Santa Fe to the Bay

By Patrick D. Flynn, photography by Gerry Salsig

At first glance, this is an album of the photography of the late Gerry Salsig. But is more than that. It is a labor of love, written by a friend who grew up with the photographer—testimony of an eye witness and his friends as they made a journey typical of that made by many of us who, while growing up, became fascinated with the railroad known as The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. Not only does it describe the innocence of several friends from the East Bay area of San Francisco as they began to explore their railroad world and experience the sights, sounds and people connected with it, but the author, Patrick D. Flynn—who later became a dispatcher employed by the Santa Fe—adds considerable depth from an insider’s point of view as to how Santa Fe operated the west end of the Second District of the Valley Division under time table and train-orders over a three-decade period beginning in the mid-1960s and on into the mid-1980s.  144 pages soft cover, 60 black and white and 188 color photos, 24 maps, timetable and operating ephemera.