VIA Rail (MBI Railroad Color History) | Christopher C. N. Greenlaw

VIA Rail (MBI Railroad Color History) | Christopher C. N. Greenlaw | Great Photos, Smooth Narration -- But They Don't Always Match

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VIA Rail (MBI Rail...

	VIA Rail (MBI Railroad Color History) Christopher C. N. Greenlaw Voyageur Press, 2007 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Go VIA Rail and see Canada: Here is Canada?s national railway, covering 14,000 kilometers of track from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay. This illustrated history tells the story of how, starting in the early 1970s, VIA Rail became a separate Crown corporation, once and for all relieving the old Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways of their beleaguered passenger operations. It is a story rich in history?and marked with failures and misfortunes right up to our day, when a need for convenient, fuel-efficient mass transportation holds out hope for a renaissance.

Archival and modern photography, route maps, and print ads help detail the history of VIA Rail?s motive power and passenger cars from the likes of General Motors, Bombardier, Montreal Locomotive Works, and Budd Company, as well such passenger trains as The Canadian, The Atlantic, The Ocean, and The Super Continental. Chris Greenlaw also explains all of the political machinations that have inevitably shaped the railroad, and delves into its connection with Amtrak via The Maple Leaf.

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Great history and photos

A knowledgable author makes all the difference. This book is well-written and accompanied by a very nice selection of photographs that include informative captions. The author provides a concise history of VIA Rail, including the conditions that lead to its formation and the political machinations that nearly killed it several times during its existence. He brings the story right up to the present (2007) and expresses a cautious optimism about its future. Maps of the VIA system are included - two on the endpapers depict VIA at its startup and at the present time, while two additional maps cover interim periods. This is not a nuts-and-bolts history as no locomotive or car roster is included, nor is each route detailed. However, the text and photo captions adequately cover equipment acquisitions and retirements as well as most trains and routes. Three pages that list the author's sources are evidence of the research that went into this book and include several interviews of principal players in the VIA story that were conducted by the author. This book sets a high standard for the Railroad Color History series from MBI/Voyageur Press.

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Great Photos, Smooth Narration -- But They Don't Always Match

Motor Books International ("MBI") has a well-deserved reputation for excellence in the writing and photography of its Railroad Color History series. This volume -- VIA RAIL by Christopher C.N. Greenlaw -- is one of the most recent (2007) and does not disappoint.

Very roughly, VIA is to Canada what Amtrak is to the USA: a quasi-governmental attempt in the Seventies to maintain a basic framework of passenger train service while attracting more paying customers to the high-density "corridors" that demand frequent service: Washington, D.C. to New York is the busiest US stretch, Montreal to Toronto in Canada.

There are subtle but key differences, however. Amtrak's budgets wax and wane but run toward the lean side; VIA, on the other hand, is even more prone to politicization and has faced more generous funding when the Liberals are in power in Ottawa only to be faced with huge cuts when the Tories (Conservatives) gain power. Amtrak inherited literally dozens of companies' leftover coaches, sleepers, diners and diesels when it started its own operations in 1971; but in 1976 when VIA commenced, practically all its passenger stock came from the two dominant rail systems: CP Rail (now operating under its heritage name, Canadian Pacific Railway) and Canadian National, a once government-owned system that was taken private in the 1990s.

Greenlaw's narration is smooth and very well-informed and does not shirk the disastrous effects of major budget slashes in 1980 and 1991. Perhaps more historical research has gone into this volume than in some of the others in its series. And there are great photographs spanning the years from the late Seventies to the mid-2000's, including those of equipment like the British-built "Renaissance" coaches unknown south of the border; or the "LRC" (light, rapid, comfortable) trains of the eighties.

This book also brings out two very fortunate facets of life under VIA: the friendliness and helpfulness of its staff has drawn admiration not only from Canadian citizens but from its American guests as well; and the company, when pushed to the brink, shows a lemonade-from-lemons ability to scare up new equipment. Case in point: the low-slung Renaissance series from England, which was originally intended to be the focus of an overnight "Chunnel" service between London and Paris, was bought by VIA at distress prices and fitted in Canada for both day and overnight service.

My only real gripe is that the photos seem to be laid out without regard for chronology or history. Photos of inherited equipment like the old CP diesels with red-and-white stripes are interspersed with more modern shots of trains in the blue-with-yellow-stripe VIA livery hauled by the newer, more blunt-edged diesel engines. I must say, though, that the photos run the gamut of Canada's last forty years of intercity passenger service quite well, and they are evocative not only of Canada's beautiful and varied scenery but include the raw realities of Canadian winter railroading as well.

The cover price for this volume is on the high side but fortunately Amazon offers a healthy discount. If you like VIA RAIL, seek out other books from the same publisher such as CANADIAN NATIONAL, PENN CENTRAL, and REGIONAL RAILROADS OF THE MIDWEST.

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