Kansas City Southern In Color by Jim Boyd
The Era of Streamlined Hospitality 1940-1970.
Kansas City Southern was one of the first railroads to operate a real
non-articulated diesel-powered streamliner when it introduced the Southern Belle
in 1940. Over the next 30 years the image and spirit of Streamlined Hospitality
defined the railroad.
The KCS and L&A (Louisiana and Arkansas) were created, merged and operated by
men with strong ideas and personalities. It was never a conformist, heading
south when everyone else was scrambling westward and embracing the concept of
long, slow freights when everyone else was focusing on high speed service. The
KCS should have been a dead duck by the 1970s, but it made its way to the 21st
century as a major independent player in the railroad merger game. Its most
colorful era, however, were those 3 fascinating decades illustrated herein.
Even though this is an In Color book, there are a number of b&w steam and diesel
photographs in addition to color photographs. Also included are maps and
timetable reproductions plus more text than commonly seen in Morning Sun titles.
Contents:
A Tale of Three Railroads: The KCS, LR&N and L&A, pp. 6-23;
KCS Steam Power, pp. 24-27;
Dieselizing the KCS, The Southern Belle, New Geeps, pp. 28-77;
A New Generation (Diesels), pp. 78-96;
The Last Colorful Decade, pp. 97-122;
The Future Looks Gray, pp. 123-128.
Publisher: Morning Sun Books
Hard cover with jacket, 128 pages
8.5 x 11 x .5 in., all color photographs with captions.