Hello Members! Have I got a treat for you!
I spent thirty minutes on the phone with none other than John Taibi today and we had a wonderful conversation. We talked about many things, but the main topics were the Railroading in the Stockbridge Valley Observer and his Northern Division Bridge & Building Department articles. To say I was delighted to speak with him is an understatement. It brought back a wealth of great memories of working with him on that series, going back to the late 90’s, and we have agreed to try and recreate some if not all of the articles on this site. John has written over 124 articles in total on the Northern Division and other parts of the O&W! He is the main reason we know so much information on a part of the NYO&W that is sometimes overlooked. He put the Northern Division front and center. The human aspects of his articles are unparalleled and the amount of research he does is phenomenal. He also interjects some humor in them which is always enjoyable.
Many of you new members are not aware of this so you will be in store for some fascinating articles. I posted twenty-five of them last night on the site and I hope you will get a chance to read them all.
So stay tuned for that but the other topic is this awesome Observer he put out for the Society back in 1994 that is long out of print. I tried to find copies of it on eBay and Amazon and was only to find one listing on Amazon. That is truly because no one wants to sell their copies of this book, it is coveted by many members and is a jewel in their O&WRHS Observer and railroading library.
To those that have a copy of this Observer you are going to want to take another look as John has revamped this book and added new material. This is the first time an Observer of this quality and magnitude has been posted on either website. It is 144 pages! Enjoy and please make sure to send your questions or comments to John at: [email protected].
Here is the link: Railroading in the Stockbridge Valley By John Taibi