Gary Ness' 3rd book to be released in Sept.

[downeastrailfan]

I had a chat with Gary at the Moncton show last weekend and he mentioned the third book in his series will be released this Sept. There will be a launch party in Wolfville. Date TBA.

[briantrainman]

That's great news. I am sure Gary could produce a new book every couple of years over the next decade and I would purchase every one.

[stem]

Agreed Brian. Massive time delay between volumes!

[Dan Conlin]

Gary Ness' book is out under the title "The Dominion Atlantic Railway 1894 -1994". I got my copy last week at the Book Mart in Halfax. It is published by Nimbus under their Images of our Past series. Like Gary's other books it is full of his thoughtful and well-informed interpretation of DAR photos and follows the history of the DAR comprehensively with many insights from retired DAR men. The book also brings things right up to the present covering the Windsor and Hantsport era right up to the shut-down in 2011. It has a nice satisfying length - 177 pages with photos on almost every page. Readers of his two other volumes of the DAR will find much about the book very familiar. Most of the photos and much of the text were already published in his two previous books. This new one sort of combines and updates them. However there some new-to-me and unpublished photos, notably a great panoramic of the Hantsport wharves, some nice shots of old DAR wooden passenger cars and two terrific shots of the inside of the DAR machine shop in Kentville. The photo quality is not as good as his old publisher, The British Railway Modellers of North America as the printing quality does not deliver the detail and sharp contrasts. I spotted a few errors, some photos attributed to Harold Jenkins that are actually by Edson Graham. There are several appendices, although the roster list lacks compared to Omer Lavallee's work of the roster info on the DAR-DPI by Jim O'Donnell. There is a good discussion on sources and a nice shout out to the DAR DPI. Hopefully the book will educate a new audience to the richness of the DAR. It is a must have for a DAR keener like me and a great item to put on the Christmas list for any Canadian railway fan.

Here's the publisher's page: http://www.nimbus.ca/Dominion-Atlantic- ... P6868.aspx

[SamuelMClark]

I was looking at his book today there at Chapters and it was a nice book better than the first two though he had some great photos in there that I wished he would share with the site. Also he did mention us as additional source as a place for people to go to get more information about the DAR, though he didn't actually put the URL into the reference just Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative which I thought was great as it's show's we're a great source for information on the DAR.

Going to tell Margaret she can get me his book for my birthday gift next month.

[stem]

Good plug!

[Paul Charland]

So another mystery... where is this double track curve Gary used as background for the cover?

Paul

[SamuelMClark]

That double track curve could be something he's just using for the poster for the book signing. The black and white image in the centre of the poster is the actual book cover of an engine in Kentville.

[stem]

Quite honestly I don't think there was any track let alone double as well kept as the one on the photo by the D.A.R.

Probably just a graphic artist who picked a stock photo.

Anybody going to the launch?

[Dan Conlin]

Love to go but I have family obligations in Halifax tonight.
I wondered if the double track image comes from the Bedford Sub along the basin, but the lack of alders or spruce trees in the background foliage makes me think it is some generic US trackside scene.
I will make enquiries.

Dan