New book: VIA Rail (a complete history)

A short while ago I ordered a new book on the history of VIA Rail from Chapters-Indigo. It arrived today.

After opening the package and looking at the cover (featuring VIA P42 911 leading a set of LRC cars) for a few minutes, I opened it up to the inside cover to find an excellent map of the early VIA routes entitled VIA Rail Canada - 1978-1981. To my surprise and amazement, the caption said "©2006 map illustration by Otto M Vondrak". Yes, railroad.net's very own Creative Director produced the maps used in the book. The inside back cover also features the map VIA Rail Canada - 1990-2007 and, maps VIA Rail Canada - 1981-1985 and VIA Rail Canada - 1985-1990 can be found on pages 108 and 111, all drawn by Otto.

While I haven't yet gotten to reading it, reviews of this book by various VIAphiles have been very positive, on both the text and the photography. One said "I think that the photographs alone are worth the price of the book!".

If you are interested in more...

• Title: VIA Rail
• Author: Christopher C. N. Greenlaw
• Publisher: Voyageur Press (MBI Publishing Company)
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7603-2529-2
  ISBN-10: 0-7603-2529-4

It's a good read! I enjoyed it. And yes, the maps are helpful - and also sad to see what service has been reduced to.

But I would still like to see some more in depth history of VIA Rail. VIA certainly had variety through the years - routes, equipment, service etc. The whole VIA and Rocky Mountaineer endeavor could be a neat chapter unto itself, or the once extensive VIA RDC service. The Skeena route got very little mention

Thanks for noticing the maps- at times, they were difficult to draw and still reflect the route changes. I got my copy last week, and I was impressed with the quality of the photos and the writing. I learned a lot about a subject I thought I already knew well.

-otto-