Images of Rail
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Shawmut & Northern Railroad Pittsburg
by Ken Clark
Part of the Images of Rail series
The Pittsburg (no h"), Shawmut & Northern Railroad was described by locals as a railroad that started nowhere and ended no place, with a lot of nothing in between," although it actually linked the coal mines of Elk County, Pennsylvania, with markets in Cattaraugus, Allegany, and Steuben Counties in central and western New York State. Always an underdog, the Class I line went into bankruptcy a mere five years after its corporate birth, holding the record for the longest receivership of any American railroad at 42 years. Always starved for cash, it limped along with outdated and tired equipment, yet it never failed to meet its payroll. It was scrapped completely in 1947.
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Delaware Valley Railway
1901-1937
by Michelle Jacques
Part of the Images of Rail series
From 1901 to 1937, the lone engine of the Delaware Valley Railway chugged up and down its solitary track, from the Stroudsburgs to Bushkill. It was a time of heady prospects as the resorts of the Delaware Water Gap pushed north up the valley. Modest farmhouses became vacation boardinghouses, and some then blossomed into grand hotels. The railway brought in vacationers by the carload, but it was not just about tourism. The dinkey hauled in coal for winter heat and hauled out lumber, dairy, and farm produce that kept the farmers in cash. Farm children commuted to town to earn their high school degrees. For more than a generation, the dinkey's whistle blowing over the valley linked its people and places.
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Slabtown Streetcars
by Richard Thompson
Part of the Images of Rail series
No area of Portland, Oregon, played a more important role in street railway history than Northwest Portland and the neighborhood known as Slabtown. In 1872, the city's first streetcars passed close to Slabtown as they headed for a terminus in the North End. Slabtown was also home to the first streetcar manufacturing factory on the West Coast. In fact, until locally built streetcars began to be replaced by trolleys from large national builders in the 1910s, more than half of all rolling stock was manufactured in shops located at opposite ends of Northwest Twenty-third Avenue. All streetcars operating on the west side of the Willamette River, including those used on the seven lines that served Northwest Portland, were stored in Slabtown. When the end finally came in 1950, Slabtown residents were riding two of the last three city lines.
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Northwestern Pacific Railroad
Eureka to Willits
by Susan J. P. O'Hara
Part of the Images of Rail series
The year 2014 marks the centennial of the completion of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad (NWP), celebrated by driving a "golden spike" at Cain Rock in October 1914. This achievement was the culmination of a massive, six-year engineering effort to connect rail lines ending at Willits with the early lumber company railroads of the Humboldt Bay region. When it was completed, the NWP linked Eureka with San Francisco by rail, a milestone in the history of Humboldt and Northern Mendocino Counties. This book examines the impact of the NWP on Northwestern California. Although no longer operational, the railroad today symbolizes the ongoing struggle to connect this isolated region with the wider world.
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Railroads of Rensselaer
by Ernie Mann
Part of the Images of Rail series
Rensselaer was once a classic American railroad town, and like most cities and towns of its type, it was part of an important junction of several destinations. From the 1840s to today, trains have rolled to the four principal compass points from town. Located across the Hudson River from Albany, Rensselaer has seen a rich array of locomotives, structures, and notable trains, all helping to establish Rensselaer's rail prominence and the industry's importance to and involvement in the community. Today Rensselaer hosts the Albany Amtrak station, which sees an average of 775,000 passengers annually and is ranked as the country's 10th busiest station. Using images of rolling stock, buildings, maps, documents, and memorabilia, Railroads of Rensselaer is a visual trip through the years.
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Copper Country Streetcars
by William J. Sproule
Part of the Images of Rail series
During the early 1900s, copper mining was at its peak in the "Copper Country" of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Numerous communities sprang up throughout the region, but travel between towns was difficult as the roads were not paved and became impassable during the winter months when over 200 inches of snow would inundate the area. The poor travel conditions and boom period in the Copper Country were instrumental factors that resulted in the construction of a streetcar line to serve the area. Service began in 1900, and the network was extended several times over the next few years. Ridership peaked in 1910, when over six million passengers rode the system; however, it declined in the 1920s as automobiles became more popular, roads were improved, and the copper boom subsided. Service finally ended in 1932. It is a fascinating history that surprises many of today's residents that streetcars operated in the area.
