ATSF Let's Talk Santa Fe Books!

glennac Mar 4, 2017

  1. glennac

    glennac TrainBoard Member

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    I've been a fan of Santa Fe since I was a kid in the 60's seeing the various passenger and freight running through Pasadena, Arcadia, and Monrovia in Sothern California.

    While I have quite a collection of ATSF and other roads in N Scale, I haven't had much in the way of books regarding my favorite railroad. So in the last year or so I've acquired a few titles (see photo below) and am enjoying them. I know of the high regard that the Cynthia Priest titles hold but prices for copies are astronomical.

    What books do you have and recommend involving the Santa Fe Railroad? What titles are you perhaps looking to obtain? And what are your thoughts on the books I've accumulated so far?

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    Would be delighted in everyone's input. Thanks!

    Glenn
     
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  2. MartyAT&SF

    MartyAT&SF TrainBoard Member

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    Nice start on a Santa Fe collection. If you are looking for reference books on rolling stock I would look for the books published by Richard Hendrickson, also check the book store on the Santa Fe Historical Society website, they have some excellent books.

    Reminds me of the very first Santa Fe book I bought. I got a copy of "Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Trail" in 1971, six years after it had been published. Long out of print and people were asking hundreds for it. Went into a local hobby shop and saw a used copy for sale, so I asked how much and was expecting bad news. He told me $20, I couldn't get the money out of my wallet fast enough!!!! Went into another hobby shop later that day carrying my new book (I was not going to let it out of my sight) and he offered me $100 for it, I turned him down. I have acquired one or two books since then. :)

    Paired Rail Railroad Publications (owned by Stephen and Cynthia Priest) has published excellent books on Santa Fe, Stephen worked for them, but finding the early books at an affordable price can be a chore.

    I model in N Scale too.

    Marty
     
  3. Ed Slanina

    Ed Slanina TrainBoard Member

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    Very nice collection of books, I have a few signs
     
  4. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    Santa Fe Streamliners by Zimmerman is a good one! Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Trail by Worley is a wonderful thing. It's amazing how few errors there are in its hundreds of pages. It's a gold mine. Treat it nicely. It's so fat with good stuff that reading it in your lap can actually cause its weight to damage its own binding.

    I read a book years ago specifically about the San Diegan, which had 'Surfliners' in the title. I'd love to find it again. Among other things, it had a page-long sidebar containing Phil Middlebrook's first-hand account of a runaway on Cajon Pass. It's worth getting just for that.

    It isn't typical railfan fare, but Inventing the Southwest: The Fred Harvey Company and Native American Art by Kathleen Howard is an interesting read nonetheless--and the pictures are even better. Another book which is a good read, but not the usual perspective on the road, is Coach Cabbage Caboose. It focuses not on the mainline glory of this most spectacular road, but the myriad, mundane branch lines. It's fun.

    Lucius Beebe's High Iron isn't a Santa Fe book specifically, but it belongs in any good Santa Fe collection for three very good reasons. It's a very good book, full of great photography and Beebe's wonderfully rich prose. It's too easy to set up an all-Santa Fe library, and it's good for even the most diehard fan to remember that there were other railroads with interesting traditions and merit of their own. And he includes the entire text of the Santa Fe's own account of the running of Death Valley Scotty's Coyote Special in 1905. It may not be a Santa Fe book, but Beebe certainly appreciated the Santa Fe, and it does show.
    A team of plow horses, of course, was the tow truck of choice in the pre-WWI era.

