Name: Museum of the American Railroad
Brand: Museum of the American Railroad
SKU: 9781467115681
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Museum of the American Railroad

9781467115681

$24.99

Establishing its collection as the Age of Steam exhibit at Dallas's Fair Park in 1963, the Museum of the American Railroad would go on to acquire over 45 locomotives and railcars. By 2006, the museum needed to move from its first home to a larger facility to allow more space to exhibit the collection of railcars, documents, and other artifacts. One of the keystone pieces is the GG-1 electric locomotive that pulled Robert Kennedy's funeral train in 1968. It has been restored to its original Pennsylvania Railroad appearance. The museum also houses the Centennial--the world's largest diesel-electric locomotive--as well as the rare and famous Santa Fe Alco PA-1 locomotive, acquired from the Smithsonian Institution.

Southern Pacific Railroad in Eastern Texas

9780738579948

$24.99

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 the marble that built the state capitol in Austin and the materials to build the massive seawall in Galveston. Southern Pacific also played an important role in developing the ports of Beaumont, Galveston, Houston, and Corpus Christi. This book is a photographic record of Southern Pacific in eastern Texas during the 50-year period following World War II to the 1996 merger with the Union Pacific Railroad.

Southern Pacific Railroad in Eastern Texas

East Texas Logging Railroads

9781467115742

$24.99

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.

Railroads of Western Texas

9780738507668

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

The Southern Pacific Railroad was the second transcontinental line built in America, and the first that was open year-round. Railroads of Western Texas brings to life the days of frontier towns, the open range, and the building of the state of Texas. This part of the state's railroad history includes politicians and movie stars, train wrecks and robberies, shoot-outs and gun-running. Railroads of Western Texas reveals engaging stories of San Antonio and El Paso during their boomtown years. It tells of the creation of communities out of whole cloth including Hondo, Sanderson, Marfa, and Sierra Blanca. Other towns-villages really-blossomed when the iron rails came through: Uvalde, Del Rio, Alpine, Valentine, and Judge Roy Bean's town Langtry (the man known as "The Law West of the Pecos"). The railroad featured the third highest bridge in the world (the High Bridge over the Pecos River), and the fourth largest man-made lake in the United States (Medina Lake). These rails carried men and munitions during the Spanish American War and the Punitive Expedition, and many more\ during the First and Second World Wars.

Rails around Houston

9780738558844

$24.99

Several railroads were chartered by the Republic of Texas, but the first line built was the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado, which began construction near the Port of Houston Turning Basin in 1851. The BBB&C would become the oldest segment of the country's first transcontinental railroad under sole ownership: the Southern Pacific's Sunset Route, connecting New Orleans and Los Angeles and completed in 1883. By the time oil was discovered near Beaumont in 1901, Houston was such a transportation hub that it became the heart of the petrochemical industry. Houston saw narrow-gauge lines, two interurban lines, light rail, and even a monorail. For many years, the chamber of commerce proudly proclaimed that Houston was the place "where seventeen railroads meet the sea." More than 30 beautiful trains with names like Sunset Limited, Sunbeam, Sam Houston Zephyr, Twin Star Rocket, Bluebonnet, Texas Rocket, and Texas Chief would serve three depots.

Rails Around Fort Worth

9781467131681

$24.99

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.

Railroading in Ellis County

9780738579153

$24.99

The Houston and Texas Central Railroad made its way through eastern Ellis County in 1871 and played an integral role in the founding of Ennis, Texas. Eventually, that community would be designated as a division point along the line. The H&TC's arrival also brought growth and prosperity to other communities on the line, including Alma, Garrett, Palmer, and Ferris. It made its mark on the area. The Waxahachie Tap was the vision of many of that city's earliest settlers. Within a decade of its completion in September 1879, Waxahachie's cotton production multiplied and the town would soon earn the moniker "Where Cotton Is King." Midlothian and its surrounding communities would never be the same once connected by the Chicago, Texas, and Mexican Central Railroad in 1881. The rail had arrived and Ellis County was transformed.

Flatonia

9781467128698

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

Flatonia owes its place on the map to the railroad and its name to German immigrant and entrepreneur F.W. Flato. The Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway first traversed southwestern Fayette County in 1874. Inexpensive land along the line attracted farmers and ranchers, and new shipping and trade opportunities enticed merchants. Immigrants of German and Czech origins mingled with Mexican Americans, African Americans, and transplants from the Southeastern United States. These diverse groups were known to brawl one minute and unite in a common cause the next. Flatonia's survival has depended upon its ability to adapt while honoring its heritage. As rail service declined, a location on the coast-to-coast Old Spanish Trail (US Highway 90) provided a steady flow of automobile traffic. Cotton disappeared, but cattle and egg production remained strong. The buildings of the Flatonia Commercial Historic District still retain their late-19th- to early-20th-century charm, earning distinction in the National Register of Historic Places.

Railroads of Fort Bend County

9780738579016

$24.99

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.

Street Railways of El Paso

9780738571140

$24.99

Spanish explorers traveling north from Mexico in 1581 crossed the Rio Grande at present-day El Paso and called the area El Paso Del Norte, or "the pass of the north." Two cities were linked together: Ciudad Juarez and El Paso. In 1881, the railroad brought even more people to El Paso. What had been a sleepy adobe town became a vibrant, bustling city. Public transportation was established with a mule-car system in 1882 and ran for 20 years. The first electric cars were introduced in 1902 and were also very successful, serving all parts of the city and establishing neighborhoods. At the zenith of the system, there were 63 miles of track, 17 routes, and over 100 streetcars. In those days, everyone used the electric cars.

Plano and the Interurban Railway

9780738571362

$24.99

Over a century ago, an industrial America was awakening, and a new transportation technology arrived on the north Texas prairie: electric interurbans. Plano's Interurban Railway depot was dedicated in July 1908, and electric interurban rail travel began with the creation of the Texas Traction Company. In 1917, three separate systems were connected by a single entrepreneur, J. F. Strickland. Throughout the 1920s, the Texas Electric Railway traveled in and out of Plano carrying riders, mail, and freight. The system was built to travel on existing streetcar tracks and often ran over private rights-of-way between cities. To promote interurban travel, the company created unique cars and special classes of service to appeal to every need. In the post-World War II era, however, the popularity of automobiles ended the important era of electric interurban travel.

McKinney Avenue Trolleys

9780738584973

$24.99

Streetcar lines grew and prospered in Dallas from 1872 until the 1920s. Automobile competition siphoned many of their riders away, but ridership soared again during World War II. After the war, the trolleys entered an era of gradual attrition, and they were abandoned by 1956. Amazingly, in 1989, the nonprofit McKinney Avenue Transit Authority (MATA) returned restored vintage trolley cars to the city in the Uptown neighborhood near downtown. MATA evolved from a tourist attraction into a true transit company and became the M-Line. Since then, the area has experienced rapid growth and is now home to midrise office buildings and upscale apartments.