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Johnstown Trolleys and Incline
by Kenneth C. Springirth
Part of the Images of Rail series
The Johnstown flood on May 31, 1889, virtually demolished the horse car lines of the Johnstown Passenger Railway Company, resulting in the system being rebuilt with electric trolley cars. Johnstown Trolleys and Incline covers the history of the trolley car system, trackless trolleys, and the Johnstown Inclined Plane. Johnstown was the last small city in the United States to operate a variety of vintage and modern trolley cars along with trackless trolleys. The Johnstown incline played a key role in transporting residents to higher ground in the devastating floods of 1936 and 1977. Ridership declined with the coming of the automobile and the changing industrial scene in the region. Rail enthusiasts from all parts of the country came to Johnstown on its last day of trolley service in 1960, and the last runs are fully illustrated in these vintage photographs.
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Railroads of Hillsboro
by D. C. Jesse Burkhardt
Part of the Images of Rail series
Hillsboro, Oregon, always seemed destined to be an important railroad town. When the first trains arrived in Hillsboro in 1871 under the banner of the Oregon & California Railroad, the town began to develop into a key railroad junction point. Hillsboro was strategically located just 20 miles from the booming Portland metropolis, a regional center of manufacturing and trade, and by 1911, Hillsboro was where several rail lines branched off. One line headed west toward Tillamook, where the railroad tapped rich timber resources along the Oregon coast. Another line cut south into the fertile Willamette Valley, accessing prime agricultural lands that produced a bounty of wheat and other commodities. A third route carried passengers and goods to and from Portland and the neighboring communities of Cornelius and Forest Grove. As these routes developed, heavy volumes of freight began rolling into Hillsboro. At the same time, travelers moved through Hillsboro on passenger trains, including the Southern Pacific Railroad's famed "Red Electrics" and the Oregon Electric Railway's interurbans, which advertised passenger service with "no soot and no cinders."
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Kenosha on the Go
by Kenosha Streetcar Society
Part of the Images of Rail series
Kenosha on the Go chronicles 110 years of transportation in Kenosha. From the first interurban streetcar that reached Kenosha's northern city limits in 1897 to the existing transit system in 2007, this book covers local streetcar operations, trackless trolley and bus operations, the two electric interurbans that served Kenosha, and the North Western Railway. Kenosha on the Go also brings readers to the rebirth of streetcar operations in Kenosha at the dawn of the 21st century.
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Revisiting the Long Island Rail Road
1925-1975
by David Keller
Part of the Images of Rail series
Planned and chartered on April 24, 1834, the Long Island Rail Road commenced operations in 1836 to provide a route to Boston. Stretching 110 miles east of New York City, the Long Island Rail Road has been the backbone of population growth and suburban development for over a hundred years. Electrification was begun on the Long Island Rail Road in 1905. Whether it was commuter, freight, or special trains, third-rail operations played a major role in the Long Island Rail Road's development as well as the people, places, and industries it served. This book offers an insider's view of the Morris Park shops and photographs of the varied passenger operations found on the Long Island Rail Road.
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Nebraska's Cowboy Rail Line
by Keith Terry
Part of the Images of Rail series
Nebraska's Cowboy Line existed for nearly 125 years and covered more than 400 miles as it made its way across the northern portion of the state. The construction of the rail line, which started in 1869, was the impetus for the establishment of many towns, and even the relocation of some, along the route. The line was employed to transport miners to the Black Hills during the gold rush of the late 1800s, it carried thousands of Irish and German immigrants to the largely unsettled area, and it allowed politicians to meet their constituents. It also was used to deliver necessities, amusements, technology, and new innovations to the state's citizenry.
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Bucks County Trolleys
by Mike Szilagyi
Part of the Images of Rail series
Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was once served by 120 miles of trolley lines. During the decades spanning the 1890s to 1950s, a variety of trolley cars glided through Bucks County's towns and countryside, beginning with Langhorne's quaint open streetcars and culminating with streamlined interurbans streaking across open fields from Sellersville to Quakertown at 80 miles per hour. The trolleys were powered by electricity, with the line stretching north from Doylestown energized by renewable hydroelectric power generated by the Delaware Canal. Before automobiles and trucks were commonplace, and before roads were paved, the rapid, convenient electric trolley was the best mode of travel for both passengers and freight shipments. Although the trolleys have almost completely disappeared today, the photographs on these pages provide rare glimpses of a long-lost mode of travel and charming scenes of Bucks County's soon-to-be-altered landscapes.