    The vintage book I'd most like to hunt down a copy of is Santa Fe: The Railroad that Built an Empire by, if I remember right, a guy named Marshall. It dates back to WWII and it adopts a somewhat historic tone, but it's really an entertaining retelling of a bunch of old rails' tales. You can't call it a history, but it sure does a nice job of chronicling the Santa Fe's legend at its height. Perhaps the funniest thing about that book is it recounts--in a serious tone--an old roundhouse joke about the 3000-class Mallets. It goes on at great length setting up the tale of one running away with its train, then the punch line is it never goes over thirty miles an hour all the way down the mountain. Of course, that's a joke, and a common one which never disappeared. The railroaders of 1912 wished they had a locomotive that couldn't run away. They'd have built thousands of them, whether they were any good at going uphill or not. Forty years later that joke had gotten shorter and more exaggerated, the way old jokes do--'You could drop one of those 800-Class ALCOs off the Empire State Building and it wouldn't break the speed limit all the way down'--but the same joke was still around. But this joke just wouldn't quit giving. I read a very dry, 'Here are all the dividends the stock paid and the operating ratio'-type history of the road written in 1974 and that tale was actually presented as fact in that volume!

    Now that's comedy!
     
    Last edited: Mar 4, 2017
  5. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    My collection.
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  6. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    Looks to me like the very strong reference library of a very serious Santa Fe modeler. The Pamela Berkman book in the upper corner is a silly bit of fluff, but it sure has some fine photographs in it. The other 23 are anything but fluff!
     
  7. glennac

    glennac TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks guys! Keep the comments and photos coming. This is really helpful.

    Randy, I am particularly interested in Transition Era Diesel, both passenger and freight service in color. I'm looking at your Early Diesel Daze and Santa Fe in the Lone Star State. Are they any good?

    I see Pamela Beckmann History of the AT&SF around for cheap. What are your thoughts?
     
  8. glennac

    glennac TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks Tulsan, very helpful.

    I know I've seen your 'Surfliner' and 'Empire' books around.

    As I mentioned above, I'm particularly interested in ATSF Transition Era Diesel passenger and freight service, preferably in color. That "Santa Fe Chiefs" by Yenne and the Zimmerman books (my photo above) are among my favorites. What are your thoughts on the Morning Sun Books? I'm a sucker for the beautiful color photography.
     
  9. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    I haven't had much exposure to those.

    The Berkman book had millions of copies printed. They're a dime a dozen. It's mostly factual, but the author was a hack with no clue about the subject matter, so some of the 'facts' are pretty funny. There were a series of those books, and only the New York Central volume is any good as a serious history. Buy it for the photos--most of them are from your era. They're mostly official company photos of ideal lashups and brand new locomotives, and not necessarily a good way to educate yourself on normal, everyday operations, but they're well-reproduced on slick paper, and great pics! Most are black and white, though.

    The Morning Sun books should probably be judged on the same standard. If there are plenty if interesting and useful photos, who needs a good text? Color photos from that era are rare, as Kodachrome was just about the only decent color film, and it was a slow (ISO64) slide film. Many photographers didn't bother. Outfits like Morning Sun deserve our money just for scouring the earth for scarce, vintage color pics, and gathering them in one place.
     
    Last edited: Mar 4, 2017
  10. glennac

    glennac TrainBoard Member

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    If got a few more titles on the way later this week and will post about them when they arrive. But does anyone have a copy of John Kelly's "Santa Fe Railway Photo Archive" and could share their thoughts? Fluff or not?

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  11. Kenneth L. Anthony

    Kenneth L. Anthony TrainBoard Member

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    Clearing out materials in my would-be train room for a layout. Disposed of dozens of rail books- but none of my Santa Fe books. A few favorites in my collection:

    _Caboose Cars of the Santa Fe Railway_ Frank M. Ellington. 1978, Railroad Car Press, Colfax, Iowa. 100 p.

    _Head End Cars_ Frank M. Ellington & Joe W. Shine, Santa Fe Railway Passenger Car Reference Series- Vol.1 1999, Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society, Highlands Ranch, Col. 159 p.


    _Official Pullman-Standard Library, Vol.1 Santa Fe_ W. David Randall & William M. Ross. 1986, Railway Production Classics, Godfrey, Ill.190 p. + I-XX.

    _Passenger Train Equipment 1870-1975 of the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe

    Vol. 2 Business and Special Purpose Cars_ Frank M. Ellington & Joe W. Shine. 1975, Railcar Press I & II, Colfax, Iowa. 177 p. This HUGE book, 19" x 12" horizontal format, opens up to more than a yard wide.

