Customer Reviews

Guide to North American Railroad Hot Spots (Railroad Reference Series)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I like this book very much. It has all the information I needed for planning a trip to some hot spots. Besides that it has beautiful color photos as well and therefore it is a pity that the paper is rather thin and the size rather small.
But OK, the book had to be a guide in the first place and therefore limited in size and weight, but the book is also nice to watch the pictures.

Fairly complete on where the location is how to get there. Is some-what complicated, although they also inform you exactly where to go (public parking on south side of street). There are two sections dealing with location: 'Directions' and 'Remarks'. The directions are complicated at best but, they make up with the remarks section. However, the directions are listed towards the begining of the article and remarks are towards the end. Should have had them next to each other.
Liked the fact that they give you what you are likely to see, when to see it, and how often you are likely to see the trains. Also, liked that they give you radio scanning codes, places to eat and things to do, close by.
HATED the fact that they could not make up their mind as to wether use page numbers or the 'hot spot' number. The 'hot spot' table of contents lists the spots according to alpha state and gives the page number. No indication as to what the 'hot spot' number is. Then you turn to the map page, and everything there is listed by 'hot spot' number, NO page numbers. So, you are left thumbing through the whole book anyways, trying to find the dang 'hot spot' number. Even then the 'hot spot' number is listed on the inside of the odd numbered pages so you can NOT see the 'hot spot' number. And like I said the table of contents lists only the page so there is NO WAY to associate the page to the 'hot spot' number. VERY DUMB. Map should have used page numbers.
Also, kinda small in size but, i guess that is so you can store the book in your glove box for traveling.

I like this book very much. It has all the information I needed for planning a trip to some hot spots. Besides that it has beautiful color photos as well and therefore it is a pity that the paper is rather thin and the size rather small.
But OK, the book had to be a guide in the first place and therefore limited in size and weight, but the book is also nice to watch the pictures.

This is a great guide with complete information for the railfan. It includes items such as how many trains to expect at the site, what types of trains, radio frequency the railroad is using to communicate, etc. I bought three of these books, one for me, and one for each of my adult sons to use while traveling, so that they can show my grandsons all about trains.

This book has most of the top US railfan watching sites listed with the necessary technical information. An invaluable guide.

I gave this book as a gift to an avid train watcher. He loves the details: directions, nearby places to eat and stay,radio frequencies best days to visit and average number of train per day. They talk about creating an updated version in the book, but I have not seen it on the market anywhere. When they do, I will buy it!

HOT SPOTS is a beautiful and useful book, but it has gotten a little long in the tooth since Kalmbach published it in 2001. Time for a revised edition IMHO.