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Pennsylvania Main Line Railroad Stations
Philadelphia to Harrisburg
by Jim Sundman
Part of the Images of Rail series
In 1857, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) took over Pennsylvania's Main Line of Public Works, a state-owned railroad and canal system built in the 1830s. Costly to build and maintain, and never attracting the traffic needed to sustain it, the state was eager to let it go. Keeping the rail portion and combining it with its own lines, the PRR ultimately developed a well-built and well-run rail line from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh all while keeping the "main line" moniker. The eastern section between Philadelphia and Harrisburg was especially successful, particularly after the railroad built new communities along the line that were at first summer destinations and later year-round homes for daily commuters. Other towns and cities along the main line had a strong industrial or agricultural base needing rail access, and many of these communities had attractive train stations. Images of America: Pennsylvania Main Line Railroad Stations: Philadelphia to Harrisburg documents many of these passenger stations through vintage photographs and other images. Most are gone, but fortunately some still stand and are in use today.
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Strasburg Rail Road
by Eric S. Conner
Part of the Images of Rail series
When the Strasburg Rail Road was chartered in 1832, no one anticipated the myriad of obstacles the short line would encounter. What began as an afterthought in the early 19th century eventually became one of America's premier steam train excursions and the most visited heritage railroad in the continental United States. By 1957, the declining condition of its rails and the lack of freight and passenger service seemed to mark the end of the railroad, but it was given new life in 1958, and not even the wildest imagination foresaw the remarkable transformation and development this "Methuselah of railroads" would undergo. This book chronicles the unlikely success of America's oldest continuously operating railroad. Explore how and why Strasburg's four-and-a-half-mile line survived, and discover the story behind its ascension to prominence as an iconic, internationally known, small-town steam railroad.
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Portland's Streetcars
by Richard Thompson
Part of the Images of Rail series
Street railways arrived early in Portland and made lasting social and economic contributions that are still apparent in the layout and character of the city's neighborhoods today. During the 1890s, streetcar lines spread rapidly into the West Hills and across the Willamette River. The technological prowess of the growing "Rose City" was reflected in the largest horsecar in the Northwest, the second steepest cable car grade in the nation, the first true interurban railway, and an annual illuminated trolley parade. By the dawn of the 20th century, Portland could boast of the largest electric railway system in the West, as well as its first eight-wheeled streetcar. The streetcars lasted into the late 1950s here, and then, after a hiatus of nearly 30 years, were rediscovered by a new generation of urban planners.
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Norfolk and Western Railway Stations and Depots
by C. Nelson Harris
Part of the Images of Rail series
The tracks of the Norfolk and Western Railway snaked through Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and the coalfields of West Virginia. For nearly 100 years, the Norfolk and Western brought freight, passengers, and economic vitality to large cities and rural mining towns. At each stop was the depot or station; some stations were large, architecturally ornate structures that represented the muscular energy and romantic era of this great steam railway with its famed J-class engines. In other places there were small wooden depots that depicted the hard-scrabble life of the mining communities, tucked amid steep mountain valleys that were indelibly shaped by the railway's presence. Today some of those structures remain, while many disappeared when the railway ceased passenger or other service. The Norfolk and Western eventually merged with the Southern Railway, and though the trains of the Norfolk Southern still run along those same lines, they simply pass by where they used to stop many years ago.
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Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey City
by Kenneth French
Part of the Images of Rail series
With over two hundred historical photographs, Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey City explores the cultural and commercial effects of railway travel in two important New Jersey cities. Because of their unique location directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, Hoboken and Jersey City have long been centers of transportation activity. When the railway industry was booming in the early twentieth century, four major passenger terminals dotted the left bank of the Hudson from the Jersey Central to the Pennsylvania to the Erie to the Lackawanna. Thousands of people streamed through these terminals every day to the ferries that then took them across the river to New York City. Additionally, tons of freight were brought through the vast train yards along the waterfront. Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey City tells the history of the railroads between the mid-1800s and the 1970s. It also explores how the once vibrant waterfronts of Hoboken and Jersey City went through tremendous decline and how, over time, the waterfront has been restored and redeveloped. New residential and commercial buildings have sprouted along the old Pennsylvania and Erie properties, the Lackawanna Terminal has been restored, and the Central Railroad Terminal is now part of Liberty State Park, one of New Jersey's most popular tourist destinations.
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The Long Island Railroad
1925-1975
by David Keller
Part of the Images of Rail series
Chartered on April 24, 1834, as a route from Brooklyn to Boston, the Long Island Rail Road commenced in 1836 with service between Brooklyn and Jamaica, New York. The railroad has linked Long Island and New York City through several periods of increasing immigration and population beginning in the 1880s. Farmers and fishermen have depended on the railroad for their livelihood, and every summer thousands of tourists flock to Long Island beaches on the Long Island Rail Road. It is still the nation's largest commuter railroad, transporting an average of over two hundred fifty thousand commuters daily. The Long Island Rail Road: 1925-1975 offers a behind-the-scenes look at freight and passenger activities and the people who worked on the railroad. These one-of-a-kind photographs depict structures no longer in use, such as towers, water tanks, and crossing shanties, as well as electric motive power and other facets of a working railroad.
