Freight Books

My two boys ages 3 and 5 loved it. Andrew could read many words. Highly recommend

A must have for any lover of the 'Old Reliable.' This book is mostly dedicated to the freight equipment of the L&N. All color photos and accurate captions for each make this a great book. Chapter headings break the equipment down into different types.

A pictorial survey of New Haven equipment, just as its title suggests. Color reproduction is good and the caption material is helpful. The book is a good reference for historians and modelers looking for photographs of NH equipment and its surroundings.

This guide is something that every hardcore NYC and Penn Central fan should have in their library. It offers one stop for photos of NYC rolling stock mainly taken from 1955-1970. That said there are some deficiencies. The author chose not to show any kind of progression of equipment, rather the shots are grouped randomly by type. The author inclulde many photos of some cars (i.e. 9 photos of 60' baggage cars) and ignore others (no diners, 1 RPO shot). There is a large emphisis on oddball equipment like jet powered snowblowers where more typical equipment should be illustrated. My complaints are minor however considering the volume of excellent clear shots that has helped my modeling efforts of the Central. Kudos.

Quite a good book from a human interest point of view. not a useful as I had hoped from a modellers point of view

Being new to this part of the petroleum value chain, I found this book very useful, interesting and quite easy to read.
It introduces the most important concepts and facts about the petroleum shipping industry progressively, clearly and with plenty of examples. By reading this book you'll gain a very good understanding of the types of vessels, what they are most appropriate for, the economics, the trading patterns of crude, products, LPG and LNG, Oil spill liabilities and the history of the petroleum shipping industry.
The only thing that prevents me to give it a five stars ranks: Some of the graphics illustrating the concepts are not easy to read (why 3D?) Some of the clear descriptions of the vessels hardware would be much clear if illustrated with pictures or drawings. Anyway, a great book

Of all the industries in the United States and around the world, few are as challenging as the transportation industry and more specifically, the trucking industry. Comprising 5% of the GDP and with over 70% of the cities and towns around the globe solely dependent on trucks to deliver their goods, trucking is truly the backbone of the economy. However, high insurance rates and fuel prices as well as a constant shortage of drivers have made running a trucking company a very difficult endeavor.

Although in use by many different industries, ISO and other quality programs are rarely used by trucking companies. In `Shifting Gears', the authors present case studies and easy-to-follow information that carriers and shippers can use to improve the processes related to shipping and trucking. Based on the premise that quality is a framework for improvement, the authors identify eight specific ISO quality management principles within the book:

Customer Focus
Leadership
Involvement of People
Process Approach
System Approach to Management
Continual Improvement
Factual Approach to Decision Making
Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

Because the book is written in non-technical terms, trucking companies of all sizes will be able to learn and apply the lessons and advice within the book. Reading `Shifting Gears' will not make companies' experts in ISO 9000 but it will clearly explain the importance of structured quality programs and get them on the right path.

As someone who has spent the last 13 years in transportation and who is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, I can attest that the trucking industry must embrace the quality principles of ISO and Six Sigma. Issues such as backhauls, revenue generation, freight pay and audit, OS&D, pick ups and deliveries, operating ratios, maintenance, etc., can be managed better through the use of a structured quality program such as ISO 9000.

This book gives a lot of information that you need to operate a trucking business. Gives detailed instructions for DOT compliance. Good book.

Fame

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
----Abraham Lincoln



Conrad and Breeland trained up to New Haven for The International Arts Festival and we were totally psyched that O'Nan was doing a reading at 5 o'clock. Stew O'Nan's new book The Speed Queen had just come out and he was scheduled to read from his novels. We'd been drinking since noon, whooping it up down at The Anchor Bar with some intellectuals---grad students in lit crit---and we decided it would be funny to arrive with armloads of O'Nan's books for him to sign after the reading. We knew Stew from summer camp years earlier and had watched his meteoric rise as a novelist with admiration and some surprise.

The Center Church on the Green is just a stone's throw from the Anchor. We wanted to get seats down front, so we arrived about half an hour early. We walked right in and immediately an earnest young woman in a tight green man's suit informed us that O'Nan's reading had been cancelled. Her tie was really thin and had tiny red hearts on it.

"The reading has been cancelled. We're terribly sorry," she said. She could see that we were armed with O'Nan's books, and cocked her head and made one of those pained I'm really sorry expressions. She had bright red lipstick and catwoman glasses on a silver chain. I was pretty wound up from our conversation and drinks with the deconstructionists---Derrida and dark beer make me crazy, and Conrad and I lived to prank on each other---so without missing a beat, I said: "Oh no, I'm here. I'm Stew O'Nan." Her face fell and then she smiled and shook my hand apologizing all over the place. She looked back and forth from Breeland to Conrad and they nodded smiling.

"No worries, " I said, suddenly adopting a slight Austrailian accent. I caught Conrad shoot a glance at Breeland, but they fell right in with the hoax and suddenly looked like an entourage.

