Rails Across North America: A Pictorial Journey Across the USA

By David Cable

The Railways of the USA have a great following, both in the United States where there are large numbers of rail fans and increasingly in Britain/Europe, where there are enthusiasts who visit and model North American railroads.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781473858329

David Cable

David Cable was born in 1929, and lives in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire. He has had an interest in trains since the age of three, which developed into an interest in train photography in 1947. David is the author of many photo albums, covering modern traction in the UK since the 1960s, as well as volumes based on his visits to the other countries over the last 40 years. He has visited countries throughout Europe, North America and Australia, as well as some Far Eastern countries and Morocco.

Book preview

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by

Pen & Sword Transport

An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright © David Cable 2015

ISBN 9781473838055

eISBN 9781473858329

The right of David Cable to be identified as the author of this work had been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor by way of trade or otherwise shall it be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword Archaeology, Atlas, Aviation, Battleground, Discovery, Family History, History, Maritime, Military, Naval, Politics, Railways, Select, Social History, Transport, True Crime, and Claymore Press, Frontline Books, Leo Cooper, Praetorian Press, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Wharncliffe.

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Pen and Sword Books Limited

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DAVID CABLE – OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Railfreight in Colour (for the modeller and historian)

BR Passenger Sectors in Colour (for the modeller and historian)

Lost Liveries of Privatisation in Colour (for the modeller and historian)

Hydraulics in the West

The Blue Diesel Era

Introduction

Between 1966 and 2008, I have had the opportunity to visit the USA on seventeen occasions, four of which were combined with visits to Canada (which are the subject of another book). In total I have photographed trains in thirty-nine states.

The first three trips were for business purposes, those from 1991 to 1999 with my wife, Glenda, and those subsequent either on my own or meeting up with a group of American train enthusiasts, a nice group of about fifty members calling themselves the WGRF – the World’s Greatest Rail Fans, although a number of people in the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Australia to name but a few would dispute that title!

The 1966 trip was an exception. I was due to fly back from Australia to England, following a two month project, and at the last minute was asked to spend a week with an associate company in Columbus OH. My plans to sightsee in New York City on the Saturday afternoon before my flight home, were scuppered when I became stranded in Pittsburgh Airport, due to the east coast being fog bound, no flights being able to get there. So I had recourse to going via the Pennsylvania Railroad in a train comprising three E8A locos, nineteen baggage cars and two passenger cars tacked on the back. I recall going round Horseshoe Curve looking across at the locos. But on this trip I had no camera with me.

All the other sixteen trips provided opportunities for me to photograph the American railroad scene, and this book contains a selection of what I saw.

The book is arranged in date sequence, and in the order of the visits made to the different locations in the course of each trip.

The first trip in 1975 was undertaken as a site selection visit for a major British company, a spectacularly exhausting trip with little opportunity to take photos, but my colleague and I, who had visited different states