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Rating: 
Summary: More blunted than streamline.
Review: What a neat idea to produce a paperback that relates the tales of folk who were actually passengers on the great streamliners of the past. Author Mike Schafer managed to cover a lot of miles (and consume plenty of food in the dining cars too) on these trains and his travels take up most of the text, various side-bars give others a chance to tell of their streamline rail adventures. All very interesting but what let the book down for me (apart from the bland predictable layout) was the poor picture selection and the quality of those chosen, too many are soft-focus, blurred, or not really relevant In the acknowledgement the author praises Bob Johnson for having the foresight to photograph the interiors of these trains but his photos are no better than snaps that belong in a photo album and not really good enough to appear in print. If they had to be used maybe a couple of spreads made to look like a scrapbook with hand-written comments would have solved the problem. I think the best visual items in the book are the brochure covers and ads put out by the railroads to promote their trains. If you are interested in streamline trains the author (and Joe Welsh) have produced much better books, I would suggest `Classic American Streamliners', 160 pages, or best of all, `The Art of the Streamliner' a hardcover 144 page book which (amazingly) costs not much more than `Streamliner Memories'.
Rating:
Summary: More blunted than streamline.
Review: What a neat idea to produce a paperback that relates the tales of folk who were actually passengers on the great streamliners of the past. Author Mike Schafer managed to cover a lot of miles (and consume plenty of food in the dining cars too) on these trains and his travels take up most of the text, various side-bars give others a chance to tell of their streamline rail adventures. All very interesting but what let the book down for me (apart from the bland predictable layout) was the poor picture selection and the quality of those chosen, too many are soft-focus, blurred, or not really relevant In the acknowledgement the author praises Bob Johnson for having the foresight to photograph the interiors of these trains but his photos are no better than snaps that belong in a photo album and not really good enough to appear in print. If they had to be used maybe a couple of spreads made to look like a scrapbook with hand-written comments would have solved the problem. I think the best visual items in the book are the brochure covers and ads put out by the railroads to promote their trains. If you are interested in streamline trains the author (and Joe Welsh) have produced much better books, I would suggest 'Classic American Streamliners', 160 pages, or best of all, 'The Art of the Streamliner' a hardcover 144 page book which (amazingly) costs not much more than 'Streamliner Memories'.
Rating: 
Summary: Great memories
Review: What a pleasant surprise to get this book home and discover that it is written by a true lover of trains! Wonderful pictures accompany intersting stories about the author's experiences as a train fanatic. The section covering the Illinois Central and its Land o Corn reminded me of my childhood and the magic of taking the train from Rockford to Chicago for the day. I this the book is worth the price for the photographs but I also think it's worth the price for the narative. Highly recommended.
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