Name: Western Connecticut Trolleys
Brand: Connecticut motor Coach Museum
SKU: 9780738549699
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Western Connecticut Trolleys

9780738549699

$24.99

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.

The Ontario and Western Railway Northern Division

9780738511757

$24.99

The New York & Oswego Midland Railroad-reorganized in 1879 as the New York, Ontario & Western Railway-was born out of necessity and a desire to populate and industrialize the interior regions of New York State. The railroad meandered down from Oswego, traversed the north shore of Oneida Lake, and then took a southerly route through Oneida and Norwich before turning east for a mountainous crossing to gain the village of Sidney. The railroad was not a success in its time. The New York, Ontario & Western brought a degree of financial stability to the northern division, and the line functioned through the late 1950s.

The Ontario & Western Railway Northern Division features photographs of the Ontario & Western, a railroad long on scenery but short on freight. The Ontario & Western inherited a railroad in search of revenue and a circuitous route that passed through one small community after another. Small wooden country depots dotted the line, locomotives of meager proportions pulled the trains, and dedicated employees did their best to keep the railroad solvent. The railroad is still fondly remembered today by those who rode its cars and witnessed its passing trains.

The Ontario and Western Railway Northern Division

San Francisco's Powell Street Cable Cars

9780738530475

$24.99

San Francisco's cable cars are an internationally recognized symbol of the city, but they also have a long and fractious history. There are actually three cable lines in operation today: the California Street line and the two Powell Street lines-- the Powell-Mason and Powell-Hyde. The Powell Street lines have been the subject of much controversy through the years, due to a complex lineage of private and public ownership. Cable cars on Powell Street began in 1888, operating under the Ferries and Cliff House Railway Company and utilizing the same basic design pioneered by Andrew Hallidie in 1873. Among the story's twists and turns are the line's actual routes following the 1906 earthquake, which caused heavy damage and forced major repairs. Post-quake, United Railroads was able to replace many of the cable car lines with streetcars, including a part of the Powell Street system. San Francisco at one time had eight separate cable car operators. Gradually most were replaced by streetcars, buses, and trolley buses, given the complexities and expense of cable systems. The Powell lines were taken over by the city in 1944, but the mayor tried to abandon them in 1947. The public disapproved of this move, and since then the Powell Street line has only grown in stature and its importance to San Francisco.

San Francisco's Powell Street Cable Cars

St. Louis Gateway Rail

9780738540702

$24.99

Though the city of St. Louis is located on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River, for the railroads, the St. Louis Gateway extends into Illinois, north and south along both sides of the river. Two factors conspired against St. Louis's aspiration to become the preeminent rail center of the 19th-century American Midwest: there was no bridge across the Mississippi, and Missouri's loyalty to the Union during the Civil War was suspect. Chicago beat out St. Louis to attain the region's top railroad billing. Fast forward to the 1970s, when the Gateway Arch, dedicated in 1968, redefined the St. Louis riverfront and when the St. Louis Union Station closed to rail service. The 1970s was a decade of railroad debuts--Burlington Northern, Illinois Central Gulf, Family Lines--and a decade of railroad demises--Rock Island and Frisco. It signaled the end of a century of rail domination of the American transportation scene.

The Ligonier Valley Rail Road

9781467120814

$24.99

To provide his sons with an opportunity to create a new business, Judge Thomas Mellon agreed in August 1877 to invest in a short line railroad that would connect Ligonier to the Pennsylvania Railroad in Latrobe. Four months later, the Ligonier Valley Rail Road (LVRR), a 10.6-mile-long line, was completed and began transporting passengers and freight between Ligonier and Latrobe. The viable transportation the LVRR provided to Pittsburgh markets immediately spurred lumber and quarry industries in Ligonier Valley and later coal mining and coke production. Also, to increase ridership, Judge Mellon built Idlewild Park on 350 acres near Ligonier in 1878. By its end in 1952, the LVRR had hauled more than 30 million tons of freight out of the valley. Equally impressive, because of the popularity of Idlewild Park and the growing tourism in Ligonier Valley, nine million passengers rode LVRR's rails over its 75 years of operation. Mellon's short line railroad stimulated an economic boom in Ligonier Valley and propelled it into the 20th century.

Railroads of Southwest Florida

9780738503493

$24.99

When the first "Iron Horse" arrived in Southwest Florida--at Charlotte Harbor in 1886--nearly 150,000 miles of railroads already existed in America, the transcontinental route was open, and Pullman sleeping cars were in wide use. But despite a late start, railroads forever transformed this beautiful region of the Sunshine State and connected its people to the outside world. In Railroads of Southwest Florida, the golden age of railroading
is documented with captivating images of stations, machines, and the people whose lives were affected by this significant form of transportation. From interior views of well-furnished passenger cars to scenes of hardworking men who made it all possible, this collection provides a thorough look at a fascinating, almost forgotten heritage.

