Freight Books

This book has no real story to it. It has nice illustrations but the story doesn't really make sense. It is good enough to hold the attention of my 12 month old, but I don't really think older toddlers will find it interesting enough for multiple readings. I had higher hopes for a Thomas the Tank Engine book.

This book has provided hours of reading enjoyment for our toddler boy! This small book is just perfect for his little hands to cart around all day long. I never tire reading this book, the illustrations are fun and a new detail is discovered every day!

Thomas and the Freight Train is an excellant little board book for little toddlers who just love the Thomas series. It is a small, short book but worth it due to its wonderful illustrations.
Perfect for my son!

This book is good, but very small in size. I thought for some reason it was going to be a normal size book.

I thought the book was larger for some reason. It was only about 2 or 3 inches in width and length. It was a xmas present for my nephew so I was a little disappointed it was so small.

The slide-out pages are a HUGE hit with my two-year-old and they work perfectly with the freight train theme. Personally, I've never seen another book quite like it. The colors are bright, the text is simple, and almost every page holds something exciting to be found.

Like I've read in other reviews, my over-zealous toddler managed to break his book as well. However we just used clear packing tape to tape it back together as good as new.

If you're looking to buy a gift for a toddler that loves trains do not hesitate to buy this book - it will definitely be a big hit!

My boys (2 1/2 & 4) love Freight Train. I ordered this book and I am a little bit disappointed.

I thought it was a lift-a-flap book before I ordered it and it's a slide-out book. I don't think there are that many toddlers who can handle slide-out books. It's even hard for me to pull the page out and put it back. I don't think this book will survive any more than a month or two.

Another thing is, not every car shows what's inside. It shows inside of the Freight depot, the engine, box car, cattle car, refrigerator car (which was not in the Freight train book), stock car (new in this book as well), and the caboose. It doesn't show the inside of covered hopper car, gondolar car (I guess since this is a open one, it's okay), tank car, and open hopper car (which is not identified in the book as one).

Just like the other reviewer said, 'calves' were spelled wrong, so I just printed the word on a sticky label (using Arial Bold, font size 16, letter color white, and background black) and put the label over the wrong spelling. It doesn't look perfect, but the book's not perfect, either.

I guess 'higher the expectation, bigger the disappointment' is a true statement with this book.

My son just turned two and has had a love of trains for quite some time.

We got the "Freight Train Board Book" from the library and he absolutely loved it. It was a book he carried around the house and looked at every moment he took time to sit down.

We had the book out for 6 weeks, the maximum allow time for a title to be out, and I knew he'd have a hard time parting with it.

I bought that book and noticed "Inside Freight Train" :)

It looked, and turned out to be, a very nice accompaniment to the first book.

Chase would keep both books with us a night time to read one and reference the other;-)

The only reason I marked 4/5 stars was due to the fact that the sliding pages started to fall apart after about a week of what I considered falrly regular, monitored, use:(

Still trying to figure out which glue will work best to affect a repair.

My son became fascinated with this book around 10 months, and 14 months later, still loves reading it. Over that time, he has used the book to learn colors (the freight cars are different colors) and things like the items that freight trains carry. He now loves watching trains from our back porch and knows more than steam engines than a lot of adults.
But alas, the book has not held up well due to repeated abuse at the hands of a toddler. Several patch-up jobs with clear packing tape have given the book a stay of execution.

It is $10 wasted for me because my younger son tore the cover into 3 pieces the first time he got his hands on it, and before I had a chance to look through all the pages. Yes, it was that durable! This book went to the bin a week ago when my older son started sounding out words and we didn't want him to get the wrong start. Can't someone spellcheck a book before it is published? I'm surprised that noone has caught that mistake in the 4 years since it was published. Shame on the author and the publisher!

The Bible of freight hopping. Have read this book many, many times. A great book for anyone interested in the Do's & Dont's of freight hopping. A great resource for railroad and hobo history as well...

Ride Hard, Live Free, Be Safe

its a sort of how to book with not much in it being of use. i have hopped freights before and was looking for more information about locations, times, crew changes, and more, but nothing really. i mean most of the stuff in the book you can find out online like north bank fred's.

the book was very informative. gives a good idea of what train hopping and the respect it deserves is all about. would recomend this book to any person who is interested in the safety of cargo travel. I even used the knowledge I gained from this book to travel by freight in mexico.

there aint no book anyone can write that can explain how-to train hop.it gives young punks a feeling that they will be safe if they follow the rules.bull.i been out here on the rails for 20 years and i couldnt have learned any of it from a book.theres aready too many stupid kids out there who think they know it all.hell, some a them ride to protest.train ridin is tough.it`s for people who dont like people.that are dirt poor.ride to live.live to ride.lets keep it that way brother.if your gonna ride.get out there and do it.dont read no book.

