Reviews in the News
"Birmingham Rails" wins top review from Trains 
 
(February 1) - Trains Magazine, the most widely circulated railfan publication in North America, has selected "Birmingham Rails" as "Recommended Reading" in the March issue of the magazine's book review section. To read the review, please click on here.

Marketing Update
"Birmingham Rails" heading for an early sell-out
 
Following five months of stronger than expected sales, the limited edition of "Birmingham Rails" is almost 90% sold out, according to its publisher.

Co-author and publisher Marvin Clemons reports that since its release in August, more than 1,500 of the limited edition of 1,800 copies have been shipped. There are no plans for a second printing, he said. 

While the book is focused on the Birmingham railroad district, the majority of sales have been to out-of-state dealers and individuals. One reason for the book's popularity outside of Alabama, Clemons said, is the variety of rail lines that extended into Birmingham from other regions of the country, as well as the heavy concentration of industrial railroads.

The book has also done well at Birmingham bookstores. Milestone Books of Vestavia Hills reported that record sales of "Birmingham Rails" pushed the book to the store's #1 best-seller for six straight weeks. One Barnes & Noble's store reported selling 50 copies in just two weeks.

To see what readers are saying about "Birmingham Rails," please click on here.

Newspaper article features book co-authors

(October 11) - "Birmingham Rails" co-authors Marvin Clemons and Lyle Key have been featured in a recent article in The Birmingham News.

In a color spread entitled "Ridin' the Rails," News writer Kathy Kemp traces the authors' friendship from the early 1960's to the publication of "Birmingham Rails" more than 40 years later. The full article can be reviewed on the paper's website by clicking on here.

"Birmingham Rails" wins accolades from rail press and historial societies
 
(September 1) -- Members of the railfan press and historical preservation community are praising  "Birmingham Rails." Following are a few exerpts from several early reviews the book has received:

"Marvin Clemons and Lyle Key have done a marvelous job of crafting the ultimate pictorial story of Birmingham rail history. Their efforts take the story from earliest times to the modern era. Of all Southern cities to have had so many railroads and such an extensive network of lines, Birmingham deserves to have a volume of distinction like this one."  -- Jim Wrinn, Editor, Trains Magazine

"This book is a must for the thousands of Southern rail enthusiasts who, like me, were lured at an early age to Alabama's 'Magic City.' Both visually and verbally, this volume is destined to become the premier reference source regarding what non-Southerners have often called the 'Pittsburgh of the South'." --  J. Parker Lamb, President, Railway & Locomotive Historical Society

"Much of Birmingham's colorful railroad history would have been lost if not for this book. The authors bring to life an era when steel mills, steam, and early diesels made Birmingham go." -- Don Phillips, Railroad and Aviation Journalist

"Birmingham Rails" is the first publication devoted exclusively to pictorial coverage of the Birmingham railroad district in the mid-20th century. Co-authors Marvin Clemons and Lyle Key both grew up in Birmingham during the railroads' "last golden era" after World War II, and their collaboration provides a detailed and colorful account of Birmingham railroads over three decades culminating with the coming of Amtrak in the early 1970's.