Name: Illinois Midland Railway
Brand: Jeff Kehoe
SKU: 9781467107754
Price: 23.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Illinois Midland Railway

9781467107754

$23.99

Located 50 miles southwest of Chicago, the Illinois Midland Railway connected Newark and Millington, two small towns surrounded by farmland barely two miles apart.

The Illinois Midland Railway began in 1914. Originally, plans called for a 120-mile railroad to be built across northern Illinois, connecting the cities of Rockford and Kankakee and bypassing congested Chicagoland rail traffic. A turbulent financial start resulted in just 1.962 miles of rickety track that meandered through forests, pastures, and across a creek. Townspeople there rescued the struggling railroad then ran it successfully under the tutelage of the Newark Farmers Grain Elevator Company, getting into record books along the way as “The World’s Shortest Railroad.” The end came in 1967, when vandals burned a couple of the railroad’s bridges. The Midland ceased operations, and the rails were removed, but again townspeople in Newark and Millington came to the rescue, each establishing museums to keep the memory of their Midland alive today.

Jeff Kehoe is a retired history teacher and active member in several railroad historical societies. Growing up in a Chicagoland railroad family, he has written stories for numerous publications. As a lifetime member of the Milwaukee Road Historical Association, he has written four books for that organization. This is his first book for Arcadia Publishing. The photographs and maps are courtesy of various sources, including the Fern Dell Museum in Newark, Millington Illinois Historical Museum, and the author’s own collection.

Railroad Depots of Northwest Pennsylvania

9781467105774

$24.99 $12.50 Save 50%

From 1860 until the decline of the railroads nearly 100 years later, Pennsylvania led the nation in railroad miles. The zenith came in 1920, when the state boasted 11,500 miles of track. The northwest corner of the state was home to the Pennsylvania oil rush in the late 19th century, coal mines, timber forests, and stone quarries. The landscape was dotted with railroad depots every couple of miles. These depots were waypoints for business transactions, family reunions, outings to amusement parks, and soldiers leaving for or returning from service; they also became hangouts for pickpockets, targets for nighttime burglars, and sometimes storage sheds for explosives. Although Pennsylvania still has over 5,000 miles of track, only a few stations remain, and most of them have been repurposed as museums and businesses. This book captures the stories these stations told when rail was king in the early 20th century.

Railroad Depots of Northwest Pennsylvania

Long Island Rail Road

9781467108874

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The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) is the oldest railroad in the country still operating under its original name. It is the busiest railroad in North America, with 90 million annual riders on 735 trains covering 11 different branches. The Port Washington Branch carries 14 million riders annually and is the third-busiest branch on the LIRR, behind the Port Jefferson Branch (19 million riders) and the Babylon Branch (18 million riders). Port Washington Branch trains converge with the main line just east of Woodside Station. The branch has been electrified since 1913 and is double-track to a point just east of Great Neck Station. The highest bridge on the railroad is the Manhasset Viaduct, which goes over Manhasset Bay. The branch has serviced the 1939 New York World's Fair and the 1964 New York World's Fair as well as the stadium of the New York Mets baseball team. The Whitestone Branch, which was abandoned in 1932, diverted from the Port Washington Branch at a point a bit east of the current Mets-Willets Point station.

New York Central's St. Lawrence Division

9781467106061

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The New York Central System was a huge, 10,000-mile railroad in the Northeast, stretching from New York City to Chicago and Boston to St. Louis. This book focuses on the St. Lawrence Division as it was during the 1940s-1960s; this was the glory period of its greatest modern-day years. This non-main line division, located in Upstate New York, contained more than 600 miles of track, including branches and running rights. The mid-20th century was a time of enormous change in the railroad industry. New technology affording economy, competition in transportation, reduced labor, and politics would be some of the factors leading to the change. Neighboring division crews had great respect for their "Hojack" colleagues, as was the division's nickname.

New York Central's St. Lawrence Division

Railroad Depots of East Central Ohio

9781467129398

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The hilly Alleghany Plateau of eastern Ohio was crossed by a number of primarily east-west rail lines heading toward Chicago, St. Louis, and ports on the Mississippi River during the latter part of the 19th century. These lines, eventually part of the Baltimore & Ohio, Erie, New York Central, Nickel Plate, and Pennsylvania systems, were joined by shorter lines extending from Lake Erie to the Ohio River, most notably the Wheeling & Lake Erie, designed to tap the coal and clay riches of the region. In order to serve the populace, railroad depots were needed. Smaller communities like Dalton and Dundee received typical combination depots designed to provide passenger, baggage, and freight accommodations. Separate passenger and freight depots were erected in larger communities, including Ashland and Canton. The arrival of the automobile brought a decline to local passenger service and a closing of depots. Some depots continued to serve the railroads in other ways and others were sold and moved from trackside, but many were demolished. Few remain today.

Long Island Rail Road

9781467106900

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East of Babylon, the 75-mile segment of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) stretching from Bay Shore to Montauk is a non-electrified stretch of double-track to Sayville, where it becomes single-track to Montauk. Presently, there are 16 active passenger stations along the route. In years past, there was a total of 32 passenger stations and a signal tower. Several highly significant historic events occurred at stations on this branch. At Montauk Station, Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders disembarked for quarantine upon return from Cuba during the Spanish-American War. At Amagansett Station, Nazi spies purchased train tickets in 1942 for travel to New York City with the intent to engage in acts of sabotage. It was at Westhampton Station that valiant firefighters prevented the building from being destroyed during the 1995 Long Island wildfire. During summer months, ridership on the east end of the branch increases dramatically in order to serve persons vacationing at east end resorts, where they can enjoy quaint shops and the beautiful beaches.

