6 products
Big Bend Railroads
9781467132534
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $18.74 Save 25%
The Big Bend area had its start with a land grant given by President Lincoln to the Northern Pacific Railway. As such, the railway company heavily promoted the area to encourage settlement and populate the station sites along the way. Towns began to develop in the late 1880s; prior to that time, the few settlers had a difficult time getting around. Despite snow, floods, fires, wrecks, human error, sabotage, and government regulation, the railroads continued and were able to serve the communities and help them survive. The earliest lines were built largely by man and beast with few large machines. The last transcontinental line in the Big Bend, the Milwaukee Road, featured groundbreaking technology in the form of electrically operated locomotives. The building of Grand Coulee Dam brought more railroad lines, with tracks that featured grades and locomotives normally seen on logging railroads, to bring in construction materials to the largest concrete structure in the world at the time.
North Beach Peninsula's IR&N
9780738570204
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $18.74 Save 25%
For nearly 40 years, the quirky little narrow-gauge railroad, begun in 1889 by the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company, ran along the North Beach Peninsula in southwestern Washington. The train provided the primary transportation link from Ilwaco in the south to Nahcotta in the north, making peninsula communities accessible to one another and supplying a reliable route to outside markets for the area's major industries--oystering, logging, and cranberry farming. A tide table, not a timetable, governed the railroad's schedule, allowing coordination with the steamers that met the train at either end of its daily journeys. Old-timers of the area still speak affectionately of the train's unorthodox schedule and its informal and accommodating service. And they remember with fondness that the IR &N was widely known as the "Irregular, Ramblin' and Never-get-there Railroad."
Seattle-Everett Interurban Railway
9780738580197
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $18.74 Save 25%
Operating for 29 years, the Seattle-Everett Interurban Trolley traveled over 29 miles of rail carrying passengers and freight to nearly 30 stops along its line. In the first decade of the 1900s, the Boston electrical engineering firm of Stone and Webster had designs of building an interurban electric railway system that would eventually connect Olympia, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia. To start the Seattle north link, they purchased the existing Seattle-Everett Interurban Railway Company from Fred E. Sander in 1908. On the early morning of April 30, 1910, the Seattle-Everett Interurban Trolley made its inaugural run, starting in Everett. On February 20, 1939, the trolley left Everett for its last run.
Spokane International Railway
9781467102995
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $18.74 Save 25%
The last half of the 19th century was typified by tycoons and shrewd railroad barons. A key figure in the development of the Spokane International Railway was James Jerome Hill, or simply Jim Hill. Spokane businessmen regarded Hill as a tyrant and considered his Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads unwelcome monopolies in Northeast Washington and the Idaho Panhandle. In 1905, Daniel Chase "D.C." Corbin broke the Hill lines' stronghold by forming the Spokane International Railway as a 140-mile rail line from Spokane, Washington, to Eastport, Idaho, to interchange traffic from the Canadian border to the Pacific. Today, the route continues to be profitable under Union Pacific Railroad ownership with commodities shipped to Western markets via the Canadian Pacific Railway. This book shares the story of the Spokane International Railway and traces its international and local connections with every major railroad in the Pacific Northwest.
Tacoma Rail
9781467130066
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $18.74 Save 25%
Come along for the journey that is today's Tacoma Rail, from its humble beginning as a rickety trolley line to the economic engine that helps power the Port of Tacoma and surrounding communities. Once called the "Step Child Utility," today, Tacoma Rail moves more than 82,000 rail shipments on 204 miles of track annually and contributes more than $1.6 million in tax revenues to the city of Tacoma.
Yakima Valley Transportation Company
9780738581033
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $18.74 Save 25%
The National Register of Historic Places lists the Yakima Valley Transportation Company (YVT) as the last intact early 20th century electric interurban railroad in America. From its beginning in 1907, the YVT was no quitter, surviving a takeover by the Union Pacific, large financial losses as the last trolley railroad in Washington state, attempts at dieselization, and a concerted effort to put the company in its grave. Thanks to the efforts of local preservationists, YVT trolleys are still in operation. The railroad and its infrastructure never changed. What is seen today is what was built 100 years ago--a living slice of history. Images of Rail: Yakima Valley Transportation Company is the most authoritative chronicle of the famous YVT yet compiled.
