Encyclopedia of Railroads

This is a true lap-breaker, but one worth the risk of back injury to pick up. (9" x 12" nearly 500 pages) When other books don't have the historical RR information I need, this will often have at least enough to get me started. It truly covers the entire world of RR, not just Britain and North America: India, Africa, South America, Asia, Australia. On top of this, every page is graced with period artwork or photos, in color as often as possible. It's a compendium of articles by specialist authors. "History" subdivides by area. Then there's separate ones on Passenger Travel, Locomotive Development, & Civil Engineering. We especially enjoyed the section on the great name trains, from the 20th C Ltd to the Shinkansen Hikari. Other sections are Railway Operation, Freight Transport, Industrial RR, Rapid Transit, Mountain RR, Architecture, Preservation, RR in the Cinema, RR At War, biographies of notable figures, "The Artist's View," Records, Disasters, Chronology, Facts & Figures, and a glossary for the newcomer. All this, and huge beast is indexed, too. As specific reference on this or that line, no, of course not. You couldn't do all of them in less than a room of books. As a general reference to lots of them, great.