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Boston's Orange Line
by Andrew Elder
Part of the Images of Rail series
The story of the Orange Line is the story of Boston: always in flux but trailed by its long history. Since 1901, this rail line's configuration has evolved in response to changes in the city, society, and technology. Hazardous sections have been eliminated, ownership has transitioned from private to public, and the line has been rerouted to serve growing suburbs and to use land cleared for the failed Inner Belt. Both its northern terminus, which shifted from Everett to Malden, and the southern route, realigned from Washington Street to the Southwest Corridor, have seen dramatic transformations that have in turn changed riders' lives. Today, the line's 10 miles of track curve through many Greater Boston communities, serving thousands along the way.
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Boston's Blue Line
by Frank Cheney
Part of the Images of Rail series
Boston's rapid-transit Blue Line covers a distance of 5.94 miles, a twenty-three-minute commute that begins at Bowdoin station in downtown Boston, travels under the harbor, passes Revere Beach, and stops at Wonderland. Today's commuters might be surprised to learn that the line they are riding was once operated by trolley cars and narrow-gauge steam-powered commuter trains, for it was not until 1904 that the East Boston Tunnel under the harbor was completed. By 1917, the number of people riding the Blue Line had climbed to twenty-five thousand a day. Although significant advances had been made to accommodate high-volume commuter traffic, rush-hour congestion at downtown stations remained a problem. In the 1920s, with ridership exceeding forty-two thousand people a day, the Boston Elevated Railway and the Boston Transit Commission agreed to convert the tunnel to a rapid-transit operation with a transfer station at Maverick Square. Further expansion occurred in the 1950s, when the Blue Line was extended to Orient Heights, Suffolk Downs, and Revere Beach.
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Rails Around Fort Worth
by Ian Taylor
Part of the Images of Rail series
Railways played a central role in the development of the American West. The railroad came to Fort Worth in 1876, and with it came the boom that transformed a city into a metropolis. From the arrival of the Texas & Pacific Railroad to the streamliners of the postwar era, Fort Worth has always seen the railroad as a vital part of its character. From transcontinental locomotives to the construction of elegant architectural landmarks and to small but convenient interurban passenger lines, railroad history is central to Fort Worth's development. This is the story of a city's love affair with technology, transportation, and industry. Through its connection to an emerging country via the railroad, the young frontier town of Fort Worth came to offer as much to the nation's development as it benefited from it.
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Long Island Rail Road: Morris Park Shops
by David D. Morrison
Part of the Images of Rail series
David D. Morrison, retired Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) branch line manager and railroad historian, has compiled rare photographs to showcase the shops that power the LIRR, the busiest railroad in North America.
The LIRR provides passenger rail service from Midtown Manhattan to to the far ends of Long Island at Greenport and Montauk. A vast operation such as this requires a huge fleet of locomotives and cars. The reliability of the fleet rests mainly upon the shop maintenance facility. The Morris Park Shops, opened in 1889 and closed in the early 2000s, provided over a century of maintenance and repair service, allowing the LIRR to develop and expand through the years. The complexity of the shop facility, from the days of steam locomotives to multiple-unit electric cars and diesel locomotives, is a fascinating chapter in LIRR history.
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Lake Tahoe's Railroads
by Stephen E. Drew
Part of the Images of Rail series
Lake Tahoe is the majestic mountain lake that spans the boundary line of California and Nevada. The lake's clarity and scenic beauty are legendary. In the 1870s, the Nevada Comstock Lode created an insatiable appetite for Lake Tahoe's virgin pine forests. The timbers would shore up underground mining and build communities approaching 40,000 inhabitants. Railroads on three shores delivered the logs lakeside, where they were towed by steam-powered tugs to sawmills, to lumber flumes, and again by rail to their final destinations. As the mines and giant lake pines subsided, railroads pushed farther north after 1898 into new timber stands in the Lake Tahoe and Truckee River basins. Other rail lines were sold, barged across the lake, and repurposed for the burgeoning new industry of tourism. For the next 40 years, railroads marketed Lake Tahoe as their unique scenic destination.
