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Re: Comment on Four Ways West book in general
Author: John Sweetser
Date: 07-08-2011 - 22:21
Jim wrote:
>The Tom Dill SP books and the GN and NP books are really good in general - both photo quality and captions. I could search through with a fine tooth comb and have trouble finding even the
slightest caption inaccuracy.
Actually, Tom Dill's SP books have some horrible caption errors.
One of the worst is on pg. 124 of "Southern Pacific's Colorful Shasta Route." The photo of the F7, supposedly at the Brooklyn roundhouse in Portland, was really taken at Bakersfield (the eucalyptus trees in the background match up branch-by-branch with other photos taken at Bakersfield and it's unlikely there were ever eucalyptus trees in the vicinity of the Brooklyn roundhouse).
In Dill's "Southern Pacific's San Joaquin Valley Line," the top photo on pg. 96 definitely was not taken at "Monolith." Most likely location was Harold, south of Palmdale.
The bottom photo on pg. 112, supposedly taken "south of Palmdale" was taken not far south of Rosamond, well to the north.
The excursion train seen on pg. 115 was not photographed in "Mint Canyon" but rather in Soledad Canyon (Mint Canyon is a canyon that is parallel to Soledad Canyon and has no tracks). The date of that excursion was March 20, 1955, not "February 20, 1955" (the excursion date was also incorrectly stated on pg. 84).
Then there is the reversed photo on pgs. 88-89 and the reversed photo on the top of pg. 91.
Didn't anyone notice when this book was being prepared that the signals are on the wrong side of the tracks?
In his "Southern Pacific's Scenic Coast Line," two of the dates given for 1950s excursion trains are wrong.
In "Southern Pacific's Sunset Route," the photo at Colton Tower on pg. 26, purported to be the "Niland Turn" (a truncated Golden State) in May of 1964 was actually a Pacific Railroad Society excursion train from LA to Yuma and back that was photographed on Feb. 27, 1972.
These captions probably aren't entirely Dill's fault. I suspect he got a lot of wrong information from his contributing photographers.
>The Tom Dill SP books and the GN and NP books are really good in general - both photo quality and captions. I could search through with a fine tooth comb and have trouble finding even the
slightest caption inaccuracy.
Actually, Tom Dill's SP books have some horrible caption errors.
One of the worst is on pg. 124 of "Southern Pacific's Colorful Shasta Route." The photo of the F7, supposedly at the Brooklyn roundhouse in Portland, was really taken at Bakersfield (the eucalyptus trees in the background match up branch-by-branch with other photos taken at Bakersfield and it's unlikely there were ever eucalyptus trees in the vicinity of the Brooklyn roundhouse).
In Dill's "Southern Pacific's San Joaquin Valley Line," the top photo on pg. 96 definitely was not taken at "Monolith." Most likely location was Harold, south of Palmdale.
The bottom photo on pg. 112, supposedly taken "south of Palmdale" was taken not far south of Rosamond, well to the north.
The excursion train seen on pg. 115 was not photographed in "Mint Canyon" but rather in Soledad Canyon (Mint Canyon is a canyon that is parallel to Soledad Canyon and has no tracks). The date of that excursion was March 20, 1955, not "February 20, 1955" (the excursion date was also incorrectly stated on pg. 84).
Then there is the reversed photo on pgs. 88-89 and the reversed photo on the top of pg. 91.
Didn't anyone notice when this book was being prepared that the signals are on the wrong side of the tracks?
In his "Southern Pacific's Scenic Coast Line," two of the dates given for 1950s excursion trains are wrong.
In "Southern Pacific's Sunset Route," the photo at Colton Tower on pg. 26, purported to be the "Niland Turn" (a truncated Golden State) in May of 1964 was actually a Pacific Railroad Society excursion train from LA to Yuma and back that was photographed on Feb. 27, 1972.
These captions probably aren't entirely Dill's fault. I suspect he got a lot of wrong information from his contributing photographers.
