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About this Book:

Yesteryear's 12 original pen and ink drawings (printed from kodolithic negatives) bring alive the lure of railroad shop life and the long gone world of steam railroading. An additional 18 sketches focus on Wisconsin interurbans. The author binds them together in a web of his personal experiences that captures that long ago time. Introducing a drawing of engine 842, Dennett writes, "With bell ringing, headlight generator shining, air pump thumping, and with the blower partly on, the 842 is dirty and dangerous . ." There is much to be learned from one man's memories of railroading in the '30s and '40s. The book is made so that readers open one side to read about railroads and turn it over and open the other side to read about trolley cars.

About the Author:

Hugh F. Dennett grew up near the railroad yards of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad (the Milwaukee Road) and was fascinated by steam locomotives and shop work from early childhood. His first railroad job, as a teenager, was acting as a fireman on the Milwaukee-Chicago mail train. He made the 2 1/2 hour run every day after school. Mr. Dennett assembled these illustrations and his memoir in 1972 after retiring from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he taught Industrial Engineering.

Book Review:

Hugh F. Dennett captures the imagination with his memories of railroading and interurbans. Steam railroad shop work was dangerous, challenging, sometimes thrilling. He brings it all to life in his drawings and their accompanying texts. He also documents the evolution of electric streetcars and the often amusing difficulties they created for motormen, passengers, and repairmen. The book is set up in an old-fashioned way so that it can be read either from the back (interurbans) or the from the front (steam engines). If you'd like to experience a bit of "the way it was," Yesteryear is for you.

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