Treasures of the Collection: Railroad books.

Treasures of the Collection: Railroad books.

Last time this column talked about one of the more unusual items found in Hewes library, the Canopus stone.  This time the column will talk about one of the large book donations received by the college, a collection of over 300 books about railroads and trains.

In 2005 an anonymous alumni donated a collection of railroad books to Monmouth College.  Because the city of Monmouth, although not a rail hub (that is the nearby town of Galesburg), has many trains passing through the city every day on one of the main routes belonging to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad and there was a faculty member who was active in researching the history of American railroads, the collection was gladly accepted.

Railroads and railroading is an area of great interest to many people, with many clubs, societies and groups dedicated to collecting and sharing information about trains.  Many of the books in Hewes are unusual, detailed accounts of trains, their engines and railroad companies.  The books also contain memories of people who worked or travelled on the railroads.  Large percentages of them are labors of love, prepared in great detail by people absorbed in the topic of trains and railroads.  Nearly all of the books include large amounts of photographs and drawings, for example, the book American Locomotives consists almost entirely of schematic drawings and photographs of American locomotives made between the years 1830-1880.  There are numerous books that focus on individual types of train such as steam, superliners and electric and even more specialized titles that give great detail about some of the many rail lines that once operated in the United States such as B & O Power a history of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between the years 1829-64 and Pennsy Power, a description of the steam and electric locomotives of the Pennsylvania Railroad 1900-1957.

Among the more interesting titles is The Collector’s book of the locomotive, which talks about the many forms of collectible involving locomotives such as photographs, post cards, glass and china, advertising and toys.  The toys covered by this book include trackless, clockwork, steam, electric and small and large scale models. 

Another unusual title is Fifty years on the tracks, a book written to commemorate 50 years of the Caterpillar Tractor Company of Peoria, Illinois which originally was the Best and Holt companies that made steam engines for farm use in the late 19^{th and} early 20^th centuries.  Some of the books are quite rare.  The book A long look at steam, a collection of the author’s photographs of steam engines, is one of only two copies available in Illinois.  The titles Lines East is the only copy of this book in Illinois and one of only 9 copies available in libraries nation-wide.  The collection can be searched in the library catalog.  For those interested in browsing the collection, many of the books can be found in the first floor OVERSIZE collection at call numbers TF23 and TJ 603 and others can be found by browsing the call number TF23 in the main collection.  All of the railroading books are available for loan.