Books on Freight and Passenger Cars
My e-books are composed for viewing on computer monitors. They are PDF format and open in Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded from Adobe for free. Photographs can be magnified for closer examination. Printing by the user is allowed. The books are also searchable for specific words or numbers. They are sold on CDs and prices include first class mail anywhere in the world!
A new product called an ESF document is now being offered. Each document provides the builder, service and dispostion history of a specific group of cars. Photographs are included whenever possible. ESF documents are only available as e-mail attachments.
The listing also includes some older print books. Prices include media mail anywhere in the United States. Other rates available on request.
Use the following links to download ordering information, catalogs, etc.:
Railroads:
- Lehigh & New England Railroad Freight Car Diagram Book (print book, 1993) includes 56 pages of rosters, photographs and diagrams. Charts show yearly quantities in service. Lists of passenger and maintenance of way equipment are included. $18
- National Railway Utilization Corporation (2006) explores the complexities of the acquisition and liquidation of the NRUC fleet of box cars. $25
- Norfolk Southern Coal Gons 2005 (2005) is a contemporary pictorial roster of the Norfolk Southern coal gon fleet. Cars with Conrail intials are included. $15
- Triple Crown Services 2006 (updated version) is a pictorial roster of the Triple Crown RoadRailer fleet. Triple Crown is a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern. $20
- Northampton & Bath Freight Cars (print book, 1994) is a pictorial roster of this U.S. Steel subsidiary. Includes detailed drawings of their 1923 NYC design box cars and a map of the railroad. $14
- Philadelphia & Reading Freight Cars: 19th Century (print book) includes 94 pages of rosters, photographs, diagrams and drawings. This is the only comprehensive work available on Reading cars of this period. $25
- Philadelphia & Reading Freight Cars: 1900 to 1914 (print book) includes 120 pages of rosters, photographs, diagrams and drawings. It includes exquisite scale drawings of 19 different freight cars done especially for this book. $30
- Southern Railway Car Roster includes an illustrated roster of cars used from 1982 to 1991 and a guide to Norfolk Southern classification of Southern cars. $20 (Replaces Southern Railway Car Roster/Norfolk Southern Classification of Southern Cars.)
- Southern Railway Car Roster/Southern to Norfolk Southern Renumbering (2006) covers the period from 1991 to present. $15
Private owners:
- Celtran, Inc. (2008) explores the roster of this North American subsidiary of Celanese, the World's largest producer of acetyl products. Their fleet once included over 3,000 tank and covered hopper cars. Many of the tank cars are unusual designs with aluminum or stainless steel tanks. $25
- Pennsylvania Power & Light Coal Cars (2006) is an illustrated roster and also includes a variety of HELM and other non-PPLX cars used in PP&L trains. $15
- Railbox 2006 (2006) is a pictorial roster of the Railbox fleet since 1974. $20
Designs:
- Carbon Black Cars (print book, 1990) is the definitive work on carbon black and fumed silica cars. The book includes rosters, 15 scale diagrams and 48 photos of designs built between 1933 and 1989. The majority were built by American Car & Foundry and Thrall. $25
- Center Beam Cars (600 pages, 2007) is an amply illustrated roster of over 43,000 center beam cars built since their introduction in 1969. Reletterings and renumberings are fully covered. While many of the photographs were taken more recently, vintage shots from the late 1980s show some rare cars including ones lettered for Diamond B Lumber, Pend Orielle, Treesource and FCWR. $25
Car builders:
- A History of the Center Flow (2007) is an extensive, illustrated guide to this covered hopper design built by ACF and ARI from 1961 to the present. $40
- ACF Center Flow CF4600 (print book, 1994) is a fully illustrated guide to this particular covered hopper design. $20
- Evans Products Company Freight Cars (2003) is an overview of the Evans Products family of companies and their involvement with freight cars. $15
- Evans Products Company Freight Car Roster Notes (2004) is a detailed listing of freight cars built, rebuilt and leased by Evans Products and subsidiaries. $25
- Evans Products Builders Photographs (2006) reproduces the James A. Kinkaid collection. $25
- Pullman-Standard Freight Car Production Including Predecessors (2002) is a detailed listing of about 10,000 freight car orders from the 19th and 20th centuries. $20
Railroad registers:
- January 1899 is a complete facsimile of the Equipment Register in a single PDF document. It has a complete set of bookmark hyperlinks for easy navigation. $15
Related subjects:
- Bethlehem Steel, Fall of 1995 is primarily collection of detailed aerial photographs taken of the Bethlehem plant taken just before the last blast furnace shut down. A map of the plant, photographs from ground level and railroad equipment photographs are also included. $20
- Our Alaska Trip (157 pages, 2007) is a collection of photographs from our trip. A small amount of railroad material includes the Hurricane Turn out of Talkeetna, scenes from Nenana and the former Copper River & Northwestern route from Chitina to Kennecott. Most of the 157 page book covers the often spectacular scenery, wild animals, wildflowers and sealife. Available as a free add-on to any order on request.
Other pricing:
- Many books currently priced less than $25 will be increased to $25 as soon as they are revised.
- Book Upgrades are offered the registered owners of earlier versions. An upgrade consists of the new version on a CD. If you purchased a book directly from me, you are already registered. $5
- ESF document ordered from the catalog. $2
- ESF document created from scratch. $10
Upcoming titles:
- Train Watching Primer will be a beginners guide to the train watching hobby. It will also include information of interest to experienced train watchers. Release planned for early 2008.