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The History Of The Southern Pacific
100+ color and b&w illus. 9 x 12.
127 pages, Hardcover
First published December 2, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 2, 2023
If you're looking for a general corporate history of the once mighty Espee (a colloquial term for the Southern Pacific never once mentioned in this book), this is a decent effort. But if you are a nuts-and-bolts type looking for the details of how and why, and of equipment and operations, this will disappoint.
Full of big and beautiful pictures, "History of the Southern Pacific" does a good job in the first third of explaining the relationship of the West Coast's prosperity and how the Espee made that possible. But, it is rife with errors, typos, and generalities. Author Yenne, or his editors or both, are clearly not knowledgeable about railroads. From describing grades in "feet per mile" (railroad grades are measured in percentages - i.e. '2.o%' - or as horizontal distance required to gain one foot of height - i.e. '1-in-50' - in the UK and its former colonies), to referring to Southern Pacific's mighty Cab-Forwards as "Cab-Aheads" (a term NO ONE in America ever used to describe these awesome machines).
Another error is referring to the Mississippi River Delta (the area generally south of New Orleans) as the "Mississippi Delta" (the area of Western Mississippi abutting the Mississippi River), among many other errors that truly diminish this effort.
Typos and generalities are rife throughout the final 2/3 of the book (describing a 3-unit Alco PA A-B-A set as '6000 horsepower Alco three-unit passenger diesels' and a Fairbanks-Morse H-24-66 as a '1954 era 2400 horsepower diesel-electric engine' as two examples), and completely ignoring the 1977 discussions exploring a merger with Seaboard Coast Line RR that would have produced America's first true transcontinental railroad.
It is a lively and engaging read, but the errors do make one wonder what else the author got wrong. An overall disappointing effort.
Full of big and beautiful pictures, "History of the Southern Pacific" does a good job in the first third of explaining the relationship of the West Coast's prosperity and how the Espee made that possible. But, it is rife with errors, typos, and generalities. Author Yenne, or his editors or both, are clearly not knowledgeable about railroads. From describing grades in "feet per mile" (railroad grades are measured in percentages - i.e. '2.o%' - or as horizontal distance required to gain one foot of height - i.e. '1-in-50' - in the UK and its former colonies), to referring to Southern Pacific's mighty Cab-Forwards as "Cab-Aheads" (a term NO ONE in America ever used to describe these awesome machines).
Another error is referring to the Mississippi River Delta (the area generally south of New Orleans) as the "Mississippi Delta" (the area of Western Mississippi abutting the Mississippi River), among many other errors that truly diminish this effort.
Typos and generalities are rife throughout the final 2/3 of the book (describing a 3-unit Alco PA A-B-A set as '6000 horsepower Alco three-unit passenger diesels' and a Fairbanks-Morse H-24-66 as a '1954 era 2400 horsepower diesel-electric engine' as two examples), and completely ignoring the 1977 discussions exploring a merger with Seaboard Coast Line RR that would have produced America's first true transcontinental railroad.
It is a lively and engaging read, but the errors do make one wonder what else the author got wrong. An overall disappointing effort.
February 24, 2010
This book focuses on the history of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The photographs in this book are outstanding! I do think the author tends to sugar-coat some of the double dealing that the company did in it's past, but I guess I can't hold that against him since it's only about the one railroad. This is a great coffee table book for railroad enthusiasts.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews