Baltimore & Ohio's Capitol Limited and National Limited (Great Passenger Trains)

Baltimore & Ohio's Capitol Limited and National Limited (Great Passenger Trains) | Joe Welsh | Nice Book, Needs a Good Editor

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Baltimore & Ohio's...

	Baltimore & Ohio's Capitol Limited and National Limited (Great Passenger Trains) Joe Welsh Voyageur Press, 2007 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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In 1923 the Baltimore & Ohio's Capitol Limited started its travels between Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Two years later the B&O's National Limited linked the nations capital to St. Louis. Almost at once the two lines became household names, famous for the outstanding service and cuisine offered in their Pullman sleepers and renowned dining cars.

This authoritative, illustrated history takes readers back to the B&O's glory years, with a wealth of images, route information, details of the trains passenger motive power, and the inside story on the frugal railroads means of streamlining its equipment with innovative and aesthetically striking results.

Against a backdrop of dozens of black-and-white archival images and period color photos depicting uniforms, dinnerware, stations, period ads and route maps, and interior views of passenger cars, award-winning rail author Joe Welsh discusses how B&O passenger operations led to the demise of at least one of its rival Pennsylvania Railroads passenger trains; and how, ultimately, market forces did in the B&O's passenger trains as well.

Here is the whole story, with the National Limited's failure under Amtrak's auspices--and the 1981 rebirth of the Capitol Limited as one of Amtrak's most popular trains, keeping a legend alive.

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Baltimore and Ohio's Capitol Limited and National Limited

I have owned Baltimore and Ohio's Capitol Limited and National Limited book since December 4, 2007. The book has excellent black and white and color photos of the Capitol Limited and National Limited. My favorite color photos of the National Limited are in Chapter 1. I like the blue and white colors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Robert Wilhelm
robertleewilhelm@yahoo.com

Nice Book, Needs a Good Editor

Joe Welsh is one of the best passenger train writers in the U.S. and there is lots to admire in his "Baltimore and Ohio's Capital Limited and National Limited". The book condenses the stories about these two Chicago/St. Louis trains (and uses some of the same photos) that appear in separate volumes by Harry Stegmaier originally published 15 years ago, in 1993.

Certainly the five-page photo spread (pp. 52-56) of the Capital Limited pulling out of Chicago after a late February 1935 snowstorm are stunning and there are other great photos I hadn't previously seen, including the evocative depiction of the Capital Limited whizzing past a boat along the C&O Canal.

The photos of the African-American porters and dining car waiters are a haunting (and repugnant) reminder of how racial servitude continued well into the 20th century, partly because because of social attitudes and because African-American men had far fewer career choices. I was also struck by the photo of the two doves being released into the frigid Chicago air during a christening of the Capital Limited in November 1938. I wonder how long those doves survived during the rigorous Chicago winter.

What's lacking in Welsh's book is an attentive editor. Silver Spring, Maryland is twice identified as Silver Springs in photo captions. The latter place is in Florida, far south of the route traversed by the B&O. Curiously, Silver Spring is spelled correctly in the text and in the too-frugal index.

I also wish some of the captions were more specific. The two-page spread on pp. 94-95 depicts the Capital Limited chugging across a bridge at what appears to be Harper's Ferry, WV. Couldn't the photo caption specify the locale? And since the book contains lots of images, why didn't the publisher squeeze a B&O route map into the contents?

I like Welsh's short chapter about the B&O's competition, the Pennsylvania Railroad, which also ran trains between New York/Baltimore/Washington and Chicago and St. Louis.
While I don't think Welsh's book supplants Mr. Stegmaier's earlier, more detailed accounts of these great passenger trains, many railroad fans -- especially B&O partisans -- will welcome Welsh's newer, scaled back account.

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