Train of Thought on Rail Tales Continues : In Volume 2 of their work on county railroad history, two local authors examine trains when they were the area’s economic lifeline, their status now--and their future.

Stephen Donaldson of Newport Beach was first exposed to “the romance of railroading” at 16, when he accompanied a friend on a train trip to Colorado and Wyoming in the ‘60s.

His interest in railroad history continued to grow as an Orange Coast College student two years later when he persuaded his English professor to let him write an assigned theme paper about railroads, which interested him, rather than about literature, which didn’t.

Donaldson wrote about the Santa Ana & Newport Railway, the line that ran from Santa Ana to the Newport Pier between 1891 to 1933 along what is now the Costa Mesa Freeway

At 45, Donaldson is still writing about Orange County railroads, having teamed up in the late ‘80s with historian William Myers of Yorba Linda to co-author a two-volume book that chronicles the history of railroads in Orange County.

Volume 1 of “Rails Through the Orange Groves: A Centennial Look at the Railroads of Orange County” (Trans-Anglo Books) was published in 1989 and covers the pioneering railroads in the county: The Southern Pacific, the Southern California Railway (now the Santa Fe) and the Santa Ana & Newport, in addition to the Pacific Electric Railway and its predecessors.

Now Volume 2 of “Rails Through the Orange Groves” is out.

The book ($34.95) continues the story up to the present, chronicling the development of the agricultural and oil industries and showing how the railroads prospered as the “economic lifeline of the county.”

Like the first, the second volume features an extensive array of historical photographs from the authors’ personal collections (95 black and white and 31 color illustrations, in addition to timetables and locomotive rosters).

“I’d say the book is aimed at two audiences: People who are interested in Orange County history in general and people interested in Southern California railroads in general,” said Donaldson, who is recovering from a stroke and is on medical leave from Pactel Cellular in Irvine, where he worked as a regulatory manager.

Although other county history books have lightly touched on aspects of the area’s rail history, Donaldson said, “our books tell the whole and complete story. . . . All the research that went into these two books is original. We went back to corporate records and newspapers published at the time.

“One of the most satisfying things to me was being able to document . . . the competition among the railroads and between the railroads and steamship companies that served the county. We were able to find hard data to prove . . . cutthroat competition” around the turn of the century.

Such competition for transportation services, he said, “gave Orange County some of the most economical rates to many of the important markets around the state.”

Donaldson noted that the railroads today are probably somewhat less important “in terms of the total volume of traffic generated here, simply because there is less bulk produced to be shipped out. Most products handled by the railroads for the county today are relatively light in nature and therefore less significant in tonnage than they were in early times. The railroads today tend to support distribution operations of food producers and paper product manufacturers. There is also a great deal of lumber and other construction materials shipped into the county, as was true in earlier days.”

Myers, historian for the Southern California Edison Co. and author of 15 history books, said the second volume of “Rails Through the Orange Groves” also contains a message regarding the future of light rail transit in Orange County.

His goal, Myers said, is “to motivate our politicians to understand that there is a growing constituency for rail transit--not only what we have on the Santa Fe-Amtrak line, but also light rail, like Los Angeles County has done.

“I’m deeply frustrated by our Board of Supervisors’ frivolous belief that monorails are the technology of the future. We need to be spending our money, time and resources on technologies that are demonstrated to be successful in carrying large volumes of people over a wide area. That means light rail and commuter trains.”

Myers criticizes the Board of Supervisors for permitting Garden Grove to build on the old Pacific Electric right-of-way that otherwise remains intact from Santa Ana to the Los Angeles County line.

“The county owned that section for transit purposes,” Myers said, adding, “We should know better.”

Both volumes of “Rails Through the Orange Groves” are available through railroad hobby shops in the county, or by contacting the publisher at (818) 240-9130.

New Professor: Michael Ryan, 1990 winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize for Poetry, is a new professor of English at UC Irvine.

The author of the widely acclaimed collection, “God Hunger,” received the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award and was nominated for a National Book Award for his collection of poems titled “Threats Instead of Trees.” He is teaching courses in autobiography and poetry.

Presidential Talk: Biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin (“Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream,” “The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys”) will discuss “The Presidential Perspective: The Making of a Biography” at 8 p.m. today at Crystal Cove Auditorium at UC Irvine. General admission: $8. To order tickets, call (714) 856-5000.

Romance Writers: Author Rachel Ballon will discuss “Making Your Characters Credible and Incredible” at the meeting of the Orange County chapter of Romance Writers of America at 1 p.m. March 9 at the Fullerton Public Library, 353 W. Commonwealth Ave. A panel of writers will discuss “Things I’d Like to Know Before Publishing” during the pre-meeting workshop at 10:30 a.m. Cost is $3 for each session. Information: (213) 866-3249.

Literary Luncheon: Author and book reviewer Carolyn See will discuss “Writing Toward a New American Literature” at the fourth annual literary luncheon sponsored by the American Assn. of University Women at 11 a.m. March 9 at the Surf and Sand Hotel in Laguna Beach. Cost is $30 a person. For reservations, call (714) 494-9647.

Poets Reading: Poets Charles Hood, Paul Trachtenberg and William Vaughn will read at 8 p.m. March 9 at the Poets Reading meeting in the Fullerton Museum Center, 301 N. Pomona Ave. $3. For more information, call Michael Logue at (714) 441-1820.

More Poetry: Poets Tom Rush and Jana will read at 8 p.m. March 13 at Alta Coffee House, 506 31st St., Newport Beach. Free. For more information, call (714) 675-0233.

Send information about book-related events to: Books & Authors, View, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626. Deadline is two weeks before publication.