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Erie Lackawanna Memories the Final Years by Preston Cook w/ Dust Jacket 1987
Erie Lackawanna Memories the Final Years by Preston Cook
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
Copyright 1987
127 Pages
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Forward 5
Perspective 6
Introduction 8
I Marion, Ohio and the West End 11
II Midnight at Marion 50
III Marion to Hornell 63
IV The East End 82
V The End of the Line 105
VI The Electric Encore 110
Epilogue 121
Appendix 124
The audience was completely captivated as the images paraded across the screen. E-units hammering the diamond at Marion to a soundtrack of a Sousa march ... an RS3 silhouetted in the nocturnal fog to the haunting beat of a contemporary movie theme ... a quintette of Alcos belching smoke to the cannonades of the "1812 Overture." Preston Cook was putting on his automated audio/ visual "Erie Lackawanna Show" for the Jersey Central Chapter NRHS.
These slides were far too good to be enjoyed by only the select few who were fortunate enough to be within reach of a railroad club show. I had been trying to interest Preston in doing a book for some time, but the right combination of publisher and layout artist never quite seemed to come together. Never, that is, until I learned that Don McFall was looking for material for a full color book. It is with considerable pride that I can say that I suggested Cook to McFall and McFall to Cook. You hold the results in your hands.
With this book, the fleeting images of the screen can linger forever, though you'll have to fill in your own soundtrack. The chapters in this book approximate the arrangement of that slide show, although there have been some changes and additions to make the subject matter better suit the printed page. But the color, the drama and impact of Preston's coverage of the Erie Lackawanna comes through undiminished.
Preston Cook is a fascinating individual on several counts. He is first-off an Erie Lackawanna fan. Not an Erie fan and not a Lackawanna fan, but a true ERIE LACKAWANNA fan. He has covered the system from Chicago to Hoboken and knows it from operation to motive power and from gondola car lettering details to the delicate colors of the Canisteo Valley in the morning mists. He has the technical knowledge of a professional railroader combined with the sensitive eye of an accomplished photographer. His enthusiasm for the EL is infectious.
Preston's photography is an unusual mix of rigid conservatism and stunning artistic insight. While he demands nearly perfect lighting conditions for daytime photography - I doubt you'll find more than a handful of cloudy-day shots in this entire book he is quick to recognize and capture the particular charm of sunsets and fog and the unlimited mysteries of the night. While a dull gray overcast will keep the cameras in the car and send him to the laundromat with a good book, a rainy night will find him protecting the cameras with an umbrella while splashing around a muddy railroad yard madly throwing flashbulb bursts into the gloom. He loves the extremes, sunlight and dark, but cannot abide with a grubby day.
This book and his slide show are typical of Preston's approach to the hobby. He limits his topics to those things in which he is truly interested and then dives in to a depth few would truly understand. (Take diesel locomotive drawings, for instance, as in "plans" in model railroad magazines. Over the past decade Preston almost singlehandedly set a new level of standards for published plans of diesel locomotives. No longer would it be acceptable to simply copy the inaccurate "general arrangement drawings" supplied by the manufacturers. Preston set a new level of accuracy with carefully photo-documented studies that acknowledged all the variations and invariably showed both sides in full detail.) His audio/ visual Erie Lackawanna slide show demonstrated an early understanding and mastery of the art. With the logic of an engineer he defined the project, evaluated the available equipment and put the whole package together in a remarkably short time-and then went on to describe the whole process in guest CAMERA BAG columns in the May and July 1986 RAILFAN & RAILROAD.
To me, the Erie Lackawanna was one of the more interesting railroads that came into Chicago, where I did much of my early railfanning in the 1960s. In 1971 I moved to New Jersey and lived and worked within earshot of the old Erie mainline. In between, I photographed the EL pretty much from end to end. I saw the U25Bs in factory-fresh paint at State Line Tower and watched the endless parades of "3600s" howling through Ramsey and Suffern. I know the sound of E8s urging a mile of dead freight out of Huntington, Indiana, and the chant of F-units on the "Bloom."
And I know what Marion, Ohio looked like at night and how the Dayton train see-sawed through town. But I was only in Marion on one or two occasions and don't recall ever taking a night shot there. "My" Marion memories are through Preston Cook's slides seen in numerous railfan gatherings over the years. My Erie Lackawanna memories are more extensive than my personal experiences, thanks to Preston Cook.
May this book do the same for you.
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