Passenger Trains > William Middleton book on New York's Penn Station

I am thinking about buying William Middleton's book, Manhattan Gateway: New York's Pennsylvania Station published by Kalmbach in the mid-1990s.  If any of you have this book, I'd appreciate knowing yout thoughts about it.

If you have recommendations for other books about Penn Station in New York, feel free to suggest them.  I have Lorraine Diehl's The Late, Great Pennsylvania Station.

Thank you.

Haven't read it but can it NOT be good? Everything he did was top drawer.

RuleG Wrote:
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> I am thinking about buying William Middleton's
> book, Manhattan Gateway: New York's Pennsylvania
> Station published by Kalmbach in the mid-1990s. 
> If any of you have this book, I'd appreciate
> knowing yout thoughts about it.
>
> If you have recommendations for other books about
> Penn Station in New York, feel free to suggest
> them.  I have Lorraine Diehl's The Late, Great
> Pennsylvania Station.
>
> Thank you.

There are some really good histories of development of Penn Station and the tunnels under the Hudson and East Rivers that were needed to connect it to New Jersey and Long Island.  
Conquering Gotham, by Jill Jones was published in 2008 and is still in print in paperback. 

The Port of New York is a 2 volume work by Carl Condit, published by the University of Chicago Press. 

Volume 1 of The Port of New York  published in 1980 =24px !importantThe Port of New York. A History of the Rail and Terminal System from the Beginnings to Pennsylvania Station (Volume 1) Volume 2, published in 1981,  is subtitled : =24px !importantThe Port of New York: A History of the Rail and Terminal System from the Grand Central Electrification to the Present (Port of New York, Volume 2)
They are available on Amazon and elsewhere.  They cover much more than just the stations. 

"Conquering Gotham" by Jill Jonnes.

Jonnes is probably the right spelling -- for sure Jones isn't.

I have the Manhattan Gateway book. Bought it and read it over 20 years ago. It's a solid book for a generally high level overview history of the station and its construction. There are other books that dive deeper into the architecture and history of the station and the railroad. The author remains neutral regarding controversy surrounding the station (i.e. he does not comment on some design issues of the original, its destruction, etc.). The book is a bit dated with its publishing in 1996 so the writings about what the future may hold for the station are from a mid-90's point of view. My personal negatives about the book: the lack of track diagrams, a few too many pictures of the station that can be found in any history book about the PRR, and there are barely any pictures showing trains in the station itself (most photos of PRR trains are either in Queens/Sunnyside or New Jersey/Manhattan Transfer). Otherwise it is a good book for a basic history of the station.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/24 18:19 by DJLRailProductions.

Thank you for your replies.

PaTrainFan Wrote:
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> Haven't read it but can it NOT be good? Everything
> he did was top drawer.

See the post above this one.

The Pennsy Triumph book on the Penn Station construction is pretty good. Lots of rivet <edited>   level details.

Posted from Android

Pennsy Triumph Vol 5, by Messer and Roberts   (north of Philly to NY Penn)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/25 06:31 by Lackawanna484.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> The Pennsy Triumph book on the Penn Station
> construction is pretty good. Lots of river level
> details.
>
> Posted from Android

Thank you!

All of Middleton's books are good.

In addition to those mentioned, another good book is https://www.libib.com/u/grether?solo=62180313 Penn Station it's Tunnels and Side Rodders by Fred Westing.  Part of it is a reprint of a 1912 book and part of it is the history of the DD-1 locomotive and how it made Penn Station possible.

Brian Cudahy's Rails Under the Mighty Hudson is another good one, but focused more on the North River tubes - https://www.libib.com/u/grether?solo=69119855

There are other more architectural books on Penn I have in my collection which I can share the details of if anyone is interested.