The American Railroad Freight Car: From the Wood-Car Era to the Coming of Steel by White, John H - 1993

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. Hardcover. VG/VG (light rubbing to boards along edges, light shelfwear to dust jacket. Pages are clean and tight.). Light tan cloth boards with bronze spine lettering, red dust jacket with color illustration, black, tan and cream lettering, xi, 644 pages, profusely illustrated in bw. "In this sequel to his best-selling American Railroad Passenger Car, John White forever changes the freight car's lowly image. Including hundreds of historical photographs and detailed blueprints, The American Railroad Freight Car establishes the sophistication and expertise that marked the development of freight cars in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Along with an overview of freight transportation's historical importance, White offers detailed accounts of technological developments and examines lesser known aspects of everyday freight service such as yard management, train operations, and the origins of the interchange system."--Publisher's description. Contents include: Parade of the cars -- The pioneers: American freight cars before 1870 -- Cars for general merchandise, 1870 to 1899 -- Cars for food -- Cars for bulk cargoes -- Cars for special shipments -- Freight car technology -- Early iron and steel cars -- Appendix A: biographical sketches of railroad car builders -- Appendix B: chronology.