"Hold these man," I said loading three hardcover O'Nan novels on top of Conrad's armful of books.
"No problem, Stew," he said. Conrad trained at Juilliard so I couldn't really quibble with the way he emphasized the "Stew" a little more than I would have. The woman hurried outside to stop two guys who were just about to post a big show cancelled sign. I could see her gesticulating wildly through a thin crack in the church doors. So we went down the center aisle and I had a sudden rush of self-consciousness, not because I was afraid of being found out, but because I was in a church. Now Conrad and Breeland were really starting to enjoy themselves. They set up right down in the front pew right beneath the pulpit, and Breeland strode right up into the spot light to check the sound system. "Check. Check one. Check, check check." A tall thin guy all in black with a long ponytail appeared with a scowl and rushed across behind the altar to us. He apparently hadn't gotten the message that O'Nan was in the house. "What the f*#@ man?!," he stage whispered at Breeland. Even though he whispered, the mic picked it up, and Breeland grimaced and shook his finger and then pointed theatrically at the mic. "These babies are really sensitive," he said. People in the balcony were laughing. Then Breeland gestured to me and said "That's O'Nan right there, and I was just checking the levels." The guy turned and stared at me, and for a second I thought the jig was up, but he looked back at Breeland and gestured okay and sorry but take it easy with my system. He led Breeland off backstage. Now Conrad settled in, stretching his feet out and throwing his arms back, lacing his fingers behind his head, with a huge Cheshire Cat grin on his face, saying "Stew, I think tonight I'm gonna enjoy your work more than I ever have."

This whole hoax of course depended on the probability that no one in New Haven knew what Stewart O'Nan looked like. I knew----a lifetime ago he had been my 16 year-old camper when I was the 20 year-old counselor. He looked nothing like me: O'Nan was six two with a big nose, blond hair, and eyes a bit close together; I am five seven with dark hair and eyes that were now spinning in counterclockwise spirals. Right there on the dust jacket of The Speed Queen was a photograph of the author leaning up against his 442 in front of the Speed Parts store. His legs looked really long.

The church was starting to fill up. I didn't know that O'Nan was so popular. Just then the woman in green appeared with a small bottle of Perrier and asked me if I needed anything else. I leaned in really close, smelled her neck, and whispered "I love you."

I've read a couple of outstanding novels by O'Nan ("The Night Country," "Prayer for Dying"), so I was sort of looking forward to this one. Sort of? Well, I'll admit, I was a little worried since the story, without having read it, sounded a lot like "Badlands." I wondered, before going in, if this was just a reworking of what has become an American story where a young couple of social misfits go out in a bloody blaze of gunfire and weird love. If only the Speed Queen had of had that kind of narrative coherence going for it!

The Speed Queen fails on a number of levels. Even its unique Stephen King is-writing-my-story twist wears on you after a bit. By novel's end, it's a stale gimmick. The novel is all bits and pieces of a story. By themselves, these bits and pieces are interesting. Dialogue and descriptive passages are often dead-on, which makes this novel such a frustrating read. Oh, the possibilities! Marjorie drinks a lot, though it's never really clear why. Her parents were pretty kinky, but can you trust her, since she has her own sex toy issues? Like a lot of death row types, she's found Jesus on the eve of her state mandated destruction. She's discovers she's bisexual, after a short stint in prison. She loves her kid, she does speed. She kills -- reluctantly, though reading in-between the lines, you doubt that. What a mess! So yes, you have "Badlands," a bit of "In Cold Blood," and neither of those stories' cold-hearted integrity. The book is dedicated to Stephen King. He deserved better.

I really liked this book. The beginning I was a little confused on where it was going but once you got over that it got really good and intense. Quick read too.

My first take on this book is that it's pretty light, has some great Americana stuff, but doesn't seem to say much. There are some nifty tricks with an unreliable narrator and I'm sure you could spend quite a bit of time guessing at what really happened, but in the end this is just gravy and I wanted a bit more meat.

One interesting thing: I was listening to a track on Bob Dylan's "FreeWheelin' Bob Dylan" and something clicked about this book. They both capture a unique feeling of America. The throw-away, casual, but how do you put it? It's like a nostalgia for what seems like not much but there's a feeling to it. Anyways, hard to describe, but I think there's something to the Speed Queen that gets under my skin as an American who likes the funky, back-alley side of life...

This novel by Stewart O'Nan probably can fit under the category `brutalism' or more appropriately, brutes. The conceit is a woman in prison narrating her story to Steven King, because of its gruesome and salacious nature.
O'Nan predicates two losers who think that ownership of an Oldsmobile 442 in red with mag wheels is the pinnacle of life, who are meth freaks, and who can't make a good drug deal. Enter a bisexual, manipulative woman marginally smarter than the duo, add a big debt owed to dangerous people, and you have a crime spree that kills many, including two of the three heroes.
O'Nan succeeds in this book, because he understands all three, and understands that they are heroes unto themselves. What happens unfolds with a sense of inevitability because O'Nan makes it clear who these three are, what they want, and what they think they want. There are definitely people like this outside the book who have no internal compass, who can love and kill what they love. There are people walking about like these who will kill their co-workers in a fast food restaurant for five and change.
Read this book if you want to see the patently stupid, dark heart of the criminal culture, and if you can stand that small bit of recognition when Stewart writes out your hind brain, your own prehistoric bit of the beast within.

An excellent, must-have resource for any Missouri Pacific fans or modellers. Great quality pictures (and a lot of 'em), along with descriptive text about many of the movements and timelines for the railroad.

GREAT HISTORY, EXCELLENT PHOTO QUALITY, WELL BOUND, THICK,QUALITY PAGE STOCK. THE MOPAC RR AS I REMEMBER IT GROWING UP.