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Re: (erielack) Book review: "EL Trackside with the McCarthys"

Paul:

Yesterday, my wife ordered a few Morning Sun books for me as Xmas gifts
[which ones, I won't know until Santa's arrival]; I'm hoping this was
one of them.

Regarding the McCarthy book, it seems to me, having grown up further
east on the Boonton/Greenwood Lake Branch by West Arlington in the early
70s, that in every one of the books Morning Sun has published through
the years, one can usually find a fact or two that's incorrect. 
However, in each and every one I own, I have always come away with a
greater knowledge base and understanding of the railroad.  Any written
factual "pick nits" are put aside since these books enable me to revisit
a part of my early teens with their great photographs time and again. 

I can't recommend the Morning Sun published books more highly to any
person who has an interest in our railroad(s).     


Henry

ps: how are you feeling?






On Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:54:09 +0000, paultup_@_comcast.net said:
> Now that my typing skills have gotten better, time for a book review! New
> from Morning Sun is another in their "Trackside" series of books. I got
> this right before I went into the hospital two weeks ago. I was able to
> read through it three times, and here are my thoughts:
> 
> The book covers the photography of father Joseph H. McCarthy and his two
> sons, Joseph M. and John A. They were all big EL fans! The first part of
> the book briefly covers "the early years - 1960-1972," and the majority
> of the book covers "the later years - 1973-1976." It seems the McCarthys
> really were going all-out to capture as much of the EL prior to CR (heck,
> if I were around then I'd use up a lot of vacation time to do the same!)
> The photography is all excellent, but limited primarily to northern NJ
> and eastern PA (not a problem to this Boonton Line-centric writer!) -
> understandable since this IS a "Trackside" book which focuses on the
> photographer, not locations. The neatest thing are the captions featuring
> operational details and anecdotes. It's also interesting to observe
> photography style differences between the three, and it's always
> heartening to see railfanning in a family fashion.
> 
> The only gripe I have is that some fact-checking should have been done.
> Granted, it's been three decades since some of the knowledge would have
> been used, but there are a few "facts" that are wrong (example: It states
> that ONLY former DL&W E8 817 survived to CR with all its portholes
> [that's true] and with both headlights [that's not]) - sure, I'm picking
> nits, but you all know me. :)
> 
> In conclusion, highly recommended - particularly for some of the
> wonderful autumn images (what railroad fits better into autumn colors
> than EL, anyway? :)
> 
>       - Paul
> 
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- -- 
  Henry W Jarusik
  hwjpa_@_fastem.com


	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
	Sponsored by the ELH&TS
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