| Decade of the Trains: The 1940s |  | Author: Don Ball
Publisher: Little Brown & Co (P)
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 1126211
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 11 x 10 x 0.8
ISBN: 0821207598
Dewey Decimal Number: 385.3097
EAN: 9780821207598
ASIN: 0821207598
Publication Date: May 1980
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Excellent View of the Railroad Era February 13, 2007
This is an informative and well-photographed look at U.S. railroads during the war decade of the 1940's. Authors Don Ball and Rogers Whitaker provide an excellent view of this once-mighty industry. Readers see what it was like to be a railroad engineer ("hogger") at the controls of a powerful steam engine on a mile-long freight train. We see the coal-shoveling fireman and ever-watchful brakeman that joined him up front, plus the rear brakeman and the conductor ("old man") in the copula. The book also teaches about passenger train crews, plus ancillary personnel such as switchmen, station masters, porters, roundhouse workers, rail crews, and telegraph operators. This superbly photographed book shows how vital railroads once were to the nation's economy and how much work it took to run one. We also sense the pride that rail workers feel about their craft, although their number has dwindled from nearly 1.5 million in 1945 to perhaps 250,000 at this writing.
This book should be of interest to both rail buffs and casual observers. You can read it straight through or merely peruse the photographs for reference. Either way you'll sense what transport was like in the years before jet travel and interstate highways, and you'll know why so many youngsters (and others) dreamed of being railroaders.
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