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is an occasional journal of Oregon, from arts and books to public policy & transportation.
All content © 2006- by Alexander B. Craghead, except where otherwise noted.
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Cafe Unknown
Travel, History and Portland Oregon by Dan Haneckow
Jack Bog's Blog
By Jack Bogdanski of Portland, Oregon. (Like he needs any other introduction by now? -- A.B.C.)
For Portlanders Only
"Why buy a mattress anywhere else?"
Good Stuff NW
Featuring stuff that is good in the NW
LOST Magazine
LOST Magazine is an online monthly magazine that combines elements of many other literary, online, and national magazines with a singular mission--to reclaim in writing lost people, places, and things.
Mapes on Politics
Way West of the Beltway
Outside Is America
A journal about photography, roadtrips, trains and life, with occasional detours into movies, baseball, music, family and more.
The Photographers' Railroad Page
Good photos usually have good stories to go with them.... The goal of The Photographers' Railroad Page is to provide an outlet for top quality photographs and their story.
Portland Food & Drink
Throwing Ourselves on the Grenade of Bad Food to Save You
Portland Transport Blog
A Conversation About Access & Mobility in the Portland/Vancouver Region
PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media -- and booksellers
Rambling West
The musings of a farmer with a typewriter and camera
Stumptown Confidential
Documenting Portland, Oregon architecture, history, and culture through photos, postcards, and words.
The Unauthorized Observer
Observations on faith, photography, trains, baseball, the city where I live (Fullerton, Calif.), anything that I find funny (a lot of things) or irritating (some things) and various incidents involving friends and family.
Under the Weather
...the open road, fatherhood, family life, music, railroads, photography, popular and unpopular culture, sex, violence, religion, the oppression of consumerism and capitalism and the general bullshit that makes up modern life.
Urban Planning Overlord
A blog to counter the myths, lies, and demagoguery others use against sound city planning to further their own ends, fair and foul - but also to urge the profession itself to pull back from the occasional wretched PC exces.
VanPortlander
Living in Vancouver; working in Portland. I have some thoughts.
Whiskey, Texas
...life and experiences in Texas and the Southwest. Recurring themes: Photography, railroads, fading ads / ghost signs, fallen-flag railroad logos, boxcars, bicycling, Texas music, pop culture, sports, road trips, literature, kids and family.
World Scott
The Travel Writing and Photography of Scott Lothes
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Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Review: The Night Journal
Labels: Book Reviews, Books, New Books, Railroads
The Night Journal: A Novel
By Elizabeth Crook. Viking/Penguin Group, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014; http://us.penguingroup.com/; 6.3 x 9.1 in; hardcover; 464 pages; $24.95
Few novels delve into the world of the railroad, and fewer still successfully; Elizabeth Crook has written not only a fine novel of the late 19th century railroad world, but a fine novel, period.
In the 1890s, Hannah Bass, a Harvey girl working a remote hotel in New Mexico meets, and then marries, a famous surveying engineer for the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, a man patterned after William Raymond Morley, the discoverer of Glorieta Pass. The political conflicts of pre-statehood New Mexico, the ever-expanding Santa Fe, and the disappearance of Hannah's husband all weave into a story in the present day, involving Hannah's granddaughter and her discovery of a legendary, long-missing journal written by Hannah.
With a well timed plot and interesting characters, the novel also contains one of the most gruesome and realistic potrayals of a steam-era train derailment. Crossing the genre border between mainstream historical fiction, mystery, and railroad literature, The Night Journal should be a pleasure to any reader of fiction.
The Night Journal is available from Powell's Books as well as from Amazon.com.
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Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Review: Leaders Count
Labels: Book Reviews, History, New Books, Railroads, Transportation
Leaders Count: The Story of the BNSF Railway
By Larry Kaufman. Texas A&M University Press, John H. Lindsey Building, Lewis Street, 4354 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4354; http://www.tamu.edu/upress/; 9.1 x 6.1 in; trade paperback; 384 pages,; $14.95
Once upon a time, there were dozens of so-called "class one" railroads across the American continent, wielding massive political power and reshaping the nation. Today, most of those companies are gone, thanks to a corporate consolidation craze that began prior to World War One and continues today. In the 21st century American west, there are now only two major railroads: Union Pacific, and the BNSF Railway. Leaders Count is the "official" corporate history of BNSF, published under contract by them and distributed by Texas A&M University.
The book divides into roughly three sections. The first deals with the history of the BN heritage companies through the 19th and early 20th centuries. The second portion deals with regulation, the forces leading up to the BN merger, and the early BN period. The last segment covers the BNSF railway, from formation through to the present.
The book has a reputation of being a hard hitting self-examination of the company, it's successes, and it's mistakes. By-and-large, Kaufman does a decent job of telling the corporate history, but from the beginning there is an undercurrent of BNSF and its heritage roads being on the side of angels, and rival companies such as Union Pacific (UP) being less than stellar. While there is some truth to UP having a greater number of scandals in its past, BNSF's heritage companies were hardly innocent either, especially the Northern Pacific.
Minor factual errors in the book make me question how much primary source research Kaufman actually did. Another example of his lack of deep research is his knee-jerk acceptance of conventional wisdom, especially regarding the demise of the Milwaukee's Pacific Extension.
The segments dealing with regulation tend to be wonkish, but the segments regarding the creation of BNSF predecessor Burlington Northern are as good as anything I've seen in print on the subject yet. The newer portions of the book cover the creation of BNSF well, but tend to gloss over differences between BNSF previous leaders such as Rob Krebs and Gerald Grinstein. It's clear this is the sanitized version of BNSF, told from a board room perspective, and meant not to offend anyone still around.
Kaufman closes his epilogue with text about BNSF today, sounding much like a company press release. While there's a lot of value to his final analysis of the future, you can't help but feel that it's not an unbiased view, despite his claim in the preface that the company had never exerted the slightest influence on what he wrote.
Why was this book written? About half-way through, it occurred to me that the book in many was resembles a text-book; I wonder if the company uses it in their Management Training Program? Leaders Count is printed in trade-paperback form, the same rough dimensions most Bibles are published in. Indeed there are two versions: a plain cover versions issued in 2003 -- likely largely used internally by the company -- and a version sold to the public with a photo cover. One wonders if there is also a red letter edition.
Leaders Count is certainly not unbiased, nor does it live up to it's reputation as a truly critical self-examination of company policy and leadership issues. That said, the book is probably the most concise corporate history on BNSF and it's predecessors. For anyone who wants to have one, comprehensive history text on these companies, this is it, and with used BNSF issued copies in paperback for about $5 a pop, it's a steal. Just be prepared to read; this is no picture book and it's no pulp novel either.
Leaders Count is available from Amazon. and from Powell's Books.
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