Reply To: New book for com store MISSOURI PACIFIC THROUGH PASSENGER SERVICE In Color by Greg Stout MP C&EI

[Bill Pollard]

After reading the new book, Missouri Pacific Through Passenger Service, I can offer several thoughts to those who might be considering a purchase. The book is well done from a production standpoint, at least in terms of the quality of the images, and most photos are sharp and with the MP blue properly depicted in color tone (a sometimes difficult achievement). It includes many excellent photographs, most of which have never been published. Most photos depict MP passenger service in the 1950s and 1960s, with a preponderance of coverage in the late 1960s. From the standpoint of photographic coverage, the book belongs in the library of anyone interested in Missouri Pacific or passenger service. The book can generally be divided into three sections, the first 104 pages dealing with MP passenger service, followed by 4 pages of Amtrak service on the MP and 19 pages on C&EI passenger service.

The book does have what I consider some shortcomings. The photo layout is very random, with no discernible order either chronologically or geographically. There is no index, either by location, subject or equipment number, so if trying to find a photo that you want to revisit, its necessary to thumb through the book to locate it. The Amtrak section is mercifully short, and the photos here cover only the St. Louis – Kansas City line with the exception of one photo of the Texas Eagle on the former GM&O. There are numerous photos available of Amtrak trains on the former Missouri Pacific with iconic MP structures in the background, such as the clock tower at Little Rock, the T&P station at Marshall or MP/T&P depots along the line. Using those to illustrate the Amtrak section would perhaps have made the Amtrak section more relevant to Missouri Pacific historians, offering a “then and now” perspective.

The photo captions are a challenge for anyone desiring accurate, detailed information. There are a number of historical errors and other places where generic captions were written when the space could have been better used to provide a historical context to the photograph. There is also a lot of repetition of information in captions, some of which may occur because of the random placement of photos. The author obviously spent a lot of time gathering photographs and information, but it appears that the publisher rushed the material into production with little regard for an orderly presentation of the material and less regard for a pre-publication review of the material by editors who were conversant with the subject matter. The attached PDF file provides some correction or clarification on some of the captions.

Anyone who has published a book or an article in a historical or academic journal is well aware how gremlins creep into the process despite best efforts. Author Stout is to be commended for gathering a nice selection of MP passenger photos. Buy the book… you will enjoy the photographs, and where the captions don’t seem just right, it provides the reader with the challenge of going to dig out information themselves to clarify details.

Bill Pollard

[attachment=0:2dxw153z]Stout-Book-review-12-2017.pdf[/attachment:2dxw153z]