All Aboard With E.M. Frimbo: World's Greatest Railroad Buff (Kodansha Globe) [Paperback]

Rogers E. M. Whitaker (Author), Tony Hiss (Author), Mark Livingston (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Kodansha Globe | Publication Date: April 1997

Having traveled nearly three million miles by rail, E.M. Frimbo was the world's greatest railroad buff. His vast knowledge of the world's railway systems and their unique histories made "All Aboard with E.M. Frimbo" a classic of travel literature--now reissued after being out of print for more than ten years. 32 line drawings & photos.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Rogers E. M. Whitaker was a longtime reporter for the New Yorker, specializing in "Talk of the Town" pieces. He was also an expert on railroads, and spent most of his non-working time riding trains. Eventually he began contributing pieces about his rail journeys to the magazine, under the pseudonym "E. M. Frimbo." For decades his diligent reporting and sparkling prose glorified trains and destinations. In this collection, assembled by Whitaker's New Yorker colleague Tony Hiss, the reader is taken on rail trips throughout the United States as well as on excursions through Switzerland, Wales, and Siberia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha Amer Inc; Expanded edition (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568361149
• ISBN-13: 978-1568361147
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,049,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An infectiously enjoyable ode to the joys of train travel, April 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: All Aboard With E.M. Frimbo: World's Greatest Railroad Buff (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

I was the editor of the greatly expanded 1997 edition of this railroading classic of the 1970s. E.M. Frimbo was the alter ego of Whitaker, a writer who spent more than 50 years at the New Yorker, one of the original coterie that included A.J. Liebling, Joseph Mitchell, and others. Beginning in the 1940s, Frimbo began chugging through the pages of the magazine, right up to and beyond Whitaker's death in the early 1980s. In the 1960s, Tony Hiss had come along and become Whitaker's collaborator on these travel essays. When Hiss began to assemble this new edition, he discovered many pieces that were not in the earlier edition, so the book grew by 50%, and includes many photos of Whitaker never published before. Hiss unearthed such articles as one about the railway in Wales that travels through the Potemkin village where the classic TV show "The Prisoner" was filmed, and a final tribute to Whitaker, appropriately mounted to him at Cumbres Pass, the highest elevation in the USA reached by a train. If you have affection for the open (rail)road, then you will love this book.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book for all ages, June 11, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Newton, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All Aboard With E.M. Frimbo: World's Greatest Railroad Buff (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

I read this book as an 11 year old boy, and still remembered it over all these years as a wonderful railroading book. It really captured the glamour and joy of passenger rail travel in those days.

And I was excited and thrilled when I met Tony Hiss by chance on the Boston-NYC shuttle, and he told me that the book had been reissued and was available on Amazon. I (virtually) ran right out and purchased it...as much for my 9 year old (also a rail fan) as for myself.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All Aboard with E.M. Frimbo: World's Greatest Railroad Buff, December 8, 2010

By 

Kakapo - See all my reviews

This review is from: All Aboard With E.M. Frimbo: World's Greatest Railroad Buff (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

This is much more than a delightful book on how rail travel use to be (and still can be). The hidden message that threads through Rogers E.M. Whitaker's writing is a wonderful philosophy on travel for the sake of travel. So many of us miss the point of making a trip and this book soon reveals that the secret is to make the most of the motion and simply enjoying the ride. Travel should not be seen as a means to an end...it is the opposite. Whitaker takes us back to another time when rail travel carried a certain romance with a bit of adventure. We should not simply fly over space to reach a destination; we should take the train as it is the destination itself. Whitaker's philosophy is seductive and it is still possible to replicate Whitaker's love of rail travel and the experiences he had. I recently took a trip round trip across America and found Whitaker's world of rail travel was still alive. As an example, I made a trip on Amtrak's 'The Crescent' from Charlottesville, Virginia to Atlanta, Georgia. When my Amtrak train pulled into the station in Charlottesville, I was thoroughly surprised when my car stopped in front of me, the steward opened the door and greeted me by name and welcomed me aboard! What followed was caring, meticulous service where I felt I was traveling in my own private car. Or, there was the sector on the Empire Builder from Chicago to Portland and somewhere in Montana we were invited to a game of trivia and a wine tasting party in the dining car that ended up being a couple of hours of laughter and good times with people you did not know. This was Frimbo's travel world (no airline does this!). It is such a wonderful, fun book where one can lose one's self as a time traveler and escape the monotony of rushed travel and TSA security agents. It can be opened at any chapter and you are immediately shunted into a relaxed world of how travel is meant to be enjoyed. Well edited by Tony Hiss. A must for all travelers including those who just prefer to make the trip in an armchair. Frimbo's world of rail travel is a secret to be re-discovered and this book is the gateway.