Midnight train rides, head-on freight collisions―there is never a dull moment when it comes to trains. Take a look at America's biggest railroads and meet the thunderous personalities who operate them.
 In Last Train to Texas, author Fred W. Frailey examines the workings behind the railroad industry and captures incredible true stories along the way. Discover how men like William "Pisser Bill" F. Thompson swerve from financial ruin, bad merger deals, and cutthroat competition, all while racking up enough notoriety to inspire a poem titled "Ode to a Jerk." Bold, savvy, and ready for a friendly brawl, the only thing louder and more thrilling than these men are the trains that they handle. Come along with Frailey as he travels the world, one railroad at a time. Whether it's riding the Canadian Pacific Railway through a blizzard, witnessing a container train burglary in the Abo Canyon, or commemorating a poem to Limerick Junction in Dublin, Ireland, Frailey's journeys are rife with excitement and the occasional mishap.
 Filled with humorous anecdotes and thoughtful insights into the railroading industry, Last Train to Texas is an adventure in every sense of the word.

Last Train to Texas: My Railroad Odyssey (Railroads Past and Present)

Biographies & Memoirs

Frailey, Fred W.

Professionals & Academics

Indiana University Press

In the years following World War II, a potent combination of new prosperity, a renewed love affair with the automobile, improved highways, and the availability of commercial air travel contributed to the dwindling number of rail travelers. By the 1960s, rail passenger service had become an endangered species in an unfriendly environment. Fred W. Frailey recounts the demise of the pre-Amtrak passenger train in Twilight of the Great Trains. Drawing upon a lifetime of experience as a reporter and editor, Frailey uncovers the reasons behind the disappearance of these great trains and explains how 11 railroad systems withstood or welcomed, fought or embraced the inevitable decline of their passenger services. Stimulating and informative, this book offers a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most challenging eras in American railroad history.

Twilight of the Great Trains, Expanded Edition (Railroads Past and Present)

History

The Indiana Rail Road Company is a story of extraordinary success among the scores of independent short line and regional railroads spawned in the wake of railroad deregulation. Christopher Rund chronicles the development of the company from its origins as part of America’s first land grant railroad, the Illinois Central, through the political and financial juggling required by entrepreneur Tom Hoback to purchase the line when it fell into disrepair. Reborn as a robust, profitable carrier, the INRD has become a model for the new American regional railroad. This revised edition, with a new foreword by acclaimed author Fred Frailey and four new chapters, brings readers up to date on Tom Hoback's amazing railroad adventure.

The Indiana Rail Road Company, Revised and Expanded Edition: America's New Regional Railroad (Railroads Past and Present)

Powell, Eric

Rund, Christopher

Americas

An insider's view of how 27 top money managers develop strategies to meet their funds' objectives.

How to Pick Stocks

Business & Money

Investing

KIPLINGER BOOKS +

Southern Pacific's Blue Streak Merchandise: Six decades of the Great American Freight Train

Engineering & Transportation

Transportation

Kalmbach Publishing

Examines the responses of 11 railroad systems to the decline in intercity rail passengers in the 1960s. The decisions of railroad executives to maintain or drop this or that particular service are examined. Evolving railroad networks are detailed and customer use is explored. 11x9". Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Twilight of the Great Trains

Kalmbach Pub. Co

History of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway

Cyrus K. Holliday envisioned a railroad that would run from Kansas to the Pacific, increasing the commerce and prosperity of the nation. With farsighted investors and shrewd management, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway grew from Holliday's idea into a model of the modern, rapid, and efficient railroad. There were many growing pains early on, including rustlers, thieves, and desperadoes as well as the nineteenth century's economic and climatic hardships. The railroad eventually extended from Chicago to San Francisco, with substantial holdings in oil fields, timber land, uranium mines, pipelines, and real estate. This is the first comprehensive history of the iconic Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, from its birth in 1859 to its termination in 1996. This volume discusses the construction and operation of the railway, the strategies of its leaders, the evolution of its locomotive fleet, and its famed passenger service with partner Fred Harvey. The vast changes within the nation's railway system led to a merger with the Burlington Northern and the creation of the BNSF Railway. An iconic railroad, the Santa Fe at its peak operated thirteen thousand miles of routes and served the southwestern region of the nation with the corporate slogan "Santa Fe All the Way." This new edition covers almost twenty-five more years of history, including the merger of the Santa Fe and Burlington Northern railroads and new material on labor, minorities, and women on the carrier along with new and updated maps and photographs. &nbsp;

Bryant Jr., Keith L.

Bison Books

Wacky Dust: What Happens on a Train

Flanged Wheel Books

Seldom Willing: A novel of railroading

Independently published

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Books by Frailey, Fred W.