Dining on Rails by Richard W. Luckin (1983, Paperback, Revised)

I purchased this book several years ago right here on Ebay. It really is a comprehensive guide to railroad dining car china. Author Richard Luckin has pages dedicated to those that helped with the book. He obviously did much research to be historically accurate. If you are a collector of any sort & buy books on what you collect you know that the pictures are all important. We want to be able to see actual pictures of the treasures. Luckin has filled this over 475 page book with photographs. I think it is the most comprehensive collection you will find. A good deal of the pictures are in black & white with about 67 pages of full color pictures. Many show pictures of actual pieces, plates, bowls, cups, some are just of the topmark or railroad logo, or close up of design. He covers every North American Railroad you can think of & also offers a bit of information & photos on some foreign dinnerware. You will find examples of dining car china from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, Chesapeake & Ohio, Chicago Rock Island & Pacific, Florida East Coast, Illinois Central, Denver & Rio Grande, New York Central, Southern Pacific, & even the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley! There is a section on reproductions that will help you not to pay top dollar for a non authentic piece. You will also find information on Fred Harvey patterns and other railroad owned restaurants. Luckin gives you a history of Railroad China, list of manufacturers along with a brief description of the companies. The date codes & back stamp section will help you more easily to date & identify your pieces. The CHINA SIZES & CHARACTERISTICS section is very helpful. Sometimes you are not sure if this piece is a pickle dish, jelly dish, dessert dish or what?? He gives sizes, shapes & distinguishing characteristics that will help you identify what you actually have. I also like the fact that sprinkled throughout the book are actual vintage photographs of dining cars & railroad advertisements. I find those interesting. Luckin rates all the pieces on a rarity scale of 0 - 5 stars. Zero being not rated & 5 stars being very rare. Of course a book of this size & content is not going to be cheap. I think it is well worth the investment if you plan on collecting or selling railroad dining car china. The very day after I received the book I went to an estate sale & found 2 Union Pacific Columbine dinner plates. Besides having a picture of the plate in the book, Luckin also shows 2 vintage ads. One is an advertisement for Syracuse China that gives the story of the design. Luckin rates this design at 3 stars. I sold the plates on Ebay for $1300 so I made my purchase price back on the book. I have used it many times over since then also. If you purchase the book I hope you find it as useful as I have. Enjoy & happy searching for Railroad Dining car China!

This is an excellent reference for railroad china. It is an easy to follow book and well laid out. There are lots of pictures. I wish the pictures were in color, that would make it even better.
I bought the book because the price was right and I had been wanting it to reference some china. I borrowed the book from the library first to make sure it was what I needed ( I wanted the convenience of having this book at home instead of borrowing it). It is a very pricey book to buy new...even to buy used for that matter!...but worth it if you are interested in railroad china.