My point is this: Those of us who read train books for the trains and railroads do learn a lot about trains and railroads, but those who are not interested in trains might just benefit greatly from the infinite variety of other subjects that railroading and trains touches in our complicated and ever-changing society. It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I would paraphrase that aphorism: Those that do not read history are sure to repeat it.

©2018 – C. A. Turek – mistertrains@gmail.com

(Charles A. Turek is a writer and novelist based in Albuquerque, NM. After four decades working in areas of the insurance industry related to transportation, he now writes on all aspects of American railroading. Charles is a political conservative but believes in public funding of passenger rail as a part of the federal government’s constitutionally conservative obligation to provide for defense and public infrastructure so that private enterprise may flourish.)