A video blog with background on the inspiration to be an author, and overcoming nay-sayers
As Thanksgiving and the Christmas shopping season approaches, just a reminder that the 2nd run (MoPac cover) of this critically acclaimed hard-cover book is still available! 224 pages with over 500 all-color photos from 1946-1986. $48+$5 shipping. Contact Don Banwart, Sekan Printing, donald@sekan.com, or 620 223-5190, option 1
For a free, 18-page PDF preview, go to the Rails Around Missouri page above.
Along this latest journey to producing another book, I’m discovering stories of people whose slide collections were lost or discarded after the photographer’s passing – their survivors were not told about the collections or what to do with them. So with that in mind, I am stating that I am actively seeking railroad slide/photograph collections, for both preservation and possible publication at some point in the future. The books I produce are based on personal interest, and after the current Indiana & southern Illinois books, my ultimate goals are rare mileage & ghost railroads, and a book on pre-Amtrak passenger trains, from steam & early diesel era to the last single-car, coach-only service across weedy-wobbly tracks.
After receiving over 330 images so far, we have found our best candidate for the cover of Rails Around Indiana. Nothing says Indiana as much as the Monon, and here Monon 518 leads a southbound past the Gosport depot in the late 60s. Photo by Tony Koester. Unless something else comes in that really blows us away, this is the cover shot.
In 1979 the L&N still had 2 yards in Evansville: the former C&EI Wansford yard and the L&N Howell yard. On 2-17-79, L&N power idles at the steam-era engine facility inside Wansford yard. Photo by Scott Muskopf.
Slides are rolling in, but we’re still searching for more. Areas needed are surprisingly the Indianapolis area, northeast Indiana, and deep southern Indiana. If you have images you’d be interested in lending to this project, please contact me @ 314 809-9310, atsf101@hotmail.com, or contact Dave Crisler of Greenwood, IN, david.crisler.jr@gmail.com.