Well, as long as this thread was refreshed with a rather mindless message (which we deleted), let me suggest three railroad books that would make very good Christmas presents:

• Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong (2d ed.), by Norm Cohen - the ultimate book of railroad songs
  
• Treasury of Railroad Folklore by B.A. Botkin - out of print, but readily available used
  
• Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 by Stephen E. Ambrose - panned by some critics, but it does a good job of telling the story of the building of the transcontinental railroad, the tracks that run right past my house.

And in searching for thes books, I see that Arcadia Publishing has a new Images of Rail series. Arcadia has published countless books of high-quality historic photographs, charting the history of the neighborhoods of America - I can't see how they can make money publixhing such limited-market books, but they must be doing something right.
-Joe-