Katy in the Streamlined Era Hardcover – May 19, 2025

The Missouri-Kansas-Texas, never a rich railroad, could make a little do a lot, making you think(perhaps correctly) that its trains were as good and maybe better than those of any otherrailroad. Its masterpiece, the streamlined red-and-silver Texas Special, was stunningly attractivewhen introduced in May 1948. People boarded Katy trains just to eat a great meal. A generationof Texas schoolchildren rode its special trains to Austin and San Antonio.Then the cracks began to show. The Texas Special couldn’t meet its schedule, and heavyweightcars were added that marred its streamlined appearance. Drought sapped revenues, causingtrack and equipment repairs to be deferred. A downward spiral began that would last for years.In 1965, the MKT quit the passenger business.This is the remarkable and untold story of Katy’s passenger trains after World War II. Visit thekitchens of its dining cars, meet the people who ran the railroad, ride its many special trains,revisit the tragedies that occurred and follow the slow and then rapid decline of a once-impressive fleet of trains. It’s all here, told by a veteran journalist with access to a wealth ofdetail never before published. Plus, passenger locomotive and car rosters and scores of trainconsists from the golden era. Read more