Littlejohn's book is an ideal gateway into the world of freight hopping. It is well written. The author's personality & outlook as they come through in the book are encouraging. It is full of advice, both with respect to general things such as the broad makeup & functioning of the railroad system & particular things such as what time of the week you are more likely to find a train & what air brakes sound like (you'll find out why knowing this sound is important). It incorporates personal anecdote without relying too heavily upon it.

I have a few reservations, however. While I wouldn't call it outdated, it does show a few signs of age. It mentions the possibility of riding on automobile carriers, for instance. It would be inadvisable to do this even were it feasible, but with the new designs of car carrier, it is next to impossible to ride one. There are other instances of Littlejohn's writing bearing the stamp of age, but fortunately, not very many of them concern vital things. In other words, most of what is dated is either relatively unimportant to the actual practice of freight hopping or still viable with the application of some common sense (which you'll need a lot of to ride the rails successfully anyway).

In addition, the book skimps on some aspects of modern freight hopping, such as radio frequency scanning, but this is no big deal. In my opinion, Littlejohn is wise to concentrate on the more fundamental aspects of hopping freights.

This book will start preparing you for hopping freights. If you take the advice in this book, start small, supplement it with information from the Web (for instance, the freight hoppers e-mail list at train-hoppers@nw.com ), & practice, you should be well on your way. Moreover, once you have caught out a few times, you can return to the book often to hone your skills.

A valuable book, highly recommended.

This book is a quite devastating criticism of academic feminism, written by well documented and articulate insiders who seem familiar with the philosophy, theory and practice of academic feminism. The criticism hits on all these levels. If we are to take the book at face value, academic feminism is an intellectual disaster comparable maybe with Stalinism, Scientology or the Inquisition: its method is anti-intellectual, critical thinking is discouraged, dissenters are ostracized. No redeeming qualities are found to mitigate its defects. The whole enterprise is deemed a failure and an embarrassment to its noble origins. Ultimately, feminism as taught and practiced today is presented as a danger to civilized society.

The authors are convincing and the various points are illustrated with interesting anecdotes. Particularly funny was the story of a women's studies lesbian professor announcing the heterosexual students that, if the course works as supposed, all students will be lesbians by the end of the term. One student, a married women with children, was persecuted by the professor by being given substantial extra assignments because she was deemed to be 'stubborn' regarding her (hetero)sexuality.

My qualm is a methodological one. The authors start by saying that they will apply "feminist methodology" in their study. Only later in the book it is explained that feminist methodology prefers anecdotes and testimonials ('connected thinking', which is good) to the "patriarchal" statistics ('compartimentalized thinking' which is bad). But the context of their description of this methodolgy is, again, one of scathing, devastating criticism. Feminist methodology is exposed as pseudo-intellectual. So I can't help but wonder why the authors use the very same methodolgy which their book dismisses as unsound. The effect is that, with a lack of statistical figures, it is impossible to say how pervasive are the problems they mention. Some problems, the ideological ones, are universal by definition. But they are not the most striking. The more striking are the ones regarding the practice of feminism, especially the instances where dissent is supressed and dissenters are punished. But the feminist methodology used by the authors gives us no clue how wide-spread this very important problem is.

I wish to god this book had been available when I was an undergrad at a university that was a nightmare of PC. Deserves to be kept in print until the current generation of posturing wackos have faded away.

Professing Feminism, Cautionary Tales From the Strange World of Women's Studies; is without doubt one of the most honest and forthright evaluations of the "discipline" Women's Studies ever written. Like "Who Stole Feminism" by Christina Hoff Sommers, it is a rather chilling tale of a noble endeavor transformed in to a totalitarian nightmare of ideological thought policing.

It is not written not by opponents of feminism but rather by strong and committed supporters, who are dismayed at the ever increasing radicalization and identity chauvinism of feminist activists in the Academy. Using "feminist" techniques of investigation (eg. experiential sharing ), as well as juxtaposition against the methodology of more conventional academic disciplines, this book exposes some of the serious and possibly crippling shortcomings of what "Women's Studies" has become.

