In 1959-60, David Plowden recorded the last of Canadian Pacific Steam. Where did this work appear and is it available to-day?

There is a long article about Mr. Plowden in the Winter 2006 NRHS Bulletin (just released, they are slowly catching up). The cover features one of his photos from that work, but as far as I can tell, there is no info on whether or not this book is still available. I haven't tried looking on Abe's Books, Alibris or Googling Plowden yet.

David maintains his own website:
http://www.davidplowden.com

I *believe* the book you have in mind is "Farewell to Steam" from 1966; however, it covers steamboats as well as railroads--only pages 114 to 151 are locomotives, and most of those are indeed Canadian (with a few D&RGW ng, NP, and Reading Rambles thrown in for good measure).

I'd have to go back and find another copy of "A Time of Trains" from 1987 to double-check that book, though........

My dad brought me a battered copy of "Farewell to Steam" off the remainder table at the J. L. Hudson Co. in the late sixties. Along with Ron Ziel's "The Twilight of Steam Locomotives," it would not be too much to say it changed my life.

"Backwoods Railroads of the West" by Dick Steinheimer had its effect, too, but to this day, when I see the grease-covered driving wheels of PM 1225 (or a CP Pacific, or a lake steamer, or a grain elevator, or a barn, or a truss bridge, or anything in Duluth, Minnesota) I see a Plowden picture.

Mr. Plowden took some great shots of Great Northern 0-8 class Mikado's in the twilight of GN steam. Seeing those shots make me sad that one of the O8's was not preserved. But what I most remember Mr. Plowden for, even more than his great photography, is a story he wrote about a trip he took on a GN P-2 class 4-8-2. The 4-8-2 had been pulled out of storage to handle a mail train extra and David, who was working for the GN at the time, finagled his way up into the cab of the 4-8-2. His story of that trip is memorable, as a crabby old engineer had the Mountain roaring down the GN's right-of-way through a frigid Minnesota night. I wish I could remember the book that the story appeared in, but unfortunately, I can't. What I DO remember is that it was one of the great stories of why the steam locomotive grabbed the hearts of so many people.

Les