Another book on VIA Rail Canada!

It's day's like this that I'm glad I have found ways to express myself, create things and ship ideas without being beholden to anyone. No editor, no publisher, no boss, no editorial board, no employees, no clients. No filters, most of the time!

No-one, not even me, is depending on this blog for a livelihood.

My only loyalties (in no particular order) have been to Blogger for hosting this blog. My wife and family. My parents. And in creating the books I enjoyed creating, to my contributors and customers. I value and hold both those latter groups in high esteem. And in creating this blog - you the reader. To all the people in this paragraph, I continually give thanks and express my appreciation to you. (The folks in the top paragraph? Nope, still don't need you.)

I don't need to tell you that I've had a peripatetic, perhaps pedestrian, plod through publishing books over the past 10 years: first in 2011, twice in 2012, once in 2017, twice in 2018, then once each in 2020 and 2021 - even during a pandemic!

But I didn't work with a mainstream publisher. I worked with a local graphic designer and a local printer. I am not a professional photographer or professional writer. I just enjoy creating things, books among them. And the first four books on my journey all covered the same ground - VIA Rail Canada - in different ways. I learned a lot in the process. I worked with some talented contributors, photographers, railroaders and modellers in the process. Names like Schuff, Perry, Bohi, Boyko, Sampson, Hayman, Box, McQueen, Mueller and Shron.

On April 7th, Rapido Trains Inc. held a Facebook Live event in conjuction with their Newsletter #150 distributed by email. Among their pile of product announcements is one book. It's a 288-page, 500-photo, $79.95 mostly-colour coffee table book available from Rapido and hobby stores in May. It's to celebrate VIA's 40th anniversary, five years later. Written by Kevin J. Holland, it joins a short bookshelf of books on VIA Rail by the likes of three well-known to VIAphiles: Nelligan, Greenlaw, Holland and, oh yeah, an oft-mispronounced French-surnamed guy whom Zoom's closed-caption encryptioning spelled "Ganyo" (screen captures in this post are from the Facebook Live).

• The book is printed by Friesens of Altona, because printing in China has gotten way more expensive. 
• The book is produced in co-operation with VIA Rail Canada Inc. I'm not sure what their editorial input has been, if any. 
• The book includes promotional brochure photos and scads of slides conveyed via VIA to this project, from a now-disappeared filing cabinet in the basement of VIA's Place Ville Marie corporate headquarters in Montreal.
• It's a coffee-table book that's compact enough for even the cosiest of coffee tables, measuring 12 x 9.6" overall.

But back to Ganyo. He printed books. They were never intended to shake the world. They were an effort to collate information and produce useful books for VIAphiles and for the reference of the author himself, encapsulating a corporate entity perenially at threat, under-funded, without a clear government mandate and birthed by two dying passenger services in the 1970's. They were not just things, however. They were things, yes, but they were also books.

This upcoming book's first print run of 2,500 copies is expected to sell out. The clear implication is...order now. Because if you don't, you might be able to find it only at Indigo. If at all. Buy a bunch of them. They may last longer than VIA does!

I freely and unequivocally reserve the right to both slag and support Rapido. (I do it here somewhat frequently among nearly 800 posts I've published chronicling Canadian railroading and railfanning.) To paraphrase Marc Antony (the Julius Caesar Shakespeare one, not the Latin music one), I come to bury AND to praise Rapido. Simultaneously, sometimes. Remember, I'm beholden to no-one, not anyone.

At times like this, I am proud to be my own editor.

MAY 18 UPDATE: I've just finished my book review. In the review, I discuss the photo selection and quality, the text, the content, the graphics, the paper, the covers. Please see below for my review:

Wow.