The two female authors come from different perspectives and lifestyles, and yet found the courage to face facts about the ideological intolerance and thought policing increasingly common to this field. Their approach was to try and help fix what was wrong, rather than deliver negative information into the hands of the (ever growing) enemies of radical feminism. Unfortunately, their book has been mainly shunned by the very institutions and individuals it sought to reach, and in some cases stolen from libraries and destroyed as heresy.

Given the increasing polarization of "Women's Studies" from the rest of mainstream academia, and the burn down the meeting house approach of ever more radical activists, who would see the whole academy converted to their ideology -- or else, it is no surprise this book was so quickly suppressed. For those who can still find a copy, you will be impressed by the candor and honesty of the authors, who feel that the best way to preserve the valid and worthwhile facets of feminism is to honestly look at the attempts to subvert and control the agenda by radicals, who in turn have treated the authors in a manner similar to Christina Hoff Sommers, as Traitors to their Gender deserving only of shunning.

If you can find a copy, reading it will open up whole new perspectives on what Women's studies purported to be, and what the academic gravy train of financial empowerment through intimidation has allowed it to become.

Truly, a Cautionary Tale. Sadly, one that it is actively being suppressed by the radicals it seeks to expose and debunk.

5 Stars

The 1960s seemed like a good decade. The Vietnam war gave at least those of us of "the affluent society" something to fight against; many people, black and white, fought for the successes of the civil rights movement; "women's lib," which had its conspicuous beginnings in earlier centuries, gained strength with women's education and consciousness of inequities.

But something went wrong. The later 20th century reinterpretation of the benefits of the 60s contradicted the gains. Persons once sought equality. Now we find identity politics in which the allegedly downtrodden--often the more privileged segments of oppressed (sometimes really oppressed and sometimes self-designated as such) classes--depend on their status as victims to claim a new identity distinct--segregated--from AND morally superior to the rest of us. This book is an analysis of one sample of that segregation.

As earlier reviews have noted, the authors are not right-wing, "religious right," or other activists from whom one would expect a refutation of anything feminist. On the contrary, they are feminists themselves, and scholars. (Dr. Koertge has edited at least two other books in my libary on dimensions of critical thinking, of which she is an advocate. Such thinking is a rarity among the feminists the authors interviewed to write the book). They interviewed women, many of whom had enough faith in their movement to start women's studies programs. Yet some even of those pioneers left that movement quite disillusioned. After all the intellectual effort that went into creating such programs, various lesbian organizations claimed that a woman could not be feminist "enough" unless also lesbian, i.e., rejecting all that is ostensibly male; women not inclined to "true" or particularly zealous feminism were rejected by their women's studies classmates and faculty as, in effect, incomplete women; opinions differing from those of the zealots were seen as virtually seditious. So the "left" became the mirror image of the oppressive "right" it claimed to oppose on the historical day before.

Each chapter covers something else about this "movement" that, when not comical, is a sample of near fascism. From language perversions and interpretations used by the zealots to ensure their status as oppressed, to "social construction" amounting to no more than revisionist pseudo-science. I appreciate too the authors' perception that much of the feminist (and other!) rhetoric of the academy is more trendy than substantial. (No, I'm not making an anti-academic commentary. Rather, I'm corroborating that what I often hear from the "academic left" whose ideology one must buy to make heads or tails out of their balderdash!) And all too many of the women's studies faculty the authors talked with reject conventional scholarly practice. The authors plead for a return to that practice. (Portions of the book reminded me of a neighbor of mine, a Ph.D. who works for the government. She's a bright woman who "left academia" because those on the "academic left," despite their pathetically weak or nonexistene arguments, would even allow her to disagree with them!)

A chapter points out too that, while many of us would like to believe that the sort of "feminists" to whom the authors refer are a tiny minority of extremists, they are actually the rule rather than the exception. (And, as I work with many a "left" organization, feminist and in other dimensions "political," I corroborate that too; anti-racists, for example--nearly always white--who define racism to include anything they choose to disagree with, thereby excluding nearly everyone from their social and moral status).