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The Great Northern Railway in Marias Pass
by Dale W. Jones
Part of the Images of Rail series
Montana's Marias Pass is the lowest rail crossing through the Rocky Mountains. The tracks snake through narrow canyons, traverse the swift Middle Fork of the Flathead River, and twist through numerous snowsheds and tunnels to crest the 5,213-foot Continental Divide. James Jerome Hill was the driving force behind Great Northern Railway's mission to find the most economical route to the Pacific coast, with surveyor John F. Stevens taking a major role in locating the pass. Browning is the eastern gateway into Marias Pass as the railroad approaches the Rocky Mountain Front; continuing west from Summit, the tracks parallel Bear Creek and the Middle Fork of the Flathead River downgrade through Essex to Glacier National Park and into the Flathead Valley.
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Western Connecticut Trolleys
by Various Authors
Part of the Images of Rail series
Throughout history, Americans have embraced technology with a special enthusiasm, and the innovation of the trolley car is no exception. This industry fueled the growth of many towns and cities in Connecticut, and Western Connecticut was able to keep pace with other parts of the state because of it. Although short lived, the trolley changed the landscape of the state and spurred progress in ways never imagined just a few years before. Marking an important milestone in the documentation of Connecticut's street railway heritage, Western Connecticut Trolleys is the sixth Arcadia Publishing book chronicling the history of all the streetcar lines and companies in the state.
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Roaring Camp Railroads
by Beniam Kifle
Part of the Images of Rail series
In 1963, Norman Clark officially opened Roaring Camp to the public. Since then, it has become a popular and well-known destination for tourists and rail buffs from around the world who wish to visit and ride on its 100-year-old steam trains. Isaac Graham, who constructed the first powered sawmill and the first whiskey distillery in the American West, settled the area in the 1840s. Graham was notorious for his boisterous antics, and his settlement became known as a "wild and roaring camp." Clark arrived in the area in the mid-1950s with $25 in his pocket and the dream of preserving a piece of early California. Clark's dream included a plan to construct an 1880s railroad town, complete with an authentic narrow-gauge logging railway. Over the last 50 years, Clark's dream has been continued and expanded, now incorporating two railroads, one of which dates to 1875.
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The Burlington Railroad
Alliance Division
by Richard C. Kistler
Part of the Images of Rail series
Alliance has been a railroad center ever since the Burlington Railroad established the city in 1888 while pushing tracks into the vast, open regions of Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana. As a hub for trains carrying a variety of agricultural and mining products to market, Alliance became headquarters in 1902 for the large and geographically diverse area of Burlington train operations called the Alliance Division. For 86 years, the Alliance Division controlled much of the region's rail traffic. Despite the loss of its division point status in 1988, Alliance continues to have its fortunes closely tied to the railroad, now known as the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe. Today, the BNSF funnels large numbers of coal trains through the city while transporting Power River Basin coal to power plants across the nation.
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Canton Area Railroads
by Craig Sanders
Part of the Images of Rail series
Canton and the nearby cities of Massillon and Alliance are located in the great steel-making region of northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Railroads brought coal, much of it mined in southeastern Ohio, and iron ore to the steel plants and hauled away the finished products. The Timken Roller Bearing Company moved to Canton in 1902 and in the 1920s began making roller bearings for railroad locomotives and rolling stock. Written in cooperation with the Akron Railroad Club, this book chronicles the history and development of the railroads that served Stark, Wayne, Holmes, Carroll, and Tuscarawas Counties. It shows how rail operations changed as the steel industry declined and railroad consolidations led to traffic shifts and route abandonment. Among the railroads that served this region were the Pennsylvania, Baltimore and Ohio, New York Central, and Wheeling and Lake Erie.
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Whitewater Valley Railroad
by Francis H. Parker
Part of the Images of Rail series
The Whitewater Valley Railroad is a historic line in scenic southeastern Indiana. It was completed to Connersville in 1867, linking the towns of the Whitewater Valley to Cincinnati over the former towpath of the Whitewater Canal (1836–1862). Originally named the White Water Valley Railroad, the line went through several name changes before being absorbed by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis (the "Big Four") in 1890 and later by the New York Central, the parent company of the Big Four. After merging with the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968, the line became the Penn Central before closing in 1972 between Brookville and Connersville. It was slated for abandonment when a group of volunteers stepped in to create the Whitewater Valley Railroad, which ran its first tourist passenger trains in 1974. The nonprofit volunteer organization celebrates its 40th anniversary of operations in 2014.
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Yreka Western Railroad
by Matt Starman
Part of the Images of Rail series
The city of Yreka was determined to have a railroad. When the Southern Pacific Railroad decided in 1883 to bypass Yreka, the citizens constructed their own railroad known as the Yreka Railroad Company. This railroad managed to eke out a living over the next few decades. In the 1930s, the railroad was reincorporated as the Yreka Western Railroad. By the mid-1930s, the railroad went bankrupt and was forced into receivership, and a new manager was put in charge. Through perseverance of the new manager, the railroad began to grow and prosper. By the late 1970s, the railroad once again started to decline, but as in the past, it managed to hold on. In 1986, the railroad started an excursion train known as the "Blue Goose," and steam locomotive No. 19 was added in 1989. Throughout all the hardships, the railroad still continues today and has been given the nickname "the Little Railroad that Refuses to Die."
