New Book Releases

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.

In 1880, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad was hard-pressed to find a suitable rail route from Grand Junction to Salt Lake City. With the coal deposits of eastern Utah luring them on, railroad officials chose a difficult route over Soldier Summit. The railroad established the town where "helper" engines were attached to the heavy trains, and Helper grew into a division point with branch operations that reached into the nearby canyons to serve the blossoming coal industry. Numerous smaller towns sprang up to service the railroad, and in 1912, the newly incorporated Utah Railway laid tracks to share the right-of-way with the Denver and Rio Grande. The
town of Helper is still a mecca for rail fans, and the story of its past lives on.

The Delaware & Hudson Canal and the Gravity Railroad tells the story of an American industrial masterpiece.

From the anthracite mines of Pennsylvania at Carbondale to the Hudson River in New York near Kingston, the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company and the Gravity Railroad transformed long tracks of wilderness into thriving economic areas. Conceived as an inexpensive way to transport anthracite coal, the canal began hauling loads in 1828 to the Hudson River, where barges to New York City took over. A leader in the technologies of the time, the canal company used the first telegraph system in America, and when Delaware & Hudson engineer Horatio Allen ran the locomotive Stourbridge Lion in Honesdale, he became the first to run a commercial steam locomotive on tracks in the Western Hemisphere. The Delaware & Hudson Canal was privately funded, and when stock was offered for sale in 1825, it soon became the first American company capitalized at $1 million. The Delaware & Hudson Canal and the Gravity Railroad uses fascinating vintage photographs to tell an amazing piece of American history. It shows the mules, the canal boats, the locomotives, and the men who ran this technological wonder, boasting one hundred eight locks over one hundred eight miles, plus four suspension aqueducts built by John A. Roebling of Brooklyn Bridge fame. The Gravity Railroad is shown as well, hauling coal from Carbondale to Honesdale over the Moosic Mountains, a rise of more than one thousand feet.

From 1901 to 1969, Angels Flight was America's most famous incline railway, familiar from its many appearances on postcards and in pulp fiction and film noir. It inspired the titles of five novels, including a 1999 best seller, and three films. Angels Flight's two colorful trolleys glided up and down the side of Bunker Hill in the heart of Los Angeles, carrying 100 million passengers between a downtown business district and a Victorian aerie that gradually deteriorated into a gritty slum. When the city turned Bunker Hill into an acropolis of skyscrapers, Angels Flight was packed up like a boy's electric train set and stored away for nearly 30 years. After a restoration in the mid-1990s that led to a fatal accident, Angels Flight has reopened and is now ready to claim its next chapters in Los Angeles history.

Between 1849 and 1859, Virginia raced to pierce the Blue Ridge Mountains by rail and reach the Ohio River. At least 300 enslaved people labored involuntarily toward that goal, along with 1,500 Irish immigrants. The state leased the labor of enslaved Virginians from local slaveholders, including four connected with nearby University of Virginia. Blue Ridge Tunnel and Blue Ridge Railroad historian Mary E. Lyons explored hundreds of primary documents to write the first nonfiction book about slave labor on a specific antebellum railroad. She shares hundreds of enslaved people's names, traces where they toiled along the line and describes their backbreaking--and sometimes fatal--tasks.

Many residents of Union and Essex Counties in New Jersey fondly recall the whistles of the Rahway Valley Railroad trains that rolled through the picturesque stations of Roselle Park, Kenilworth, Union, Springfield, and Summit. The Rahway's steam and diesel locomotives supported local commerce, provided passenger service, and carried a vast array of goods to and from local businesses. It connected the area with larger railroads, such as the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Lehigh Valley, and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western. One of the shortest yet most prosperous of American railroads, the Rahway Valley helped transform a rural region into one of New Jersey's most vital and populous areas. The Rahway Valley Railroad presents the story of this colorful short line with rare, vintage photographs of locomotives, passengers, stations, and train crews. It recounts how the Rahway Valley evolved from the New York and New Orange Railroad, linking Union County towns with Newark Heights (Maplewood), in adjoining Essex County. Images in this book include passengers riding Rahway Valley trains to picnics, church outings, and Springfield's world-famous Baltusrol Golf Club. Readers will learn how this feisty little line competed successfully for many years against the trucking industry and the interstate highway system during a time when many small railroads were dying out. The Rahway Valley Railroad tells the distinctively American story of a proud short line that competed with forces larger than itself and faithfully served the local merchants and residents who now remember it so fondly.

In 1984, the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad yard became the home to a millionaire's train collection. Nine years and many improvements later, the Steamtown National Historic Site opened its door to welcome over 100,000 visitors annually. Steamtown occupies an estimated 65 acres of the old Scranton railroad yard with several of its original structures remaining on the site. It also includes a visitor's center, two museums, a restored roundhouse, and a plethora of exhibits and locomotives much to the delight of railfans of all ages. The Steamtown National Historic Site is an integral part of the preservation of railroad history, as it is representative of a steam-era gone by.

The surpsing story of the Cog Railway on Mount Washington, and how one eccentric man's dream paved the way.

On July 3, 1869, the three-and-one-third-mile track leading to the summit of picturesque Mount Washington opened for public use. Once, only those daring enough to scale the 6,288 feet could enjoy the splendor of the scenery, but now everyone could journey to the summit using the invention of retired businessman Sylvester Marsh, who dreamed of this mountainous mode of transportation. Created at the height of the age of rail, the Cog Railway continues to chug up the mountain and into the hearts of tourists each year. Local historian Bruce D. Heald ties the history of its construction together with the grand romance of the railway as they triumphantly converge at the top of Mount Washington.

Johnson City's growth was transformed through development of transportation in East Tennessee. Trails first blazed by migrating buffalo and Native Americans evolved into trails for stagecoaches, tracks for rail lines, and paved roads for automobiles. Henry Johnson realized the potential for the area and took a risk in 1854 when he bought a parcel from Abraham Jobe at the junction of the proposed East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad and the stage road to build a home, store, and depot. The community that arose around this complex was known by many names in its early days, including Blue Plum, Haynesville, and Johnson's Depot. However, on December 1, 1869, Johnson City received its first charter of incorporation from the State of Tennessee. As Johnson City approaches the 2019 sesquicentennial of the city's incorporation, this collection of postcards provides a look back at the people, places, and scenery around Johnson City.