Reddit mentions: The best railroads books

While it's not the most scholastic source (the owner sometimes writes subjective things on objective topics), AmericanRails is probably the most comprehensive easy-to-navigate free site and is a great way to learn about general North American rail history for free. Wikipedia is hit-or-miss as always, with some very comprehensive articles and some that are just a few lines and a picture, but the fact that it's free makes it worth a look.

You mention the east coast, do you mean the Northeast Corridor specifically or the entire coast? If you mean the NEC, the line was operated for most of its history by the New Haven RR and the Pennsylvania RR, which would later both become Penn Central before Amtrak took over operations of the NEC. If you mean the entire coast, I'll need another comment for that.

Unfortunately this hobby's best information about historic railroading is almost entirely book-based, so to get everything you'll have to invest in some books. Anything by Kalmbach will be accurate, comprehensive, and hopefully not too hard to read, this is a good historical summary. I have this book, and I think it's a good summary; the language isn't difficult and there's plenty of pictures. I've seen people recommend this one, it's less of a history book and more of an encyclopedia of nearly every major North American railroad. These books cover general topics; there's been scores of books written about every railroad that exists/existed. If you can help refine the location/area, we can try to find more specific information.

First off, don't believe anyone who tells you that non-fiction books are the only worthwhile books. That is blasphemy. Non-fiction might make you more knowledgeable about certain things, but fiction allows you to entertain an entirely different perspective of the world for the duration of the book. I would argue that the latter is more beneficial to your development as a critical thinker and a human being.

Secondly, it sounds like you haven't really found your genre yet. You couldn't get through all of Harry Potter, maybe fantasy isn't your thing. Try historical fiction. What kind of movies and TV shows do you enjoy? Try finding books along the same vein. Just like anything else, you're going to have to sift through a lot of stuff you don't like to find the ones you do.

I like to have at least two books going at the same time, because sometimes reading just one book gets boring. At any given time, I'll be reading one book for pleasure (I really like fantasy - so something like Malazan Book of the Fallen), and one book for merit (anything from philosophy to psychology to a travel memoir).

Lastly, try getting your reading time in right before you go to sleep. It's less stimulating than watching TV or being on the computer. You can get a few pages in when you're taking a shit, too.

The seemingly paradoxical characteristics of flexibility and strength are pretty impressive.

Rail used to come in 45 foot lengths that were bolted together. Those bolts come loose periodically and need to be tightened. Railroads used to have section gangs spaced regularly along the mainline to patrol and maintain the tracks. Those gangs made up a very large workforce that often lived in micro communities in the middle of nowhere that were made up entirely of railroad workers and their families.

Nowadays, rail is imported in 90’ sticks that are welded together into quarter-mile lengths. Those quarter-mile lengths of rail are distributed by special trains then welded together on site. That’s called continuously welded rail (CWR) and represents a major breakthrough for the railroads. There is much less maintenance required, which means a much smaller maintenance of way workforce. CWR saves railroads money through both lower costs and improved reliability.

I can’t recommend any YouTube channels, but I can recommend the book The Railroad: What It Is And What It Does. It’s an excellent book that explains, in detail, almost every aspect of railroad operations.

Edit: fixed link

This one is very good and pretty cheap:
https://www.amazon.com/Railroad-What-Does-Introduction-Railroading/dp/0911382585

It's a good survey of all the tech. The AREMA guide is OK, but pretty narrow.

Beware Google. Lots of railfans and model railroad fans put a lot of incorrect info online.

If anyone is interested in the current state of Rail in Canada I highly suggest you read The Railway Game

It is an older book, but as Rail hasn't changed in the last 40 years a great deal of the arguments and explanations hold true.

Locomotives: The Modern Diesel and Electric Reference
This one has a good history on the progression of modern Diesel locomotives in North America.

The Railroad: What It Is, What It Does
Borrowed this one from a co-worker many years ago. Pretty sure it had quite a bit of engineering related details.

I like this one. The drawings are nice and clear.

This is considered the best guidebook for planning your Trans-Siberian trip:

https://www.amazon.com/Trans-Siberian-Handbook-longest-railway-Mongolia/dp/1905864566/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

A woman who goes by "everbrite" was one of the longest lasting and most prolific posters over on Lonely Planet's Thorntree forum until she abruptly stopped posting about 3 years ago. She was a trans-Siberian expert. You can search for her old posts over there, as well as her old, but still useful website (http://www.myazcomputerguy.com/everbrite/Page9.html).

I have. If your thinking about doing the trip, or any train travel really, check out the man in seat 61. If your really serious about doing the trip you should reaaly read this book, there are other travel books but none of them compare tbh. I don't have too much time right now to write out a huge post about the whole thing but please AMA, I'll try and answer any questions I can later.

You might see if you can get a copy of this book from the library: https://www.amazon.com/Railroad-What-Does-Introduction-Railroading/dp/0911382585/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=75DWX1ZKQKX2KE46GGSP

BNSF has a "Railroad 101" training course for employees in support departments that covers the basics of railroad operations and service concepts. This is the book they use for that course.