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Cleveland Mainline Railroads
by Craig Sanders
Part of the Images of Rail series
In the 1800s, railroad development was instrumental in enabling Cleveland to become an industrial center. By 1920, Cleveland was the nation's fifth-largest city, with an economy dependent on the iron and steel, petroleum-refining, automotive, and chemical industries. It was second only to Detroit among American cities in the percentage of the population employed by industry. Railroads brought raw materials needed for manufacturing and carried the finished products to markets everywhere. The mainline railroads serving Cleveland included the Baltimore & Ohio, the Erie, the New York Central, the Nickel Plate Road, the Pennsylvania, and the Wheeling & Lake Erie. Images of Rail: Cleveland Mainline Railroads describes how these six railroads developed and what freight and passenger markets they served through the 1960s, a period during which railroads were the primary carriers of goods and passengers to Cleveland. Industry changed following World War II, leading to the consolidation and abandonment of railroad routes in northeast Ohio.
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Nevada's Virginia & Truckee Railroad
by Stephen E. Drew
Part of the Images of Rail series
The Virginia & Truckee is the most famous short line railroad in American history. Brainchild of William Sharon and the Bank of California, the V&T hauled the silver and gold ore, the cordwood, and the mining timbers that made the 1870s "Big Bonanza" a reality. From the state capital at Carson City, V&T rails stretched 66 miles to Virginia City, Reno, and Minden, Nevada. Serving the transportation needs of the Comstock's nearly 40,000 inhabitants, the V&T remained in operation until 1950. The enormously successful railroad paid its early owners handsome dividends. The V&T's ornate locomotives and cars have starred in hundreds of Hollywood productions and are now preserved in US museums. Since 1976, fourteen miles of the railroad have been restored to operation. The Virginia & Truckee has become an enduring legend.
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The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Maryland
by David Shackelford
Part of the Images of Rail series
Incorporated in 1827, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) was one of America's first railroads, and Maryland was its heart and soul. The B&O's creation was a tangible symbol of the Industrial Revolution, representing commerce and progress to towns along its route. Its headquarters and operations, centered in Baltimore, provided years of economic growth for the port city. This book contains images of well-known stations in Maryland, including Ellicott City Station, Gaithersburg Station, Camden Station, and the Mount Clare Shops-a self-contained industrial city, now home to the B&O Railroad Museum. Some stations still exist and are home to small museums or restaurants; others no longer stand, but images of them will remind even the casual historian of a time when railroads were a part of everyday life in America. Take a step back in time and revisit the sites, stations, and trains of the B&O that were once part of everyday life in Maryland and remember the glory of a bygone era.
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Sacramento Southern Railroad
by Kevin W. Hecteman
Part of the Images of Rail series
The Sacramento Southern Railroad was born into a famous railroad family and a busy railroad town in July 1903. The mighty Southern Pacific, which controlled the new line from the outset, built south from Sacramento along the eastern bank of the Sacramento River into the delta's rich farmland area. At its zenith, the line was about 31 miles long, serving the communities of Freeport, Hood, Locke, Walnut Grove, and Isleton. Trains on what became known as the Walnut Grove Branch hauled pears, sugar beets, asparagus and other products from the agricultural region's packing sheds and canneries. Competition from trucking and damage from flooding took a severe toll on the railroad, and the Southern Pacific largely abandoned it by 1978, but a portion lives on as a labor of love.
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San Francisco's Market Street Railway
by Walt Vielbaum
Part of the Images of Rail series
The Market Street Railway Company thrived in an age when rails ruled San Francisco. Spanning the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the boom times of World War II, it had a long and legendary lifetime that is deeply ingrained in the city's early identity. Gradually, however, it became challenged by the emergence of the automobile, cheaper motor coaches, and "nickel jitneys"--competing cars on the same routes. The MSRy painted the fronts of its cars white to show up well in San Francisco's misty weather, and for many years people called them "the White Front cars." Franchise competition and city regulations undid MSRy, and its assets were absorbed into MUNI in 1944. However, the name lives on as the nonprofit Market Street Railway organization, dedicated to preserving the history of this company and also to retrofitting early streetcars from across the globe, putting them back in service on Market Street.
