Along The Way

Blue Ridge Scenic

Trip guides are not unique at all; they started when the railroads began to stretch out into remote areas and they needed to provide visitor services and increase their revenue. Works such as Harpers New-York and Erie Rail Road Guide, of 1855 or Crofutt's Trans-continental Tourist Guide, of 1872 provided a view from the rails over the countryside, man-made bridges, and viaducts that had never been imagined before. Full of advertisements that helped cover the cost of production, they were usually sponsored by the railroad. Many years later, those guides open a window into what life was like back then. Long distance or day trips, those places were illustrated by wonderful art work along with a full description of each.

Back in 2007 I published “Along the Way”, a trip guide for the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway (BRSR) in the North Georgia Mountains where I was a volunteer. The strategy was to create a training document for other volunteers that contained history of the line, rail cars and classic railroad items with plenty of pictures. This paperback book became very popular as it was introduced to the public, sales averaged 3,000 a year. Over the last ten years I have made some changes and updated the pictures being to never waste any space. The current edition is available in the Blue Ridge giuf shop.

I began as early as 2005 creating a newsletter on a website. As the material grew it became apparent some could be fitted into a printed format. Lots of the original material was already researched and available. I divided the book into four sections; Introduction and History, Along The Way, The Consist, and Vintage Railroad.

This was the beginning of my railroad series of books. I added Railroading 101, 102 and 103 over the next several years and hope to extend the offer to help other railroads produce their own guides.

If you have never been in this part of the country you can read about it in my book.

About the Author