A new photo-laden book about Altoona’s railroad history may be one of the few positives to come out of the myriad cancellations in 2020.

Ken Kobus of Pittsburgh and Gary C. Rauch of Boulder, Colorado, recently published “The Pennsylvania Railroad’s Muleshoe, Horseshoe, Altoona and Beyond,” a 148 page, stitched, softcover, landscape-format book with 10 pages of text and more than 200 photos and maps, including many in color. Photographs range from the 1860s through the early 1970s.

Published by the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society, the book is available at https://prrths.org and will begin shipping Tuesday.

“The book is intended to be accessible to people of all degrees of interest in the subject, and so we did not assume a lot of prior knowledge,” Rauch stated in an email. “At the same time, as we and others dug into the subject further, bouncing questions around, and digging some more, what we came up with will be of interest even to very knowledgeable people, as well. I doubt that there are any people now alive who will not learn something new to them upon reading the book. Ken and I, and others, certainly learned (and figured out) many things that we did not previously know.”

Originally, Kobus had intended to put together a presentation for society members attending a conference in State College last spring. The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society has about 2,700 members and its mission is to further scholarly learning and interest in the Pennsylvania Railroad and preserving of technical, historical and practical information concerning the PRR, said Chuck Blardone, who edited the book and serves as editor of the society’s magazine, “The Keystone.”

“The book’s landscape format permitted reproduction of many sharp and clear images at a large scale,” Kobus said. “The bulk of images are from PRR company photos. This very well could be the seminal work about the Pennsylvania Railroad in Altoona.”

“It’s great,” said Pat McKinney of Altoona. “There’s a lot of info about Altoona and this provides additional information about the railroad lines that supported it in the surrounding area.”

Most importantly, the book provides context, said McKinney, 65, a retired track inspector and member of the society. “It’s a very good history of railroading in this area and the railroad lines.”

“Many people don’t know why lines were there and it goes back 100 years and explains it,” he said. “You can see how things have changed over time.”

McKinney provided photos from his extensive photograph collection as well as clarification and confirmation of factual details, he said. He is listed as a contributor in the book.

The book is organized in three sections:

— The branch line route from Petersburg through Hollidaysburg and Muleshoe Curve to Cresson.

— The Pittsburgh Division main line facilities around Cresson and Gallitzin, then following the road down the east slope to and through Horseshoe Curve to Altoona.

— The Middle Division, surveying the railroad’s massive shops and yards complex in Altoona, occupying an area between Slope Tower and Bell Tower.

Kobus, 72, a retired mechanical engineer who spent decades in the metallurgical coke industry in Pittsburgh, made innumerable trips to the Altoona area exploring its railroad history during the past several decades.

“Part of what compelled me to do this, is that when I would go to the Eighth Street Bridge and look at the huge vast unoccupied yard area, I would wonder what had been there. You could see a lot of tracks,” he said. He wanted to see what the area looked like during railroad’s heyday because so few physical attributes remain. People younger than 70 years, he said, “have no comprehension of the importance Altoona had. ”

His goal, he said, “was to put Altoona’s history in one place. It’s very, very important for that reason. It is a document that shows the railroad history in Altoona and will be preserved.”

Blardone said, “Ninety-five to 99 percent of the photos in this book have never been seen before. It’s the first time they’ve been published.”