Rhode Island Trolleys

9781467129749

$24.99

The history of the trolley in Rhode Island is a fascinating and intriguing subject. Rhode Island had one of the richest and most modern trolley systems in all of New England, with historic Providence as its nucleus. In 1865, a horsecar line began providing service from Market Square in Providence to Olneyville. The evolution from horse-drawn cars pulled along a track to the electrification of the system took many years. By 1895, almost all horse-drawn cars were replaced by a robust electric trolley network of routes reaching all parts of the state. By 1954, electrified trolleys were in decline and were being replaced with gasoline-powered buses. Little remains but some images of the once beloved trolley system and its importance to those who depended on it. Through these images, one can take the trolley from Westerly to Watch Hill or ride from Providence to Rocky Point on the Buttonwoods line and be brought back to a time full of wonderment worth remembering.

Yreka Western Railroad

9780738574301

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The city of Yreka was determined to have a railroad. When the Southern Pacific Railroad decided in 1883 to bypass Yreka, the citizens constructed their own railroad known as the Yreka Railroad Company. This railroad managed to eke out a living over the next few decades. In the 1930s, the railroad was reincorporated as the Yreka Western Railroad. By the mid-1930s, the railroad went bankrupt and was forced into receivership, and a new manager was put in charge. Through perseverance of the new manager, the railroad began to grow and prosper. By the late 1970s, the railroad once again started to decline, but as in the past, it managed to hold on. In 1986, the railroad started an excursion train known as the "Blue Goose," and steam locomotive No. 19 was added in 1989. Throughout all the hardships, the railroad still continues today and has been given the nickname "the Little Railroad that Refuses to Die."

The Cheyenne Depot

9781467105316

$24.99

Twenty years after Cheyenne was founded by Union Pacific, the city had outgrown its three-room board-and-batten depot and began to lobby for a new, grander building that better represented the lustrous community. Union Pacific agreed, and in 1886, construction began on the lavish three-story passenger depot and headquarters for the division. The Cheyenne Union Pacific Depot, designated a national historic landmark in 2006, endures proudly as a symbol of the Magic City and the lasting partnership between the city and the railroad that build it. It continues to serve as Cheyenne's gathering place, a center of activism, and an enduring symbol of the city itself. While the state capitol just down the street stands as a symbol for the state of Wyoming, the Union Pacific Depot belongs to Cheyenne alone.

Railroads of Lake Charles

9781467106153

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This book tells the story of the growth of the railroad industry in southwest Louisiana through photographs and documentation of the first street railroads in Lake Charles and the arrival of logging trains and passenger service. Railroads of Lake Charles revisits the saga of the Kansas City Southern, Missouri Pacific, Southern Pacific, and other early lines. It also details the branch lines that originated in Lake Charles--the Lake Charles & Northern, which operated a mixed train daily to DeRidder, and the Southern Pacific line, which operated from Lake Charles to Lake Arthur to service the rice-farming communities along its route. The Lake Charles-to-DeQuincy line of the Kansas City Southern is also included.

Lake Shore Electric Railway

9780738561233

$24.99

The Lake Shore Electric Railway commenced operation in 1893 on the north coast of Ohio, providing transportation to Cleveland, Lorain, Sandusky, Toledo, and on to Detroit, Michigan. The Lake Shore Electric Railway connected with many other electric railroads to offer a comprehensive quilt of transportation. This allowed increased commerce, ease of transportation, and access for the industrial-era family to visit such recreation spots as Linwood, Crystal Beach, Avon Beach Park, Mitiwanga, Rye Beach, Ruggles Grove and Beach, and Cedar Point, among others. An unimaginable feat in the late 1800s, the Lake Shore Electric could travel from Lorain to Cleveland (approximately 30 miles) in under one hour, making the railway a huge success. Unfortunately this success only lasted about 40 years.

Kenosha on the Go

9780738550985

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Kenosha on the Go chronicles 110 years of transportation in Kenosha. From the first interurban streetcar that reached Kenosha's northern city limits in 1897 to the existing transit system in 2007, this book covers local streetcar operations, trackless trolley and bus operations, the two electric interurbans that served Kenosha, and the North Western Railway. Kenosha on the Go also brings readers to the rebirth of streetcar operations in Kenosha at the dawn of the 21st century.

Tooele Valley Railroad

9781467130264

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Shortly after the International Smelter offered economic salvation to Tooele's struggling desert community, the Tooele Valley Railroad became the town artery. Though originally built in 1908 to connect the smelter to the Union Pacific and Western Pacific lines west of town, the railroad became central to daily life. Hundreds of local workers rode it to and from work each day. As technology continued to change Tooele, the Tooele Valley Railroad shared Vine Street with the first automobiles--safety precautions required that the caboose, with a horn mounted to warn motorists, lead the oncoming train. However, the smelter's decades of prosperity proved short-lived, and by the 1930s, the town had fallen on difficult times once again. The railroad outlived the smelter, but operations ceased in the early 1980s, and the city had the abandoned tracks removed.