AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: The Southern Railway system: An illustrated history by William Webb ISBN: 0-919783-19-8 Publisher: Boston Mills Press Pub. Date: 1986 Format: Unknown Binding List Price(USD): $24.95

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: A great book for railroad buffs; a must buy for SR fans!
Comment: This coffee table worthy book can never be outdated. William Webb has assembled a wonderful collection of photographs primarily covering the early history of the Southern Railway System. Published just four years after the merging of the Southern with the Norfolk and Western into the modern Norfolk Southern Railroad, Webb provides a well-written history that dives deep into the past, to the roots of the Southern System. Chapter one opens with a description of the start of the South Carolina Canal & Rail Road Company that provided the first regular railroad service in North America. The rest of the chapter describes the visions of the important people who nurtured the infant railroad industry in Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Georgia. The next chapter covers the laying of rails prior to the Civil War all throughout the southeast United States where the Southern Railway "Served the South." Webb brings history alive with diagrams, portraits, and illustrations from the period. The following chapters cover the eras of the Civil War, Reconstruction and the Transition period in southern railroad history when the tiny local railroad companies began to coalesce into systems. The final chapter covers the formation of the Southern Railway System proper in 1894 by the rail baron, J.P. Morgan, and the development of the Southern into one of the most innovative railroads of the 20th Century. The later chapters are filled with well-captioned photographs. These pictures provide a rare and historic glimpse into the life of railroad workers and passengers. One of my favorite photographs shows a conductor, an engineer and the fireman standing proudly in front of their shiny steamer around the turn of the century. Another depicts June 17, 1953 when the last steam engine to run on the Southern Railway ends its run alongside a replica of the Best Friend of Charleston and a gleaming new F-3 diesel (#4157). On that day, the Southern became the first Class 1 railroad to become fully dieselized and one of the reasons the little know Southern was the road of the innovators. Historic photographs of this caliber are an excellent counterpoint to Mr. Webb's crisp prose. The casual reader will find Mr. Webb's history a wonderful trip into America's railroading past and will find a fun and accessible account of how a railroad grew up with the country. Readers interested in early railroad history and tired of reading about "the golden spike" will enjoy this book for its focus on a less well known railroad and region. At the same time, devotees of Southern Railway history will know that Mr. Webb did his homework! My only complaint is that Mr. Webb has not come out with a similar book that focuses upon the modern era!