Waterbury Trolleys

9780738538112

$24.99

Waterbury Trolleys traces the growth and expansion of the streetcar system throughout the Naugatuck Valley. This system became part of the Connecticut Company's extensive streetcar network, spanning 1,138 miles statewide at its peak in 1918. As automobiles became a primary mode of transportation, the streetcar lines in Waterbury transitioned to bus routes. By 1937, streetcars were officially replaced by buses. This wonderful collection of vintage photographs documents the network of streetcars that once thrived in Waterbury.

Rockford & Interurban Railway

9781467112390

$24.99

With today's America dominated by the automobile, it is difficult to believe that until the 1920s nearly 100 percent of the US population traveled via rail. Conventional passenger-train service spread rapidly by the 1850s, but another form of rail transportation did not emerge until the turn of the 20th century: the interurban. Almost always electric, interurbans linked cities with burghs. Rockford, one of Illinois's three largest urban centers during the 20th century, enjoyed a system appropriately named the Rockford & Interurban, dating from the city's horse-drawn streetcars of the 1880s. By World War I, the Rockford & Interurban ran from downtown Rockford to Cherry Valley and Belvidere; Winnebago, Pecatonica, and Freeport; Roscoe and Rockton; and Beloit and Janesville, Wisconsin. The Rockford & Interurban enjoyed a supernova of success, rising quickly in popularity before slowly dying when the automobile became widespread in the 1920s; the Great Depression finished the job in 1936.

Hershey Transit

9780738598307

$24.99

When Milton S. Hershey broke ground to construct his new chocolate factory in 1903, many questioned the wisdom of building in the middle of a cornfield. With his factory wedged between the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad tracks and the Berks & Dauphin Turnpike, Hershey set out to create a first-rate street railway system. The Hershey Transit Company existed many years after the trolley industry declined in most areas of the United States. It was the chief mode of travel for the chocolate factory workers, vital to dairy farmers for transport of fresh milk to the factory, and essential to students of the Hershey Industrial School housed in surrounding farms. On the weekends, the transit system brought people from outlying areas into Hershey, Pennsylvania, to enjoy the theater or the famous Hershey Park for employee picnics, family outings, or special occasions. Hershey Transit documents one of the best-known and well-kept streetcar systems, started by Milton S. Hershey and operated from 1904 to 1946.

New London County Trolleys

9780738535807

$24.99

Railroads were instrumental to the growth of industry in America. Streetcar systems branched off from railroad lines, extending transportation to urban and rural areas not otherwise accessible. The expansion of the trolley system in New London County also revitalized industry in the area. By the 1860s, the number of farms in Connecticut had begun to decline, and the need for reliable, reasonable transportation to towns and cities increased. The Norwich Horse Railroad, incorporated in 1864, was followed by various other trolley companies, including the Norwich Street Railway Company, the New London Horse Railroad, the New London Street Railway, and the Montville Horse Railway. Trolley transportation was finally electrified in 1889, fueling the expansion of trolley networks in Norwich and New London. The increase in trolley service allowed the textile industry to grow by expanding access to a sufficient workforce. The system also worked in reverse, enabling city dwellers to escape to the country for outings.

New Haven Streetcars

9780738512273

$24.99

The first street railway began operating in New York City in 1832. New Orleans inaugurated a street railway system in 1835, and most of the large American cities-Boston, Brooklyn, and Baltimore-were served by the end of the 1950s. In May 1861, more than a year before the nation's capital introduced this new mode of transit, the forty thousand residents of New Haven were furnished with local rail transportation.

New Haven's population more than quadrupled between 1861 and 1948, and the city became Connecticut's largest manufacturing center. Street railways made it possible to reach both residential and manufacturing areas. New Haven Streetcars illustrates the essential role played by streetcars in the transformation of the city, with images from each of the six groups of lines that served the New Haven area, including the Yale Bowl open cars, the universal dump cars, the safety cars, and the horse-drawn cars.

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.

Railroading around Dothan and the Wiregrass Region

9780738517193

$24.99

The Wiregrass Region of southeast Alabama, southwest Georgia, and north Florida--named for the perennial grass that covered the long-leaf pine forest floor--is a product of the railroads that arose with the New South. All kinds of railroads served all kinds of purposes in the Wiregrass. Shortlines and even temporary tracks moved timber and pine resin from forest to mill a century ago--they move raw materials and manufactured goods between ports and factories today. Longer lines created business links between Wiregrass towns and the cities of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and the world. Some of these roads lasted only a few years; others merged into complex systems connecting the Wiregrass Region with the rest of the world in a way early settlers could not even imagine.

Railroading around Dothan and the Wiregrass Region

Slabtown Streetcars

9781467133555

$24.99

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.

Los Angeles's Angels Flight

9780738558127

$24.99

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.

Johnson City

9781467129664

$24.99

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.