Cape line photos or books?

Just wondering if anybody could give a recommendation for a good place to look for photos of the lines on the Cape. Interested in pics of things like DL-109s on passenger trains, but ESPECIALLY RS-3s (or anything else, but I only know for sure of RS-3s being used) on the Provincetown line, I know there are a couple of Bob's Photos books on the NH Old Colony lines, are these good sources of pics of trains on the cape or just a few. Again, while anything on the Cape is of interest, what I'm -really- looking for are pics of diesel-era freight EAST of Yarmouth... which seems to be a scarce subject (not surprisingly, of course).

Thanks!

Two books were published concerning railroads on Cape Cod:
Cape Cod Railroads by Robert M. Farson a hard cover book of several years ago, I do not know if it is still in print or not but
I rather doubt it. You might be able to find one from a railroad book dealer such as Ron's Books.
Railroads of Cape Cod and the Islands by Andrew Eldredge which is a soft cover Arcadia Book and I suspect it is still available
although I am not sure exactly where. You might check Ron's Book on this one too.
Both of these books do a good job in covering the territory that you are interested in.
Noel Weaver

Cape Cod Railroads was still in print as of 2007, as I found a new copy in a bookstore on Main St. in Nantucket that summer.

I was just out on the Cape at Wellfleet and was hoping to find anything on the line. There seemed to be a lot of old pictures in local history books but not much of the final years. I wish I'd had one of the above titles.
I hoped to bike the rail trail but didn't get to do much more than a mile or two in south Wellfleet. I did explore some of the railroad dike across Wellfleet harbor, which is not part of the rail trail and ends at private property on either end. Lots of rock fill, rotten trestle pilings but no spikes even though I looked really hard.
When did the last trains run to the Outer Cape? I kept seeing 1937 as the last date for passenger service. Freight into the 60s?

From the employee timetables in my collection, here is hopefully, the answers you seek:
Last year around passenger service to Provincetown was the timetable of April 25, 1937. The timetable of September 26, 1937 showed no passenger service. A new timetable came out on October 10, 1937 which showed one round trip six days
a week and this lasted through the remainder of 1937 and into 1938 with 7 day a week service during the summer until a
new timetable dated July 17, 1938 which showed no passenger service between Yarmouth and Provincetown.
After July 17, 1938 and it seemed strange to me that the trains would come off in the peak season there was no passenger
service until the summer of 1940 when the railroad ran one round trip a day six days a week from June 24, 1940 until
September 7, 1940.
From this it is very safe to say that the last regularly scheduled passenger train to Provincetown operated on September 7,
1940 although there was nearly a two year gap with no service.
As for freight operations to Provincetown:
The line showed in the timetable dated April 24, 1960 but in the timetable dated October 30, 1960 it had been cut back to
North Eastham so it was abandoned between North Eastham and Provincetown between April 24, 1960 and October 30, 1960.
This continued until the timetable of October 31, 1965 when it shows cut back to South Dennis so it was abandoned between
North Eastham and South Dennis during the period between April and October, 1965.
This was a fair amount of work and time but I have had an interest in the railroads of Cape Cod for many years.
Thankfully I had an opportunity to ride most of this territory except between South Dennis and Provincetown over the years.
Today I think it is a major shame that there is not passenger train service available between Boston and the Cape and
probably New York and the Cape as well.
Noel Weaver

Thanks for all the info! Given all the crazy traffic on 6, some kind of passenger rail, especially in the summer, makes a lot of sense but I don't know if it could coexist with the rail trail at this point. Also, everything north of Eastham must be chopped up into private property which must have happened between when that segment was abandoned and the rail trail project began. I wanted to explore that section of right of way but didn't want to deal with Lyme bearing ticks and property owners.

jaystreetcrr wrote:Thanks for all the info! Given all the crazy traffic on 6, some kind of passenger rail, especially in the summer, makes a lot of sense but I don't know if it could coexist with the rail trail at this point. Also, everything north of Eastham must be chopped up into private property which must have happened between when that segment was abandoned and the rail trail project began. I wanted to explore that section of right of way but didn't want to deal with Lyme bearing ticks and property owners.

I do not think passenger service beyond Hyannis/Yarmouth is justified and it certainally is not possible under the present
circumstances. Route 6 is not a bad road east of this area and the money would be better spent just restoring service to
Hyannis. There is probably much more justification in restoring passenger service to Falmouth and woods Hole but again
the track is gone so this is probably not possible.
Noel Weaver

Noel Weaver wrote: Today I think it is a major shame that there is not passenger train service available between Boston and the Cape and
probably New York and the Cape as well.
Noel Weaver

It is a shame indeed!! Amtrak had it and blew it, due to some bad decisions made during the summers when they were running it. They basically threw the market away

Noel Weaver wrote:Cape Cod Railroads by Robert M. Farson a hard cover book of several years ago, I do not know if it is still in print or not but
I rather doubt it. You might be able to find one from a railroad book dealer such as Ron's Books.
Railroads of Cape Cod and the Islands by Andrew Eldredge which is a soft cover Arcadia Book and I suspect it is still available
although I am not sure exactly where. You might check Ron's Book on this one too.
Both of these books do a good job in covering the territory that you are interested in.
Noel Weaver

I agree you can probably get both of these although it may take a little looking. The Nantucket bookstore referred to another post is, I think, Mitchell's.

There's also a DVD called New Haven Railroad in the 50's produced by
Greg Scholl with the help of the NHRHTA and available from the NHRHTA ( http://www.nhrhta.org) which contains some good color film footage shot out of a Budd RDC fantrip in 1953, all the way to P'town.

Also, there are a number of other color photo books about the New Haven, a number of which each contain a few photos of the Cape lines

Tom Curtin wrote:

Noel Weaver wrote: Today I think it is a major shame that there is not passenger train service available between Boston and the Cape and
probably New York and the Cape as well.
Noel Weaver

It is a shame indeed!! Amtrak had it and blew it, due to some bad decisions made during the summers when they were running it. They basically threw the market away

I don't think Amtrak "blew it". Massachusetts put up the funds to operate service to Hyannis and they mandated what would
operate. The train should have operated in the matter that the New Haven ran it back in the 50's and 60's. Daily service
with a Friday late PM departure from New York.
The last year was the worst example, deadhead equipment or a revenue train out of Boston to Providence and passengers
to and from New York had to change at Providence. It is no wonder that these trains ended after that terrible year.
Noel Weaver

Actually, Yes, Amtrak did blow it!!! Big time . . .

Massachusetts funded and "mandated" [good word, Noel] the service for --- I think --- 3 summers: 1986,87,88. Then being out of money, the state decided to discontinue funding it. Amtrak then announced that, since the market for this service had already been built up, they would continue running it on their own. What followed the next several summers was a series of bad decisions such as increased fares, schedule changes that made the service less desirable, and so on. I could go on with more examples. We owned a vacation home on the Cape in those years and I followed closely what was happening. Amtrak was handed a successful service by Massachusetts and threw it away. If I may quote the immortal words of the great ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (speaking to his dummy Mortimer Snerd) "How can you [i.e., Amtrak] be so stupid?"

On the books about Cape Cod railoads, check Ebay - Cape Cod Railroads pops up regularly.

...also both offered on Amazon...