This title is about the original Auto-Train. Amtrak's Auto Train by the same author is about the history of this service after the original Auto-Train failed and Amtrak picked up the service.
It's nice to see a well-researched and written book on the Auto-Train service from Virginia and Kentucky to Florida. Innovative, popular and at one time profitable, here is the history of this service which operated on tracks it did not own. Amtrak revived this service from Virginia to Florida after Auto-Train had long gone out of business.
There are no chapters to the book, it is written more like a narrative through the timeline of Auto-Train. There is a lot of text, but also many photographs of the bright colors of the equipment and employee uniforms. Many former employee interviews were conducted to get an inside account of Auto-Train operations and experience.
Since the Auto-Train operated mostly at night, a number of rare action photographs are included. There are over 400 color photographs total in addition to the Black-and-White photographs. There are also photographs of the results of Auto-Train's unfortunate derailments.
There is a 28-page roster section at the end of the book. It includes rolling stock, locomotives and buses and vans. There a two photographs of Northern Pacific steam-generator cars which were converted from steam locomotive tenders still in Northern Pacific two-tone green.
RF&P Historical Society, hardcover, 244 pages, standard portrait book 8 x 10 in., over 400 color and Black-and-White photographs and illustrations.
