Home » Book Reviews

Gift Books for Train Travelers

	The Late, Great Pennsylvania Station Lorraine Diehl Now that plans are moving forward to turn the stately Beaux Arts Post Office on Eighth Avenue into a new Penn Station, you might want to read this excellent account of the decline and fall of the original Penn Station. The fallout from the legal maneuvering over the destruction of that building forms much of the foundation of historic preservation law and policy in the United States.
	Starlight on the Rails: Photographs Jeff Brouws, Richard Steinheimer, Ed Delvers This beautiful book of black and white photographs captures the era of elegant, and somewhat mysterious, travel by steam train. Taken at night, these photographs also offer a different perspective on the trains themselves.
	Grand Central Terminal Kurt C. Schlichting Still one of my all time favorites. See a full review here.
	Writing the Rails: Train Adventures by the World's Best-Loved Writer Edward C. Goodman, Editor This wonderful book features 101 travel stories, fiction and non-fiction, by some of the world's greatest and most loved writers, including Robert Louis Stevenson, Ian Fleming, Emily Dickinson, Edith Wharton, Rudyard Kipling and Langston Hughes. Travel with them on the Orient Express, the old Patagonia Express, the New York City subways and other trains of the world.
	Trains: A Photographer's Journey by Graeme Outerbridge An impressive collection of photographs and a true photographer's journey, the author documents his rail journeys over six continents and on such classic trains as India's palace on Wheels, Spain's Al Andalus Express, Scotland's Royal Scotsman and New Hampshire's Mt. Washington Cog Railway.
	Some Trains in America by Andrew Cross This book is an excellent collection of images of trains, railroad stations and the landscape that only those on a train witness.
	Night Train at Wiscasset Station by Lew Dietz and Kosti Ruohomaa I purchased this book a few years ago, drawn by the haunting photo on the front. More than a story of trains, this volume is a photographic portrait of the Maine that used to be.
	Travel by Train: The American Railroad Poster by Michael E. Zega, John E. Guber During the heyday of passenger rail, railroad posters where not just advertisements, they were works of art.

Back to the main books page