Forthcoming Books
Southern Pacific Lines Standard-Design Depots
Henry E. Bender Jr.
The Central Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads, like many railroads, had a number of standard designs for depots. In the late 19th century a series of these began to be assigned numbers, later designated as Common Standard numbers. Eventually there were 26 of those designs, though some designs were built rarely and others had dozens of examples throughout the system.
But in addition to these numbered designs, there were other de facto standard depot designs, ranging from early board-and-batten depots, to the handsome colonnade designs of the 20th century. This book presents the history of all these varied designs, and lists the town or location where they were built, as far as is known.
The book is illustrated with an extensive trove of depot photographs, showing many examples of standard depots, and variations and modifications of them. The work is also richly furnished with citations to sources, making this an authoritative account of its subject. The author has worked for years to collect and collate detailed information on this subject, and the thorough and complete coverage reflects that effort. Noted railroad artist John Signor painted the cover image of a train approaching the Number 1-design depot at Pinole, California. Publication date TBA.
Southern Pacific Freight Cars, Volume 4 (Revised)
Anthony W. Thompson
Returning to print in a revised edition is the fourth volume in the series about Southern Pacific box cars. Like the other volumes in the series, it covers roughly 1865 to 1965. Box cars were the most numerous car type on the SP, so this car type dominates many yard and train photographs. This is the complete history of SP's box cars, from the 25-foot, 15-ton cars of 1865 to the 86-foot auto cars of 1963, and much more, including special cars such as the black Overnight box cars.
Some minor errors have been corrected, and more photos added, to create this revised edition. It is now 16 pages longer. Any historian or modeler interested in the Southern Pacific will want to own this big book. Publication date TBA.
The Northwestern Pacific Railroad
Fred A. Stindt
The Northwestern Pacific was one of California's most distinctive railroads, connecting the northwest corner of the state at Eureka with the San Francisco Bay Area. Its primary business was lumber, largely interchanged with Southern Pacific. Over the years, passenger and general freight services were also an important part of operations, as were passenger ferryboats and electrified commuter services. The NWP was founded in 1907 as a joint property of SP and Santa Fe, to combine several existing railroads; in 1929, SP took over sole ownership.
Fred Stindt, longtime historian and enthusiast of the NWP, originally published two volumes on this topic, and said on many occasions that he wished he had gotten around to combining them. This book is that combined edition, with all the material of the two volumes Fred produced, and some additional information. It contains a great wealth of photo illustrations, along with timetable, map, and advertising materials.
Artist John Signor has created the cover painting based on a historic NWP passenger train photograph. Publication date TBA.