The Historical Guide to North American Railroads (Trains Books) Paperback – Illustrated, 1 April 2014

Railway history can be complicated, something I've come to learn after a lifetime of interest in the railways of Britain. By comparison, and having had only fleeting visits,, the North American continent's railway history can seem truly bewildering. This excellent book is a great way to familiarise oneself with railway history of the USA, Canada and Mexico. The bulk of the book provides background history to over a hundred major railroad companies (and a few minor ones) and explains the many mergers and takeovers that have taken place over the decades. The book has provided me with several evenings enjoyable reading and continues to be dipped into frequently.

Good historical reference book covering most of the US railroads that made the scene so varied and colourful over the last century. Interesting also to explore the origins of the heritage railroads that still exist over parts of some of the now defunct networks, and compare with the maps of the original extent.

Well most folk interested in Railroads are going to have at least one Kalmbach Title, and quite possibly it'll be one of the "TRAINS" Guides? This 3rd Edition of this particular title brings to the party a more conventional format. It's twice the height of the earlier Trains Guides and that makes for a better binding IMO. However what a missed opportunity? Many of the Maps, and photographs, are exactly the same as in the 2nd Edition! One criticism of those was that their small format, obviously scaled for the 2nd Editions size, meant that only a few major place names were possible on each map. Frustrating then to read the obviously well researched histories ...only to find significant places mentioned in the text are not on the map. That COULD have been addressed in the new larger format. On the Plus side there are some excellent Double Page and Full Page Coloured Maps that are really helpful in understanding development of entire regions. The new edition also features a good few Colour pictures and these are reproduced extremely well. All in I'd recommend this even if you do have the second edition. I just wish they'd gone the extra mile with some of the original content and if that meant more pages and a higher price I think most Rail fans would have still been happy to buy it? I do hope the new format will be used for new additions to the excellent Trains Guides to North American Steam and Diesel Locomotives because there the addition of colour would definitely be a plus. But Come on Kalmbach ...Go the extra mile?

On a quick glance this looks like it will be my "Go too" volume in North American Railroads History.

An essential and fascinating read for those interested in the history of North American Trains. The detail is very precise and the maps are in the most part in colour and highly detailed.

A good book giving an overview of American railroads

Good book.

Excellent reference book

Voilà un livre « must have » pour les passionnés de trains nord-américains. Un ouvrage qui permet de comprendre les origines des nombreuses compagnies de chemin de fer en Amérique du Nord, de leurs origines à nos jours... Norfolk Southern, CSX, Burlington Northern and Sante-Fe, Union Pacific, Kansas City Southern... Voilà des noms qui font rêver les passionnés !

The book has a brief history of over 200 NA railroads. Most of the railroads come with a network map if possible. For this reason I found it much more enjoyable than Solomon's "North American Railroads: The Illustrated Encyclopedia"

北米に存在する(した)鉄道会社ごとの歴史を紹介する本。各社ごとに文章のほか路線図と創業期・現在(廃止時)の路線長や車両数の簡単な表、それにだいたい各社1枚の写真という形で約170社を網羅してます。さすが私鉄の国という感じ。米鉄道雑誌やネットの記事などで知らない鉄道会社が出てきたらこの本で調べるとだいたいわかると思います。北米の鉄道に興味ある人は必携では。基本的に載ってるのは大手(クラス1と2の一部)で、ヒストリカルガイドというだけに過去の鉄道がメインなので現代の小鉄道などは載ってませんので、その点は注意。

Kalmbach has re-released one of the hobby's best references on North American Railroads and done a great job of it. The book features short histories about roads running from the Akron, Canton & Youngstown to the Yosemite Valley. The old, small format has been expanded to book size (roughly 8"x10.5") although still softbound. They've included color photos now along with black & white and some maps have been improved with a lot more information. While the historic roads, like ATSF get more coverage (four pages in Santa Fe's case) you'll also find accurate information on the histories of many other, smaller outfits now lost to history. This will probably be a book you keep close and pull off the shelf regularly to answer questions like "when did Seaboard System start?" or "Where did the Midland Valley run?". Highly recommended.

Nach längerer Zeit ist mal wieder ein sehr gutes Buch aus dem Kalmbach-Verlag erschienen, die 3. Ausgabe des "Historical Guide". Auf über 300 Seiten werden 171 verschiedene Bahngesellschaften der USA, Kanadas und Mexicos beschrieben, natürlich alle derzeitigen Class 1-Bahngesellschaften und die wichtigsten früheren Gesellschaften. Auch zahlreiche interessante, schon lange vergangene Bahngesellschaften werden mit Karte, informativem Text und mindestens einem Bild vorgestellt. Der Kalmbach-Verlag kann danei aus dem unerschöpflichen und qualititiv hochwertigen Trains-Fundus schöpfen, so finden sich viele Aufnahmen renommierter Fotografen wir Phil Hastings, Ted Benson oder William D. Middleton.Sehr gut auch ein Aufsatz über die Geschichte der Bahngesellschaften von Mexico, so etwas ist eher selten zu finden.Im Übrigen über Amazon ca. 10 € billiger als direkt vom Verlag !