Trackside with VIA: Cross-Canada Compendium

New books! I'm pleased to announce the release of my second and third books on VIA Rail. Entitled Trackside with VIA: Cross-Canada Compendium, my second book is everything my first book on VIA Rail wasn't.  More photos, more colour, more text, even more data, with fewer consists.  (Read on if you're a fan of consists as I am).  For full details, an order form and much more information on both these books, see my book blog here.

Over a year in the making, this compendium became grew to more than 100 pages on VIA's equipment, history and operations all across Canada.  Here's one of the colour pages that shows how well the colour reproduction turned out.  This page features western trains, and there are also colour pages on F40PH-2's, E&F-units, RDC's, VIA cars, locomotive fleet, named trains and eastern trains:

What else is inside? Starting off with some of my experiences riding VIA, the text leads you through some VIA history including the cuts of 1981 and 1990, the LRC, HEP and Renaissance fleets, Rail Diesel Cars inherited from CN and CP, as well as coaches, baggage cars, F-units and lone RS10 8558 also inherited from CP.  

Then you'll move on to VIA's locomotive fleet, from FPA's and F-units, to units begged, borrowed and leased from CN and CP, to Tempo RS18m's, and the F40PH-2's and P42DC's of today.   The assignment of VIA's RDC's and locomotive fleet, including specific motive power surveys provide snapshots of the use of VIA's power across Canada in various eras.

Named trains, switching of VIA trains en route, special trains, rescue trains follow, then you're on to VIA's shop facilities and some unfortunate but notable derailments from the various eras of VIA.  Final disposition of much of VIA's equipment and six photo pages complete our trip through this 100+ page book. Throughout the book, I've included what I call triVIA:  some interesting and little-known factoids about VIA equipment and operations.  

Here's what I hear every time someone pages through this book:  "Nice cover...there's a lot more writing in this book compared to your first...oh wow, colour!" Every single time I hear those same comments!  Liberally sprinkled with over 200 photos, the text and data is richly illustrated, even extending to the back cover:

But wait, there's another new book!  Initially planned as a consist compendium, my second book outgrew its covers.  Fortunately, there were enough consists at the tail-end of the book to spawn a third book and I'm also pleased to announce: Trackside with VIA: Cross-Canada Compendium Consist Companion.  Over 50 pages of consists from throughout VIA's history, especially the interesting and unpredictable earlier eras, over 900 trains make for interesting reading for modellers and VIAphiles alike. 

I'm very pleased with the final products, and I trust you will be too.  I had the assistance of several able contributors, including the photographic collection of Brian Schuff, and the design wizardry of Bryan Babcock of Allan Graphics here in Kingston.  I've endeavoured to make these books useful and useable illustrated reference works that will provide you an excellent value.

For more detail, ordering and pricing information, updates and the genesis of these two books, the place to go is my book blog here.