Sunday, October 3, 2010

A New Book on track: Consists from VIA's early years


Do you remember the consists of the early VIA years? I do. I have thousands of them. I'd like to share them with like-minded fans of VIA Rail.

I'm planning a new book, unlike any other book written on VIA Rail until now. Here are some some working titles:

-1000 VIA Consists
-VIA Rail Consists...the Early Years
-Trackside with VIA Rail
-VIA Rail 1976-1986

Who will be buying this new book?

-VIA fans
-modellers with an interest in prototypical VIA consists, especially those with fleets of fine Rapido Trains passenger equipment
-photographers who need to know what cars were on that train they photographed in let's say, 1984
-transportation historians
-locomotive and rolling stock enthusiasts
-railfans looking to fill a gap in their book collection

What will this new book look like?

-professionally-printed and perfect-bound 8x11-inch format on 70-lb stock, readable print with clean and neat design
-intense data: time/date/direction, consists including motive power and cars
-consists from across Canada
-special interest areas: Montreal-Toronto on CN's Kingston Subdivision, VIA's Canadian and Super Continental, conventional, RDC and Turbo corridor consists.

There's never been a book like this before. It'll be affordable, unlike many books aimed at the railfan market today.


I'd be interested in your thoughts on this project. What would you like to see on its pages? What might you use it for? Would you buy it? How much should the purchase price be?

Leave a comment below, no registration required, or email me at mile179kingstonATyahooDOTca. Stay tuned for more as I begin work on this project.

6 comments:

  1. I think this is a great idea. I would find this book invaluable in my hobby.
    Would I purchase a copy? If it wasn't prohibitive in price.
    I live in Australia and model Canadian railways with a leaning towards VIA Rail and the Rocky Mountaineer.

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  2. Thanks, Scalen. I appreciate your interest and that of the plethora of VIA fans who have emailed me off-blog. I'm committed to making the cost reasonable and provide value-for-money, as we are all operating on budgets, and as I said in the initial post, many railfan books seem over-priced. Australia, Germany, US and Canada already heard from. Thanks to all,
    Eric

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  3. Just found out about this new site of your through you profile. Sounds very interesting indeed and I would be interested in purchasing one of my own when it is released.
    Have you worked out a name yet?

    Cheers

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  4. Hi Jason,

    It has been a very interesting project so far, and I hope there are other VIAphiles out there who will agree. I have a couple of working titles in mind, but nothing firm yet.

    Updates will be posted on this blog, which is always visible on the top section of my right sidebar in Trackside Treasure.

    Thanks for your interest,
    Eric

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  5. Absolutely, A. They'll be there. CP ran huge RDC consists in Montreal West Island service, but CN did pretty well in the Corridor too.
    Thanks for your question,
    Eric

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