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From Bullets to Bart CERA #127 By William D Middleton w/Dust jacket Damaged
From Bullets to Bart CERA #127 By William D Middleton
Hard Cover with dust Jacket. 176 pages. Copyright 1989.
Table of contents:
From PCC to LRV 50 years of streetcars
The Interurban Vanishes
Rapid Transit in North America
Mainline Electrificationdenied.
FROM BULLETS TO BART:
While a series of events were held over the 1988 Memorial Day weekend to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Central Electric Railfans' Association a more lasting commemorative seemed appropriate. The result is this book, From Bullets to BART, a fifty year history of the electric railway industry. A period in which we have seen the decline, nadir and rebirth of the industry. In both 1987 and 1988 over $1 Billion of railroad passenger rolling stock was delivered in the United States. The majority of that rolling stock with either electrically powered self-propelled cars or rolling stock pulled by electric locomotives. Electrifications were extended and significant improvements made in existing infrastructures. All of this investment is being made in railroads, an industry that many people think is dying. Those of us who study the industry have a different view.
CERA is extremely fortunate to be able to present a work by William D. Middleton. Bill is clearly the "dean" of the authors on electric traction. His published works include 400 articles for magazines and newspapers around the world and twelve books on railroads and electric traction. This is his first work for CERA and it is significant because in commemoration of our fiftieth anniversary Bill donated his work. Bill willingly accepted the invitation to document the history of this fifty year period.
In the CERA half century we've seen the street railway go from Depression decline to the P.C.C. revolution, to decline again, and then to the streetcar's modern light rail renaissance. Despite Electroliners, C.A.&E. 450's, or Illinois Terminal streamliners we saw the interurbans all but vanish. But two survivors endured the South Shore and SEPTA's P&W Norristown line with its Bullets. Indeed, as the half century neared its end there were new light rail projects under construction or planned that were putting electric traction back in some of the interurban corridors of old. For main line electrification it was mostly a half century of decline, but it was a time, too, for the glory years of Pennsy GG1's; for Metroliners and now A.S.E.A. AEM7's at 120 m.p.h. on a superbly modernized Northeast Corridor.
Only for North American rapid transit was it a half century of unabashed growth. The "first generation" rapid transit systems all grew and modernized. New systems opened or began construction in a dozen conurbations utilizing computers, electronics, and new materials technolto provide a highly sophisticated, and heavily automated "new generation" of rapid transit systems.
Beginning in the uncertainty of a fading Depression, the first CERA half century ends at a time of extraordinary promise for the future of electric traction. Surely CERA's second fifty years will prove to be every bit as eventful as the first fifty.
DUSTJACKET AND ENDSHEETS:
BART's line through the Oakland Hills to Concord traverses some scenic territory that was previously served by the Sacramento Northern Railway. In March 1975 this train crossed Springbrook Road in Walnut Creek en route to San Francisco. Gonzenbach photo Krambles Collection. Bullet 207 of the Philadelphia & Western Railroad crossed the Reading and Pennsylvania railroads in Norristown Pennsylvania on September 15, 1952. George Krambles photo.
On the endsheets is a single photograph of the members and friends of CERA who participated in the visit to the Illinois Railway Museum at Union, Illinois on May 30, 1988. This photograph was taken with a 10 inch Kodak Cirkut (panoramic) camera of World War I vintage. The Cirkut camera was invented around 1906 to take large group photographs. Approximately 1200 Cirkut cameras were manufactured of which approximately 200 are known to exist in the late 1980s. The left side of the photo appears on the front end sheet and the right side of the photo appears on the rear end sheet. The tradition of having the same person at each end of the photo was observed. Dennis Furbush stood on the left and then ran behind the camera to pose on the right. The Cirkut camera used for this photograph is one of four in the collection of our photographer James D. Johnson.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
One of the special fascinations of electric railways is that their enthusiasts can approach the subject from such a wide range of viewpoints. For the antiquarian, electric traction is a century-old industry rich in history and nostalgia. For the futurist, electric railways represent a contemporary technology that is assuming a growing importance in helping to make the world's modern cities into more livable places. For me, and I suspect for much of the C.E.R.A. membership, both of these views of electric traction are relevant. In fact, I would maintain that it is this very combination of a varied and colorful history with an enduring and continuing vitality and utility in the modern world that gives electric railways their enormous appeal for so many of us.
The task of reviewing the electric railway's evolution over the C.E.R.A.'s first half century turned out to be quite an assignment indeed, for what an extraordinary fifty years it was for electric traction in all its diversity of forms.
In the C.E.R.A. half century we've seen the street railway go from Depression decline to the P.C.C. revolution, to decline again, and then to the streetcar's modern light rail renaissance. Despite Electroliners, C.A.&E. 450's, or Illinois Terminal streamliners we saw the interurbans all but vanish. But two survivors endured in Indiana and Pennsylvania to remind us of what had been, and to show us, in the form of South Shore's magnificent stainless steel third generation interurbans from Japan or SEPTA's P&W Bullet replacements now abuilding in Sweden, what an interurban future could have been like. Indeed, as the half century neared its end there were even new light rail projects under construction or planned that were putting electric traction back in some of the interurban corridors of old.
For main line electrification it was mostly a half century of decline, but it was a time, too, for the glory years of Pennsy GG1's; for Metroliners and A.S.E.A. AEM1's at 120 m.p.h. on a superbly modernized Northeast Corridor; for Metropolitan, Cosmopolitan, and Jersey Arrow commuting; or for 25 and 50 KV heavy freight haulers beginning to appear under the catenary of new U.S. coal roads, and in the Canadian Rockies and Mexico.
Only for North American rapid transit was it a half century of unabashed growth. The "first generation" rapid transit systems at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago all grew and modernized. New systems opened or began construction in a dozen conurbations as diverse as Montreal, Vancouver, Miami, Los Angeles, and Mexico City, utilizing computers, electronics, and new materials technologies to provide a highly sophisticated, and heavily automated "new generation" of rapid transit systems.
Beginning in the uncertainty of a fading Depression, the first C.E.R.A. half century ends at a time of extraordinary promise for the future of electric traction. Surely C.E.R.A.'s second fifty years will prove to be every bit as eventful as the first fifty.
When Norman Carlson extended an invitation to write the text for this review of electric traction during C.E.R.A.'s first half century, it was an assignment accepted with real enthusiasm. For all the reasons I've noted above, it was an uncommonly interesting period to write about. But equally important, it was a welcome opportunity to contribute to the commemoration of an important milestone in the history of an organization that has meant much to me, and to anyone with an interest in knowing and understanding electric traction in North America. Over its first half century C.E.R.A. has faithfully recorded the history of America's electric railways in a series of publications of extraordinary depth and quality that represent one of the most impressive records of rail history publication achieved by any organized enthusiast group, and a body of reference work of inestimable value. In appreciation for all that the Association has meant to all of us, I salute C.E.R.A. on the completion of its first half a century, and look forward to the second.
-William D. Middleton Charlottesville, Virginia May 1989
Reflections (white/yellowish) are from the light - not on the book.
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