The book is out of print at this point. One of the authors e-mailed me that they are working on a second edition. Hoping I could help them with a little critical advice, I suggested they consider eliminating some acronyms they created, e.g., "IDPOL" for "identity politics" and, coincidentally, "ideological policing," "TOTALREJ," and "WORDMAGIC." I felt, when I was about half way through the book, that these little word plays may minimize the impact of what the authors were saying. After completing the book I don't feel as strongly that way. If it's even possible that those "words" can evoke discussion of the issues, then the book has served a great political purpose: pursuit of the truth.

Needless to say, I recommend the book. My hope is that it's not just read by "the choir," but develops a following of its own. While some feminists reading this review will label me anti-feminist, I stress that I am far from that. I do, however, challenge any group that segregates itself based on false reasoning or pretentious morality, especially a group that claims it's fighting segregation and inequality.

What do I mean? Read the book, the original, or the revised edition. Then we can talk.

"Professing Feminism" professes nothing but sensationalist backlash against feminism within the academy. The anecdotes illustrate extreme positions in an extraordinarily narrow view. As a women's studies major, the continual attacks on "anti-intellectualism" and indoctrination reflected nothing of my experience in WS programs. As WS programs are mostly inter/cross-disciplinary (and the most popularly enrolled cross-listed courses), the authors blatantly omitted the wide material covered within a major's academic career, as well as the fact that the primary thing that WS teaches in critical thinking. You learn to question everything, even that which is taught in a WS course. The often cited "indoctrination of feminism" is an oxymoron. Cultural critique IS scholastic and academically worthy. If you look at the writings from WITHIN the academy, such as academic journals, newsletters, and recent WS publications on feminism and pedagogy, WS is far from static and continually seeks to improve, integrate, and shift their programs as needed. (Good luck on convincing the sciences to alter THEIR pedagogy.) The ivory tower needs WS in order to maintain the integrity of other disciplines as well as to provide intellectual space for those subjects commonly marginalized in the academy, such as ethnic studies and sexuality. The authors condesceningly stereotype and deride the complexities of both of subjects. Those within WS vouch for its profound influence in increasing student engagement with the material. As a student, I work harder in my WS courses and I find I can apply the skills of analysis that I develop to other disciplines, from economics to literature.

Yes, WS must continually be self-critical, but what Patai and Koertge conveniently gloss over is the fact that WS paradoxically seeks to subvert the hierarchies/structures of the academy while simultaneously working within them. Shifting the focus of knowledge from a male center shatters the system. Why would colleges and universities want their "objective" knowledges undermined by a bunch of women? Of course WS isn't welcome!

A far more explanatory and better documented history and description of the debates within WS is Marilyn Boxer's "When Women Ask the Questions." Nonetheless, I read "Professing Feminism" in its entirety, appalled that it claimed to describe my educational experience - and worse, distort WS to other readers outside of WS the reality of the programs. WS has permanently changed "higher" education by including the view, knowledge, and experience of over half of the world's population. To claim THAT as an "embarrassment" or a "massive failure" that lacks "integllectual rigor" simply reinforces the not-quite-gone idea that women belong on the periphery of the world of knowledge. But that's what (conservative) backlash is, right? Divide and conquer. But Women's Studies is here to stay. Perhaps we could make a bit more headway if we didn't have to continually stop and justify our position - our existence - in academia. But the progress WS has made in 30 years is unmatched by any other discipline.

The only thing "anti-intellectual" about women's studies is Patai and Koertge's depiction of it. But go ahead. See if they can indoctrinate YOU. After all, that's what WS is all about, right?

I didn't find much of value in the book. The one chapter explaining the different parts of the yard was okay but I was looking for some help in designing my own model railroad yard and was disapointed. I closed the book thinking I would need a large garage sized layout to build anything of value. Nothing smaller is considered in the book. The examples of actual model railroads didn't add much (and they were all huge too) The book also reads pretty quick. In half an hour I was done with nothing more to be gained. I found much better information on a couple of personal websites. I was looking for options and I was only given one - build big.

Excellent guide to setting up yards on your model railroad. This book covers how yards are used, what tracks go where and why and also has a section on staging yards. Even has yard layouts that you can use as is or modify them to fit your layout. Small, medium and large yards are all represented. I used this as a guide to set up a staging yard on my layout and fell confident that I will have a yard that not only looks good but will function well. I will also us this to set up the other yards on my layout.