    _Quarter Century of Santa Fe Consists, A_ Fred W. Frailey. 1974, RPC Publications, Godfrey, Ill. 208p.


    _Refrigerator Cars: Ice Bunker Cars 1884-1979_ (Santa Fe Railway Rolling Stock Reference Series- Vol.2) C. Keith Jordan, Richard H. Hendrickson, John B. Moore and A. Dean Hale. 1994, Santa Fe Modelers Organization Inc., Norman, Ok. 288p.


    _Santa Fe Boxcars 1869-1953_ (Santa Fe Railway Rolling Stock Reference Series- Vol.4) John C. Dobyne III, 2001, Santa Fe Railway Historical
    & Modeling Society, Inc. Derby, KS.258p.


    _Santa Fe in the Lone Star State_ Vol.1 1949-1969, Steve Allen Goen, 2000, Four Ways West Publishing. all-color coverage of Texas ATSF.


    ___Santa Fe ...Steel Rails Through California_ Donald Duke & Stan Kistler.1963, Golden West Books, San Marino, Cal. 184 p.


    _Santa Fe System Standards_ 1978, Kachina Press, Dallas, Texas. Volume 1. Standard signs, bunkhouse, switch stands, stockyards,scales, scale houses and track layouts for scales, highway crossings, trestles.

    Volume 2. Standard depots, closets, freight house scales, operators cottage, section houses, bunk houses, interlocking towers, crossing gates & signals, signals, signal maintainer's material house, right of way fence and cattleguards.

    Volume 3. Standard bumping posts, track car setout, culverts, bridge and pier abutments, crosstie spacing, loading platforms, store houses, boiler house, water treatment plant, tanks, oil and water columns, roundhouses, enginehouse pipe lines, sand house, switch stands, signals. Total 384 p.


    _Stock Cars of the Santa Fe Railway_, Frank M. Ellington, John Berry, and Loren Martens. Originally published by Railroad Car Press. 1986 second printing by Santa Fe Railway Historical Society, Inc. Los Angeles, Cal. 134p.

    _System Employee Timetables, November 29, 1942, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway_ Vol. 1 Eastern Lines; Vol. 2 Western Lines;
    Vol. 3 Gulf Lines; Vol. 4 Coast Lines. Reprinted June 1992 by Santa Fe Modelers Organization, Inc. Norman, OK


    _Work Equipment Cars_ (Santa Fe Railway Rolling Stock Reference Series- Volume 1) W. W. Childers. 1993, Santa Fe Modelers Organization, Inc.
    Norman, Ok. 254 p.
     
  12. glennac

    glennac TrainBoard Member

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    Kenneth, thank you very much. Looks like you're heavy into reference material.

    I'm particularly interested in illustrated books on day-to-day operations of the diesel era and streamlined passenger service.

    Can someone tell me if the two books below are the same? They are the same author, and nearly identical titles. But one is hardcover and the other softcover. The hardcover is 168 pg. and the softcover is 128 pg. Any thoughts? What's the differences between the two since they are both from Steve Glischinski?

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  13. MartyAT&SF

    MartyAT&SF TrainBoard Member

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    Every book shown and listed here in this thread are excellent Santa Fe books and all in my library. To the above list I will add -

    The Santa Fe Diesel vol 1 by Stephen and Cynthia Priest (Paired Rail Publications)

    The Santa Fe Diesel vol 2 by Stephen and Cynthia Priest (Paired Rail Publications) These two books are dogeared from being referenced so much

    Santa Fe Waycars by Stephen and Cynthia Priest (Paired Rail Publications)

    The Doodlebug by John McCall

    Santa Fe Railway Rolling Stock Reference Series -

    Volume 1 already mentioned
    Volume 2 already mentioned
    Volume 3 - Furniture and Automobile boxcars
    Volume 4 already mentioned
    Volume 5 - Santa Fe Tank Cars
    Volume 6 - Mechanical Refrigerator Cars 1949-1988
    Volume 7 - Santa Fe Open-top Cars Flat, Gondola and Hopper Cars 1902-1959