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Railroads of Fort Bend County
by Jim Vollmar
Part of the Images of Rail series
Fort Bend County was formed in the early 1820s by members of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300." Traders utilized barges and steamboats running along the Brazos River to transport cotton and other products from the lower Brazos Valley to the port at Galveston. In 1853, railroads began to play a larger role in the county's transportation system. Transportation facilities were greatly improved when the first railroad in Texas, the Buffalo, Brazos, and Colorado Railroad Company, completed its first 20-mile segment to Stafford's Point in Fort Bend County from Harrisburg (Houston). As many as eight separate railroads were chartered and operated in Fort Bend County by 1900. Today some of the names have changed but most of the original rail lines remain in operation. The Union Pacific, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, and Kansas City Southern rail companies have picked up where their predecessors left off and are keeping Fort Bend County one of the busiest and fastest-growing counties in the United States.
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Niles Canyon Railways
by Henry Luna
Part of the Images of Rail series
All aboard for this photographic journey through the unique railroad history of Niles Canyon, near the city of Fremont. The melodic wail of the steam whistle first echoed off these canyon walls in 1866 when the Western Pacific Railroad laid track into Niles as part of a planned route from San Jose to Sacramento. That was three years before the transcontinental route from Sacramento to Omaha was completed in May 1869. Four months after the driving of the Golden Spike that joined the eastern and western United States by rail, the connecting route from Sacramento to Oakland through Niles Canyon was finished--the very last leg of a rail route that truly joined the Atlantic to the Pacific waters for the first time.
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Oregon & Northwestern Railroad
by Jeff Moore
Part of the Images of Rail series
In 1922, the US Forest Service offered one of the largest timber sales in the agency's history, encompassing 890 million board feet of mostly Ponderosa pine timber in the mountains north of Burns, Oregon. Among other requirements, the sale terms required the successful bidder to build and operate 80 miles of common carrier railroad through some of the most remote and undeveloped country in the state. The Fred Herrick Lumber Company and its Malheur Railroad initially won the bidding, only to lose it when a crash in the lumber market forced the company into insolvency. The Edward Hines Lumber Company of Chicago picked up the pieces, and from 1929 until 1984, its subsidiary Oregon & Northwestern Railroad made a living hauling logs, lumber, and occasional livestock between Burns and Seneca, Oregon.
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Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Revisited
by David A. Guillaudeu
Part of the Images of Rail series
Washington & Old Dominion Railroad covered the railroad's corporate history, construction, and operation. This second volume expands the coverage with a geographic focus on four locations: Rosslyn, Great Falls, Leesburg, and Purcellville. The images within offer a look at the railroad's feed and grain business, railfan-type views of equipment, and a visual record of methods used to maintain the right-of-way and place equipment back on the tracks. Additionally, this work offers a history of the conversion of the right-of-way into the very popular Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park. Learn about the history of mills and their place in the local economy. See how the Burro crane was a jack of all trades. Look under the hood and inside the cab to imagine what it was like to be an engineer on one of the railroad's Baldwin-Westinghouse electric freight locomotives.
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Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad
by Cynthia L. Ogorek
Part of the Images of Rail series
The Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad was a short line running 16 miles from downtown Chicago to Dolton, Illinois, the first suburb south of Chicago, with another line running southeast from Eighty-First Street to the Indiana state line. Built in the 1880s, it was owned by five trunk line railroads that used it as an efficient and inexpensive route into downtown Chicago. Like many 19th-century railroads, the C&WI reached its traffic peak in the middle of the 20th century. After World War II, passenger travel and shipping moved to airlines and over-the-road trucking. The need for rail access into downtown Chicago declined, and the C&WI ended its service in 1994.
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The Western Maryland Railway
by Anthony Puzzilla
Part of the Images of Rail series
The Western Maryland Railway was never a large Class 1 rail carrier, but, during its 131 colorful years of existence, it provided extremely fast, efficient, and reliable freight; coal-hauling; and passenger service in the states it served. This book contains images from the history of this remarkable railroad. It also provides the reader the opportunity to see how the legacy of the Western Maryland Railway is being maintained and remembered even today at some of its well-known train stations, such as in Cumberland and Union Bridge, Maryland, now home to the Western Maryland Railway Historical Society (WMRHS). The Western Maryland is now gone, but, through the wonderful images captured and preserved by the WMRHS and private archival photograph collections, the dream of the railway will live on.
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East Texas Logging Railroads
by Murry Hammond
Part of the Images of Rail series
When the first logging railroad was built in Jasper County in the 1870s, the virgin East Texas forest spread across a vast area the size of Indiana. That first eight-mile logging line heralded a boom era of lumbering and railroading that would last well into the 20th century. Before the era was over, thousands of miles of logging railroads would be built, and hundreds of communities would spring up along their routes. As times changed, the mills closed and nearly all of the early rail lines were abandoned, but most of the communities they helped establish survived those changes and thrive into the present day.
