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American Narrow Gauge by Krause & Duke Dust Jacket 1978
American Narrow Gauge by John Krause with Donald Duke Dust Jacket. Copyright 1978. 238 pages.
WITH MORE THAN 400 ILLUSTRATIONS MAPS-BIBLIOGRAPHY-INDEX
They called it narrow-gauge fever during the last quarter of the 19th century when the nation was a building railroads with a fabric of three-foot gauge lines and midget steam locomotives began scaling the heights of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. At the time, narrow-gauge was thought to be cheaper in construction, operation, and the tiny locomotives and rolling stock adequate for years to come.
As subject matter, the topic of narrow-gauge railroading is glamourous, quaint, and endearing. No chapter in the colorful saga of American railroading is so heavily freighted with nostalgia as the age of the narrow-gauge. An unsuspecting reader might conclude that narrow-gauge was a most significant occurrence in railroad history, while in actuality providing less than five percent of the nation's total railroad mileage. Actually the application of narrow-gauge to railways in America was a failure. The lines never fulfilled the expectations of their promoters to become the dominant gauge when the nation had already established the standard of four feet, eight and one-half inches between rails.
American Narrow Gauge is a luxurious pictorial account of the narrow-gauge lines still in operation following World War II. This volume surveys the common carrier lines, the private and logging pikes, from Pennsylvania to Alaska, and from wartime to current date. Such carriers as the narrow-gauge lines of the Denver & Rio Grande Western, East Broad Top, East Tennessee & Western North Carolina, Oahu Railway, Rio Grande Southern, Southern Pacific, Sumpter Valley, West Side Lumber Co., and the White Pass & Yukon to name but a few are presented here.
This book of superb photographs expertly integrated into a sparkling text fires the imagination of those who remember the small steam locomotives that climbed Marshall Pass or the Galloping Goose that used to clatter over Ophir trestle. Here is the American Narrow Gauge - the last slice of it - and served up in easy-to-read style with a matchless picture collection of slim gauge railroading.
JOHN KRAUSE--Like so many other railroad photographers, John Krause's interest in trains dates back to childhood when his Lionel toy train raced between the bedroom and the main line down the hall. Krause began to watch real steam locomotives on the Long Island Rail Road near his home during his teen years and was soon photographing them along the right-of-way. Since then he has ranged the length and breadth of North America in search of the steam locomotive, especially those running on narrow-gauge rails.
Armed with two Speed Graphics and a car full of film he headed for Colorado any number of times to watch the three-foot gauge trains climb the slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The results of his search for the narrow- gauge in action are displayed on the pages of this book.
His first book, Rails Through Dixie: A Classic Album of Southern Railroading was first published in 1965 and is the most comprehensive pictorial account ever compiled on the topic of railroading Down South.
Today Krause is a respected electrical contractor with headquarters at Rockville Centre, Long Island, and lives nearby with his wife Dorothy. On those rare occasions when a steam train is scheduled to run it is safe to say John Krause will be found along the tracks somewhere with camera in hand.
DONALD DUKE--Donald Duke is a name well known in the blue book of railroad authors, publishers, and photographers. As a boy he watched the big Southern Pacific cab-in-front articulated locomotives pass near his home. As a youth, he rode in kingly pride on the front platform of the Pacific Electric "Big Red Cars" and began to photograph trains as he watched the Santa Fe's Chief, Super Chief, El Capitan, Scout, Grand Canyon Limited and California Limited arrive in Pasadena within a period of two hours time.
Duke is editor and publisher of Golden West Books which is familiar in all railroad, library and book circles. His patient research and camera have produced several books and many magazine articles over the years. When the text section of American Narrow Gauge remained incomplete for several years, he volunteered to provide the research time and basic historical text for this volume.
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