If you can find a copy, you might also read the book Hunter Harrison wrote about PSR while he was at CN. I don't agree with the model, but since it's the hot thing in railroading right now, it's good to have an idea of what proponents of PSR claim that it is. If you can't find the book, CP published a white paper that summarizes the basic concepts which is available online.

This is a great read https://www.amazon.com/American-Steam-Locomotives-Development-1880-1960/dp/0253039339

Thomas Cook publishes a timetable book for the trains around Europe twice a year.

Might not be as relevant these days now that most people take laptops with them. But was useful for me when I went interrailing back in 2005 (wasn't carrying a laptop).

As well as the times it also notes which of the trains will require a booking etc. Some trains need a booking or small extra fee paid even though you already have a pass.

When I was at the London Underground museum in the UK I picked up a copy of "The Subterranean Railway' by Christian Wolmar. It does a great job of discussing the early history of the London Underground system. Decent writing if a bit dry. I haven't seen it in print in the U.S., but Amazon has a kindle edition here:

http://www.amazon.com/Subterranean-Railway-Underground-Changed-Forever-ebook/dp/B00PF1H7SC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420515083&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Subterranean+Railway

This is the book they gave me my first week. 15 years later . . . . I still haven't finished it.

​

Seriously, it's a good intro. You can probably find it cheaper somewhere but it's worth $45 if you cant.

​

https://www.amazon.com/Railroad-What-Does/dp/0911382046/ref=sr_1_2?gclid=CjwKCAiA_f3uBRAmEiwAzPuaM0ovsUbnohpaWNK1NrTNQ8OertekA630tt0v9ZScsY39aRDjw9WygRoCToEQAvD_BwE&hvadid=241632210222&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9028755&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=15835061039625378199&hvtargid=aud-837686656069%3Akwd-1144114352&hydadcr=9397_10387936&keywords=the+railroad+what+it+is+what+it+does&qid=1574987708&sr=8-2

I haven't done it yet. I bought this book.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1912716089?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_asin_title

It's informative.

Hope this helps.

There, i've dug into my amazon wishbox, and...

https://www.amazon.com/American-Steam-Locomotives-Brian-Solomon/dp/0760303363

https://www.amazon.com/Steam-Locomotive-Works-Karen-Parker/dp/0939487896

http://www.amazon.com/Steam-Locomotives-Really-Popular-Science/dp/0198607822

Very technical and goes into thermodynamics and the engineering behind a lot of the functions. Based on British locos

If he can't you should read The Railroad: What it is and What it does by Armstrong.

I'm in grad school focusing on rail engineering and its unofficially required reading for all new students.

This is what you want.

Do you have a copy of this book http://www.amazon.com/Steam-Railroads-Electrified-Revised-Edition/dp/0253339790

For US electric railway fans its practically a bible. Had my copy of the first edition signed by Middleton himself at a convention years ago.

/u/vbguy77 - saw your post about watching the trains - have you seen this? It appeared in my feed this morning. :)

If you want to read a 'short version' of how the railways ended up how they ended up you could not do better than read Mathew Engel's book Eleven Minutes Late. btw Also look for the blatant error on the front cover of the paperback. Look at the cover and get back to me... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eleven-Minutes-Late-Matthew-Engel/dp/0330512374

Well you are certainly on the right track in regards to logistics. I don't want to give you the answers here, but I have a bunch of sources I can throw your way!

As a starting point, I would highly suggest ”Armored Trains” by Steven J. Zaloga and ”Engines of War” by Christian Wolmar. Both are accessible and geared towards the lay reader. The former is more on the use of trains as a weapon itself, while the latter looks more at the questions you bring up here.


A few other good books to look for would be:

“German Armored Trains in World War II”, “German Armored Trains in World War II Vol. II 1939-1945” and “German Armored Trains on the Russian Front 1941-1944” all by Wolfgang Sawodny. He is considered to be the expert on German trains, and every other source cites him constantly. His most comprehensive work, apparently, is “German Armored Trains 1904-1945” which I unfortunately have not been able to get my hands on as it is insanely expensive :(

”Armored Trains of the Soviet Union 1917-1945” by Wilfried Kopenhagen

”American Civil War Railroad Tactics,” by Robert R. Hodges, Jr.

"United States Military Railway Service: America's Soldier-Railroaders in WWII" by Don DeNevi

You mention you aren't in college yet, so I don't know if you have access to academic archives like JSTOR or Proquest, but if so, try to check these papers out.

“Forging the red thunderbolt: Armored trains provided mobile firepower during the Russian Revolution and after” by Alan. R. Koenig, in “Armor”, Vol. 110, No. 3 (May/June, 2001)

”Armored Trains a Success” from “The Science News-Letter”, Vol. 43, No. 7 (February, 13, 1943)

Hope that helps!