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review in brief: Hard coal and coal cars: hauling anthracite on the New York, Ontario, & Western Railway. By Martin Robert Karig, III. Scranton, Penns ...

review in brief: Hard coal and coal cars: hauling anthracite on the New York, Ontario, & Western... cultural geographies 14(2) Hard coal and coal cars: hauling anthracite on the New York, Ontario, & Western Railway. By Martin Robert Karig, III. Scranton, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2006. 220 pp. £35.00 cloth. ISBN 1 58966 120 6. This book is more a history of technology than a work of geography. Most of the con- tent documents the evolution of cars used to haul anthracite coal on one regional rail- road in the northeastern United States. Nonetheless, the author recognizes that the story of the O&W’s rail cars only makes sense in the context of the places those cars were used, so provides some detail on the institution for which they were created and the locations coal was mined, hauled, and burned. As a technological document, the book is richly detailed and provides the kind of minutia that can make waiting for a train to pass at a grade crossing entertaining. In the same way that a guide to vernacular architecture can enrich a walk through even the most ordinary neighborhood, knowing the intricacies of car design and markings can make a line of rail cars reveal stories of how and why they were built. The author admits that the material he offers on the railroads themselves and the history of 19th century industrial development was something of an afterthought, added to round out the story of railroad cars. The book describes the relationships between the mines, the topography over which coal had to be moved, and the industrial development that demanded, and later rejected, anthracite as a fuel. Some fascinating topics of industrial organization receive short treatments. Canals were precursors to railroads, even in the hilly country of northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York, and served both to open markets for coal and establish rights- of-way over which railroads later ran. A consideration of the relationship between canal companies and railroads, both spatially and organizationally, would add to the history of the O & W. Investments to establish the railroad came from British investors, suggesting the possibility of a worthwhile consideration of international flows of cap- ital. Expansion of the O & W’s fleet of cars was financed by means of car trusts, also supported substantially by British investors, yet the book provides no details on the structure of these investment tools or why they were preferred over other financial arrangements. Nor does the book delve deeply into the issues of public policy that swirled around the railroad industry over the life of the O&W. Accounts of anti-trust legislation, organized labor, and workplace safety regulation are all subordinate to the story of the rail cars themselves. DAVE MCDERMOTT The University of Kansas Centre for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Cultural Geographies SAGE

review in brief: Hard coal and coal cars: hauling anthracite on the New York, Ontario, & Western Railway. By Martin Robert Karig, III. Scranton, Penns ...

McDermott, Dave
Cultural Geographies , Volume 14 (2): 1 – Apr 1, 2007
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Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
Copyright © by SAGE Publications
ISSN
1474-4740
eISSN
1477-0881
DOI
10.1177/14744740070140020902
Publisher site
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Abstract

cultural geographies 14(2) Hard coal and coal cars: hauling anthracite on the New York, Ontario, & Western Railway. By Martin Robert Karig, III. Scranton, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2006. 220 pp. £35.00 cloth. ISBN 1 58966 120 6. This book is more a history of technology than a work of geography. Most of the con- tent documents the evolution of cars used to haul anthracite coal on one regional rail- road in the northeastern United States. Nonetheless, the author recognizes that the story of the O&W’s rail cars only makes sense in the context of the places those cars were used, so provides some detail on the institution for which they were created and the locations coal was mined, hauled, and burned. As a technological document, the book is richly detailed and provides the kind of minutia that can make waiting for a train to pass at a grade crossing entertaining. In the same way that a guide to vernacular architecture can enrich a walk through even the most ordinary neighborhood, knowing the intricacies of car design and markings can make a line of rail cars reveal stories of how and why they were built. The author admits that the material he offers on the railroads themselves and the history of 19th century industrial development was something of an afterthought, added to round out the story of railroad cars. The book describes the relationships between the mines, the topography over which coal had to be moved, and the industrial development that demanded, and later rejected, anthracite as a fuel. Some fascinating topics of industrial organization receive short treatments. Canals were precursors to railroads, even in the hilly country of northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York, and served both to open markets for coal and establish rights- of-way over which railroads later ran. A consideration of the relationship between canal companies and railroads, both spatially and organizationally, would add to the history of the O & W. Investments to establish the railroad came from British investors, suggesting the possibility of a worthwhile consideration of international flows of cap- ital. Expansion of the O & W’s fleet of cars was financed by means of car trusts, also supported substantially by British investors, yet the book provides no details on the structure of these investment tools or why they were preferred over other financial arrangements. Nor does the book delve deeply into the issues of public policy that swirled around the railroad industry over the life of the O&W. Accounts of anti-trust legislation, organized labor, and workplace safety regulation are all subordinate to the story of the rail cars themselves. DAVE MCDERMOTT The University of Kansas Centre for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets

Journal

Cultural Geographies – SAGE

Published: Apr 1, 2007

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