Featuring more than 30 beautiful, historic trains and locomotives, this exquisite volume--big and horizontal, all the better to capture the length and breadth of the cars and tracks--paints an intimate portrait of North American railroad history. Firsthand accounts of life on the rails, more than 150 dramatic photographs, and a close look at how trains transformed the continent's landscape, society, and history make this a thrill for any railroad aficionado. The story begins with the dawn of the steam era and goes through the golden age of railroad travel and on to the current day. The classics on these lavishly illustrated pages include the tiny, treasured Best Friend of Charleston, the celebrated Twentieth Century Limited Streamliner, and high-speed models that cross the country today.

From 1900 through the late-1950s, Lionel went from a wooden cheese box on wheels to expensive toy trains that flew off shelves at the height of the Great Depression to one of the world's most recognizable brand names. In the 1960s, the company found itself in a fight for its life; only a buyout from General Mills would save the name from relegation to the dust heap of time. More than 80 modern color photographs help break Lionel's "classic" rags-to-riches-to-rags period into five distinct eras, and a fascinating history examines the design and marketing of the company's most significant -- and dubious -- products, placing them in the context of contemporary competition, real-life railroads, and world affairs.

"Informative and colorfully illustrated....More than 200 color photos of trains and vintage ads make this a delight for collectors.”--Chicago Tribune "A gloriously illustrated guide to the history of the American Flyer...this volume highlights the hardest-to-find, most valuable train cars, while exploring the fascinating evolution of American Flyer toy trains.”--From House to Home

Hrabal's postwar classic about a young man's coming of age in German-occupied Czechoslovakia is among his most beloved and accessible works. Closely Watched Trains is the subtle and poetic portrait of Milos Hrma, a timid young railroad apprentice who insulates himself with fantasy against a reality filled with cruelty and grief. Day after day as he watches trains fly by, he torments himself with the suspicion that he himself is being watched and with fears of impotency. Hrma finally affirms his manhood and, with a sense of peace and purpose he has never known before, heroically confronts a trainload of Nazis.

A brilliant new translation of one of Simenon's best loved masterpieces. 'A certain furtive, almost shameful emotion ... disturbed him whenever he saw a train go by, a night train especially, its blinds drawn down on the mystery of its passengers' Kees Popinga is a respectable Dutch citizen and family man. Then he discovers that his boss has bankrupted the shipping firm he works for - and something snaps. Kees used to watch the trains go by to exciting destinations. Now, on some dark impulse, he boards one at random, and begins a new life of recklessness and violence. This chilling portrayal of a man who breaks from society and goes on the run asks who we are, and what we are capable of. 'Classic Simenon ... extraordinary in its evocative power' Independent 'What emerges is the bare human animal' John Gray 'Read him at your peril, avoid him at your loss' Sunday Times

Art Peterson is back with more color images from his Krambles-Peterson Archive. This book focuses on freight railroading and features scenes of switching and trains in industrial areas in the Transition and Classic eras. Large photos and in depth captions go beyond just telling what's in the photo - they put the images in context with the greater railroad scene as well as what was going on in the larger society.