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Nashville'S Streetcars And Interurban Railways
by Ralcon Wagner
Part of the Images of Rail series
Nashville's 150-year public transportation heritage is a rich and colorful one that began in 1866 when two private companies, the McGavock and Mount Vernon Horse Railroad Company and the South Nashville Street Railroad Company, commenced operation. The first cars were mule powered. During the 1880s, as streetcar routes became longer and too strenuous for animal power, steam dummy lines were introduced. On April 30, 1889, Nashville became one of the earliest cities served by electric street railways, developing a 70-mile system by 1915. In addition to its advanced streetcar system, Nashville was also served by two interurban railway systems. Over time, improved roads and affordable cars caused ridership on public transportation to drop rapidly. By February 1941, buses had replaced the last of the city's aging streetcars. The traction era had come to an end.
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Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas
by Michael E. Hibblen
Part of the Images of Rail series
For nearly 80 years, the Rock Island was a major railroad in Arkansas providing passenger and freight services. A decline in rail travel after World War II and an increase in trucks hauling freight over government-subsidized interstates were among factors that left the railroad struggling. Efforts to merge with other railroads were stalled for years by federal regulators. The Rock Island filed for bankruptcy in 1975 and attempted a reorganization, but creditors wanted the assets liquidated, with a judge shutting it down in 1980. Most of the tracks that traversed the state were taken up, but a few relics, like the Little Rock passenger station and the Arkansas River Bridge, remain as monuments to this once great railroad.
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Chicago Trolleys
by David Sadowski
Part of the Images of Rail series
Chicago's extensive transit system first started in 1859, when horsecars ran on rails in city streets. Cable cars and electric streetcars came next. Where new trolley car lines were built, people, businesses, and neighborhoods followed. Chicago quickly became a world-class city. At its peak, Chicago had over 3,000 streetcars and 1,000 miles of track, the largest such system in the world. By the 1930's, there were also streamlined trolleys and trolley buses on rubber tires. Some parts of Chicago's famous L-system also used trolley wire instead of a third rail. Trolley cars once took people from the Loop to such faraway places as Aurora, Elgin, Milwaukee, and South Bend. A few still run today.
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Black River & Western Railroad
by Jerry J. Jagger
Part of the Images of Rail series
The Black River & Western Railroad has provided over 50 continuous years of passenger excursions in rural New Jersey between Flemington and Ringoes, passing through the pristine scenery of Hunterdon County. May 16, 1965, was the first official day of steam-powered passenger excursions, and 50 years later, on May 16, 2015, the same steam locomotive provided power for another steam-powered excursion. During those years, the railroad has grown from the simple excursion attraction of historic railroad equipment, providing the public amusement, to a regional short-line railroad.
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Sunnyside Yard and Hell Gate Bridge
by David D. Morrison
Part of the Images of Rail series
Sunnyside Yard was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad as part of its massive New York Extension, the centerpiece of which was Pennsylvania Station in the heart of Manhattan. Opened in 1910, it is still the world's largest railroad passenger car storage yard. At the height of its operation in the 1930s, there were 79 tracks, with a capacity for 1, 100 cars. Hell Gate Bridge was a joint venture of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New Haven Railroad to construct a direct rail route for trains between New York City and the New England states. The main span is 1, 017 feet between the towers, and it rises more than 300 feet from the East River to the top of the towers.
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The Southern Railway
by Sallie Loy
Part of the Images of Rail series
The Southern Railway was the pinnacle of rail service in the South for nearly 100 years. Its roots stretch back to 1827, when the South Carolina Canal & Rail Road Company was founded in Charleston to provide freight transportation and America's first regularly scheduled passenger service. Through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Great Depression, rail lines throughout the South continued to merge, connecting Washington, D.C. to Atlanta and Charleston to Memphis. The Southern Railway was born in 1893 at the height of these mergers. It came to an end in 1982, merging with Norfolk and Western Railway to become Norfolk Southern Railway. The history of the railway lives on, however, and Norfolk Southern continues to "serve the South." In 2003, the Southern Railway Historical Association selected the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History as the repository for their extensive archives. Included in this collection are hundreds of professional quality, black-and-white photographs taken by company photographers throughout the railway's history. These photographs not only capture the transition from steam to diesel and the pinnacle of rail travel, but also the development of the South through much of the 20th century. While a few of these images have been seen by the public, the vast majority have not.