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This Month's Feature:
When time allows as CRO Production Assistant, I am a voracious
collector of railway books. My "Off The Shelf" column will review
books and DVDs that I feel would be to the appeal of our CRO
readers.
I invite you to contact me directly with questions, and with any new
publications or DVD’s that would be of interest to our CRO readers
for “Off the Shelf”.
Eric Gagnon’s “Trackside with VIA: Cross-Canada Compendium"
If you are a hardcore VIA Rail fan, then you will find much to love
in Eric Gagnon’s “Trackside with VIA: Cross-Canada Compendium”. If
you are mostly just interested in full colour photo books à la
Morning Sun books, this is not for you. VIA Rail has gone through
many, many route, motive power and car changes over the years, and
you get a wealth of detail about these changes in this book.
Consists for selected trains from certain dates are informative, as
are information about when certain locomotive classes were retired,
as well as when certain CN & CP locomotives were leased by VIA. For
example, if you ever wanted to know when VIA Rail renumbered,
painted and then later retired their two E8A’s, that information is
covered in the book. One of the more interesting sections is a long
list of VIA Rail “special trains,” ranging from funeral trains to an
NHL draft special train from Ottawa to Montreal which had 13 LRC
cars with an LRC engine at each end (apparently the longest LRC
train ever recorded). If you are interested in the disposition of
VIA’s once very varied car and motive power fleet, then this book is
a must have. The pictures are mostly quite small and are almost
entirely roster shots. The vast majority are black and white, the
only exceptions being the front and back of the book and an 8 page
colour section in the middle of the book. The author clearly has a
deep passion for VIA Rail and this passion is evident in the minute
details which go into the book. There is the occasional typo, but
they are not major and are somewhat understandable considering this
book was self-published.
mile179kingston@yahoo.ca
http://newviarailbook.blogspot.ca
For future review suggestions or comments … Email me at:
Michael Berry
mberry7@ videotron .ca
Colour Photo Guide to CN locomotives in 2012
If you would like to preview (15 of the 80 pages) or order the
book go to:
http://www.blurb.ca/books/3751412
COMING NEXT MONTH:
Michael will review
Kevin J. Holland’s “Canadian National Through Passenger Service In
Color - Southern Ontario” |
