It is hard to the resist the romance of the railroad, especially the classic trains of the golden age of American railroad travel. In this lavishly illustrated tribute, author Hans Halberstadt pays homage to some of the most influential and celebrated steam, diesel, and electric locomotives and train lines from railroading’s glory days.

The book opens with the steam age and one of the first locomotives to have commercial success, the Best Friend of Charleston, whose maiden voyage was described in the news of the day: “The one hundred and forty-one persons flew on the wings of wind at the speed of 15 to 25 miles per hour, annihilating time and space...leaving all the world behind.” Though speed is a relative concept, this was heady stuff for Charlestonians of 1831 and though this same locomotive accounted for America’s first railroad disaster, the train was reconstructed after its boiler explosion and put back on the tracks, newly named The Phoenix.

From this sometimes-lethal machine, which from its photograph resembles a large tin can on wheels, railroading grew by leaps and bounds and soon there were safer and much speedier steam locomotives, pulling luxuriously appointed passenger cars, and freight by the ton at greater speed than anyone ever imagined. The classic locomotive types, classic passenger lines, and the railroad through the end of the steam era are the stars of this book. Playing a magnificent but supporting role are the railway stations: Chicago’s Dearborn Street Station and Grand Central, New York’s Grande Central, and the Union Stations of Denver, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Salt Lake City (lamentably, Nashville’s Union Station is not included).

The people of America were shocked and surprised when diesel engines and streamlined trains took the place of steam technology, but the powers-that-be who ran the railroads had done the math and had found a cheaper, more efficient means of transporting passengers and cargo. For those who mourn the loss of the glamour, power and indefinable allure of the glory days when steam ruled the rails, this book with its first rate full-page photographs will be a treasure.

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