Poor Captions

[NW Mailing List]

I think that the Arcadia books are kind of a paper version of  
Wikipedia - they rely entirely on the skill of the authors.  Many of  
the Arcadia books on transit and RRs in the SF Bay area (where I  
live) are well done, but they have been done by respected local  
names.  I doubt very seriously if the economics of publishing the  
small runs of such a wide range of books allows for much more than  
spell-checking.  However, without an outfit like Arcadia, many of the  
subjects of their books would never see print.

pete groom
On May 26, 2007, at 9:55 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:

Gordon

This seems to be the consistent method of all of that Arcadia (I  
think) books, horribly researched, inaccurate information, etc. etc.  
I never bought the first one, but have glanced through them. There is  
one on Blacksburg, if I recall correctly, that has a photo of a Class  
J in the snow, at Christiansburg, with a caption not far from saying  
it is coming up Main Street in Blacksburg!

It immediately turned me against a purchase of any of their books.

Ken Miller

On May 25, 2007, at 9:15 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:


> What has to take the cake for one of the worst railroad photo  

> captions ever appears on Page 68 of the Images of America book on  

> Bluefield, WV under a familiar publicity picture of the N & W's  

> Powhatan Arrow.  The second sentence of the caption reads:

>

> The Powhatan Arrow, the eastbound train, and Pocahontas, the  

> westbound train, ran day trips between Norfolk, Virginia, and  

> Cincinnati, passing the half-way point at Tip Top in Tazewell  

> County, Virginia.

> I don't have to tell Mailing Listers that the Powhatan Arrow and  

> Pocahontas were separate trains that each operated daily in both  

> directions, but I'll point out that Tip Top is on the Clinch Valley  

> branch, quite a ways from the mainline used by both trains.

>

> What is disturbing about such careless writing is that some day  

> this information may be taken as gospel by some historical  

> researcher perusing this book.

>

> Gordon Hamilton

> ________________________________________

> NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org

> To change your subscription go to

> http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list

> Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at

> http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/


________________________________________
NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
To change your subscription go to
http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/