The Model Railroader Guide To Freight Yards by model railroading expert Andy Sperandeo presents a compendium of overviews with respect to basic freight yard functions and operations; strategies for modeling freight yards based on specific prototypes; examples of interesting scenes and structures to model; ideas for saving space when designing a yard plan; and track plans from successfully modeled freight yards. Enhanced throughout with maps and illustrations for easy planning and designing, and with an inspirational photo gallery concluding each chapter, The Model Railroader Guide To Freight Yards is a welcome and enthusiastically recommended addition to any dedicated railroad modeler's reference shelf collection.

I work in the video game industry and am working on a game that has a railroad level in it. These model railroad books are the perfect reference! The whole book is filled with great ideas and each idea is supported with real photographs. A+ One of the best
"reference" books I've ever purchased!

I was a bit disappointed by this book. It started off very well but then wandered off in a direction I did not want to take.

It does a fair job of introducing the various trackage to be found at many yards, explaining the routing and usage. There were a few topics, such as gravity or hump yards, which were missing but the general introduction was well done. After that point, though, it bogged down.

Most of the book is spent looking at real yards and explaining how they were adapted for modeling purposes on various layouts. This would seemingly be a very good idea since the purpose of the book is to teach the reader about how to model yards effectively. In execution, though, it leaves a bit to be desired. It reads like a transcript of a running commentary on a model operating schedule. This accomplishes the basics of the purpose but makes for dry and uninteresting reading.

Something that helps the book is the addition of sidebar articles on various topics. These address specific issues and are, on the whole, well written. They address such issues as saving space with yard ladders, throat design and even the look and feel of a yard. A final section on cards and waybills is also well written.

After his excellent treatment on passenger equipment and operations, I expected more. The information is in there but it takes some effort.

I bought this for my dad he loves trains and he loves it

I bought this book while restoring a 70's era caboose for the local museum. It provides a good history of the caboose with its uses, variations and ultimate replacement by less expensive equipment. The photography is excellent (as is true with other books in this series). Very good value for the money.

A good book covering postwar to UP merger C&NW freight service. Heavy emphasis on the Overland Route train symbols and numbers. Nice sections on TOFC, ore service and coal trains. The ore service chapter includes some information on docks at Ashland and Escanaba. Too few photos of equipment. Only a small smattering from each type. A car roster would have been a good addition.

This book is a pictorial review of most types of boxcars used either by the railroads, past and present, and industry. The book will give a brief synopsis of the pictures shown. The information yields the date of manufacture, specifications for the design of the different boxcars, where the picture was taken as well as the year that the picture was taken. The most unusual was a boxcar discussed is used by the National Bureau of Standards. The one thing that would enhance this book would be the inclusion of more pictures of the boxcars owned by the railroads and how the livery evolved whether through mergers, corporate climate, restructuring or acquisitions of other railroads. This does make a good pictorical reference for those who have model railroading as a hobby. All photos are in color

Many Chicagoans recall the Flood of '92; a piling near the Kinzie St. bridge was driven through the roof of an old freight tunnel, flooding the basements and sub-basements of many of the buildings in the Loop. This book tells the story of how those tunnels came to be.

The text of the book itself is a surprisingly good read, if a little dry in places. Included in the copy that I obtained are a couple of maps of the tunnels as of 1932, which give some idea of how extensive this network was. If nothing else, this book outlines a great lesson for us all: if you build it, they won't necessarily come (the vision behind building the tunnels lacked one vital thing: customers).

Update: Bruce has published a new version of this book through the Chicago Electric Railfans Association (CERA). ISBN: 0915348357 (searching on the ISBN from Amazon will turn up the book). The new version includes information about the flood and some more recent photographs taken by the author himself, as well as a raft of other information about the tunnels that he has accumulated since the original edition was published. This version is still in print as of Feb. 2005, but is a bit more expensive than the original version.

LA finally has a voice immortalized in print. After 20+ years of bombing, tagging, running, gunning and stunning, Los Angeles is beginning to see its history actually recorded. This first effort by a pair of LA sons -- including none other than the notorious WISKone from WCA -- is an ambitious and thorough first effort. Sure there are typos and some people will critique the inclusion or exclusion of a few heads, but come on . . . this is a bold and brave undertaking. The book is massive, full of colorful pieces you might not even remember even if you saw them the first time around. and instead of inserted narrative and opinions, it's a first person verbatim of memories from the artists that lived the life during the first wave (1983-1988). Artists, murals, writers and yards have come and gone, so this archive will fast become an essential part of our history. And thank god somebody had the balls and the commitment to finally do it.