Spring Break
SJSU sophomore publishes book
Train enthusiast explores history
Mark Powell
Issue date: 1/30/07 Section: News
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When Los Gatos Public Library director Peggy Conaway was asked to help San Jose State University student Edward Kelley compile a book on the history of the Los Gatos rail system, she had her doubts at first.
Conaway wondered how someone only 18-years-old could have so much interest in a subject that seemed so distant to most people from Kelley's generation.
However, it did not take long for Kelley to prove to Conaway, along with more than 200 supporters that showed up to the eventual book signing, that he was the right man for the task.
"I didn't realize that anybody this young could have the knowledge about railroads, but he did," Conaway said.
With Conaway playing the part of historical tour guide, Kelley spent all of last summer researching and writing "Railroads of Los Gatos," a book that chronicles the once bustling steam-powered rail system that made the city Kelley grew up in an important part of the South Bay Area.
"I like to think that I wrote the book from an interesting perspective," Kelley said. "Rail fans are usually the ones to write these types of books, but railroaders, like me, aren't the ones who are working on model trains and things like that. It's not often that someone with actual working experience writes a book on (the steam engine industry)."
For Kelley, however, "Railroads of Los Gatos" was more than just a summer of befriending black and white photos and daughters of steam engine conductors long since gone.
For the SJSU industrial design major, the project was a lifetime of love for steam-driven locomotives.
"He couldn't have been more than four or five when he started talking to engineers and conductors and asking all the questions he could," his mother, Joanne Kelley, said in an email.
Born in a small suburb outside New York City, Kelley's family moved to Los Gatos when he was only two. He quickly developed a love for trains of all kinds, but would cultivate a love for the classic, steam-powered ones.
Conaway wondered how someone only 18-years-old could have so much interest in a subject that seemed so distant to most people from Kelley's generation.
However, it did not take long for Kelley to prove to Conaway, along with more than 200 supporters that showed up to the eventual book signing, that he was the right man for the task.
"I didn't realize that anybody this young could have the knowledge about railroads, but he did," Conaway said.
With Conaway playing the part of historical tour guide, Kelley spent all of last summer researching and writing "Railroads of Los Gatos," a book that chronicles the once bustling steam-powered rail system that made the city Kelley grew up in an important part of the South Bay Area.
"I like to think that I wrote the book from an interesting perspective," Kelley said. "Rail fans are usually the ones to write these types of books, but railroaders, like me, aren't the ones who are working on model trains and things like that. It's not often that someone with actual working experience writes a book on (the steam engine industry)."
For Kelley, however, "Railroads of Los Gatos" was more than just a summer of befriending black and white photos and daughters of steam engine conductors long since gone.
For the SJSU industrial design major, the project was a lifetime of love for steam-driven locomotives.
"He couldn't have been more than four or five when he started talking to engineers and conductors and asking all the questions he could," his mother, Joanne Kelley, said in an email.
Born in a small suburb outside New York City, Kelley's family moved to Los Gatos when he was only two. He quickly developed a love for trains of all kinds, but would cultivate a love for the classic, steam-powered ones.
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