    Santa Fe Railway Steam Locomotives Painting, Lettering & Detail Guide for Model Railroaders

    All the loco roster books that have been published over the years

    This last book has a very long title but is an invaluable aid if you are looking for one item -

    Cumulative Index to the Periodicals and Publications of the Santa Fe Historical and Modeling Society and its Predecessor Organizations 1969-2001

    There are many more books I could list, but have to stop somewhere. If your library has every book mentioned in every message (or even most of them) then you have an excellent reference library. I have found that you can get books you are missing by shopping at the used book tables at the various train shows you go to, prices are not out of line.
     
  14. MartyAT&SF

    MartyAT&SF TrainBoard Member

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    I have both books and having the same title is misleading because they are different books. One is published in 1997 and the other in 2008 by different publishers. Both are about the Santa Fe but that is all they have in common.
     
  15. glennac

    glennac TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks Marty! If you had to choose between the two, which is more informative or has the best selection of illustrations? How does the content differ between the two? I'm leaning towards the hardcover since it seems to be better quality. I love "The Super Chief" (Bill Yenne) by the same publisher. If it's anything like the quality of that book I'd definitely go for the hardcover one.

    Considering how coveted (and expensive) the "The Santa Fe Diesel" volumes by Stephen and Cynthia Priest are I was pleasantly surprised to have scored a copy of Vol 2 for a very reasonable price and will soon have it hand. Everyone praises these so much that I'm looking forward to adding it to my collection. Now to track down what appears to be the harder of the two to obtain
    (Vol 1) without paying an arm and a leg. :unsure::eek:
     
  16. glennac

    glennac TrainBoard Member

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    Anyone have a copy of "Streamliners" by Mike Schafer & Joe Welsh? How's it's coverage of ATSF passenger service?

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  17. MartyAT&SF

    MartyAT&SF TrainBoard Member

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    You will enjoy your new diesel book. If i had to pick one of the two Santa Fe books, i would choose the hard cover. Attached is the table of contents for both books. hard.png soft.png
     
  18. Yannis

    Yannis TrainBoard Member

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    Hi all,

    Before starting a new (possibly similar) topic, i though to give it a go and ask within this (relevant) topic. I hope this is ok.

    I am wondering if anyone has any input on the following book. In particular i am looking at useful plans for building depots (Del Mar depot, and type 2A ATSF standard depots as well as the San Diego ATSF depot).

    The book i am interested in is: Santa Fe Depots 1: Engineering Series Volume 7, by Robert Walz, Paired Rail Publications.

    I already have the excellent book: Coast Lines Depots (LA division) by Gustafson and Serpico, but it does not have the plans i am interested in (although it is excellent in every other aspect!) and i am wondering if the aforementioned book earlier will cover me.

    Furthermore, i am wondering if the excellent looking Santa Fe Los Angeles Division book by John Signor (SFRHMS publications), has significant additional content on the Surfline that i am missing*.

    *Given that I already have the Surfliners book, the Motive Power Pictorial on the Surfline, Duke's book on the Santa Fe gateway to the west, and the relevant Warbonnet issues on the Surfline.

    Many thanks in advance for your help
    Yannis
     
  19. wig-wag-trains.com

    wig-wag-trains.com Advertiser

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    I have an extra copy of "Iron Horses" that I would sell. I just couldn't resist buying it @ a show in Temple, TX. Since I've been working @ the C&TSRR I have little time for train reading. Call the shop and speak to Debra. 505-298-7177.

    There's another ATSF book you might find interesting dealing with Southern California and the circle route (including Monrovia). The circle included the track through Monrovia & Duarte. I spent many days summer of '09 walking around CoH and thinking about the endless line of bare tables that were stored across Duarte Rd. Lots of time to kill during 9 weeks of radiation treatments. Now that line is part of the commuter line. Deb & I rode it end to end in 01/16.
     

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