Description
Book SynopsisBeautifully illustrated with dozens of vintage photographs, The Station Agent and the American Railroad Experience, brings back to life the day-to-day experience of the station agent and captures the evolution of railroad operations through as technology advanced.
Trade Review"Roger Grant deftly combines detailed historical research and highly engaging prose in a superb account of the lives and responsibilities of the station agents that were at the heart of every community in small-town America."—Albert J. Churella, Kennesaw State University
"Roger Grant has opened the arcane and little understood world of the railroad station agent (and telegrapher and operator) in this fine study of an integral part of railroad operations. Overshadowed by locomotive engineers and railroad conductors, the station agent was the "face" of the railroad in thousands of communities and Roger has done a terrific job of explaining their role in American railroading and how they kept trains moving."—Thomas G. Hoback, Founder, President and CEO, Indiana Rail Road (Retired)
"Numerous books have been written about railroad station architecture, but finally we have an excellent social history that focuses on the station agent, who even more than onboard passenger train crews represented the public face of the railroad. Another winner from Roger Grant."—Carlos A. Schwantes, St. Louis Mercantile Library Professor Emeritus
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
1. Formative Years
2. Maturity: Essentials
3. Maturity: Complexities
4. Decline
Notes
Bibliography
5. Legacy
Index
