The Southern Pacific Railroad and its predecessors served Texas from 1853 to 1996. Stretching from El Paso to the Louisiana border and from the Rio Grande Valley to the Red River, Southern Pacific opened up vast areas of the state to settlement by transporting people, building materials, and livestock. The railroad fueled Texas�s economy by moving oil, timber, agricultural commodities, coal, automobiles, petrochemicals, cement, steel, consumer goods, and myriad other products. It hauled th...

The Rocky Mountain and Great Basin states are the heart of ghost-town country. Once-bustling pioneer outposts, mining camps, lumber towns, and railroad villages stand today as reminders of the glory days of gold rushes, industrial progress, and that pioneering spirit of the Old West. This book guides readers to the fascinating and scenic ghost towns of Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Nevada. Varney highlights popular tourist destinations as well as out-of-the-way spots unfamil...

The Union Pacific is the largest and the most powerful railroad in the country. The railroad has been in service since 1862, some 151 years. The Union Pacific is older than any other American Class I railroad today with the Kansas City Southern coming in at second at 116 years. In that time the railroad has become not only one of the most highly respected institutions in the nation but also has seen nearly every major railroading event in our country's history, and accordingly has a very l...

From the first, U.S. railroads have carried coal from mines to docks, steel mills, and power plants across the country. In this authoritative book spanning the whole of that history, from the mid-nineteenth century to present, noted rail author Brian Solomon explores the railroads and hardware that have transported the fossil fuels that made America work. Brilliant period and contemporary photographs convey the drama of the enterprise: the very long—and very heavy—trains powering up mounta...

This edition of the Slow Travels Series commemorates the 75th Anniversary of the beginning of the Blue Ridge Parkway construction. The segments of the parkway are separated into the Virginia and North Carolina sections. This guide is not intended to be a history of the Blue Ridge Parkway, but a guide to the history which lies along it and in the surrounding region.

In 1862, the Central Pacific Railroad was founded and began building eastward from Sacramento as part of the transcontinental railroad. This required a shop capable of keeping the railroad�s equipment in running order. So in 1867, in the swamps just north of town, the Sacramento shops were born. For well more than a century, this massive complex kept the Central Pacific and its corporate successor, the Southern Pacific, operating smoothly. For many decades, the shops were the largest emplo...

By the latter part of the nineteenth century, the railroad was king. Railroad lines crisscrossed the North American continent, allowing for the long-distance transportation of oil, coal, lumbar, gold, and other valuables. Despite high operating costs and fierce competition, the search for better and more profitable routes was constant. David Moffat, a banker and railroad executive, dreamed of a direct route across the Rocky Mountains, a route that would allow him to tap into Colorados vast...

From the 1890s through the 1920s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication, and many of the postcards produced during this 'golden age' can today be considered works of art. Postcard photographers traveled the length and breadth of the nation snapping photographs of busystreet scenes, documenting local landmarks, and assembling crowds of local townspeople only too happy to pose for a picture. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores across the...

The Pennsylvania Railroad's Horseshoe Curve is known worldwide as an engineering wonder. This landmark, located just west of Altoona, opened to traffic on February 15, 1854, and it enabled the Pennsylvania railroad line to climb the Allegheny Mountains and the eastern continental divide. The Horseshoe Curve's construction impacted railroad design and development for mountainous terrain everywhere, enabling access to coal and other raw materials essential for the industrial age. J. Edgar Th...

Vernon Township, located in the mountains of Sussex County, has grown from a town of farmsteads, mills, railroads, and schoolhouses to one of busy highways, lake communities, mountain resorts, and housing developments. Vernon's evolution from agriculture and industry to subdivisions and recreation, presented here in vivid historical photographs, will fascinate longtime residents, newcomers, and visitors alike. Vernon Township reveals a rare glimpse of the community in its early days.From I...

Constructed as the Easton and Amboy Railroad, opened by 1875, the Lehigh Valley Railroad was instrumental in developing commerce and communities of central New Jersey. Thout it no longer runs, it was originally built to haul unending trains of "black diamonds" from Pennsylvania to Perth Amboy, the Lehigh Valley Railroad became so much more than a conduit for shipping coal. In building across the state, it became instrumental in not only hauling produce to New York City markets but also for...

In 1837, Henry Janes applied for a post office called Black Hawk for the southern Wisconsin settlement where he ran a ferry across the Rock River. The postmaster general, however, noticed a town already by that name in the Iowa part of Wisconsin Territory, and he assigned the name Janesville, with Janes as postmaster. Two years later, Janes moved his family west, but the community grew to become the Rock County seat, and by 1860 it was Wisconsin's second-largest city. Today more than 62,00...