The History Press [New Releases]

Railroads are central in the history of Georgia. Explore 200 years of railroad expansion and consolidation in this must-read for railroad and Georgia history fans.

Before the start of the Civil War, Georgia had ten railroads, five of which figured significantly in General William T. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea.

The number of rail lines in the state ballooned after the war. Many were founded by individual entrepreneurs like Henry Plant and Thomas Clyde, while the biggest railroad of them all (Southern Railway) was created out of whole cloth by New York financier J.P. Morgan. At the close of the nineteenth century, consolidation was already in process, and by the end of the next century, only three significant railroads remained in Georgia.

Author and historian Robert C. Jones examines Georgia's rail history over the past two centuries and today.

Experience the thriving industry and commerce of Richmond during the Gilded Age. The Richmond Locomotive Works was born out of the ashes of the evacuation fires at the end of the Civil War. The company grew, despite numerous financial and personnel difficulties, to become one of the city's single-largest employers, an industrial behemoth that provided livelihoods to thousands upon thousands of men over the course of its existence. Over a span of sixty years, the facility produced a myriad of industrial products, including thousands of steam locomotives that traversed rails throughout the United States and across the world. Historian Nathan Vernon Madison provides, for the first time since its closure in 1927, a thorough and complete history of this Richmond institution.

At the turn of the twentieth century, railroads meant progress, growth and development.

In the 1890s Southport, North Carolina became the target destination for a major coaling terminal for ships sailing the Atlantic coast. A new terminal would require a railroad to bring in coal and other supplies. More than twenty companies were formed to pursue this idea over the years, with a few actual accomplishments, but most were purely speculative. Wearying the expectant town for more than twenty-five years, the vision for a great port was whittled down until local entrepreneurs finally built a 30-mile rail line to connect the town to Wilmington.

Local author and railroad historian Mark Koenig chronicles the short life of a short line and the long process of making it a reality.

The history of the Western North Carolina Railroad is a tale like no other, filled with tragedy, heroism, brains, blood, sweat, tears, nitroglycerin and humor.

Now a tourist mecca, the Great Smoky Mountains were a remote and inaccessible place until well after the Civil War. Using first enslaved and later convict labor the Western North Carolina Railroad and Murphy Branch connected the mountains with the remainder of the state by rail for the first time in 1891. The railroad brought commerce and tourism. Though its vital role was eventually eclipsed by the automobile, tourists and rail buffs continue to come to Bryson City to experience travel by steam train on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.

Local authors Jacob Morgan Plott and Bob Plott tell the story of a line that refused to die.

In 1949, two bandits from Youngstown, Ohio, boarded a B&O passenger train from Washington, D.C., to Detroit. In the West Virginia mountains near Martinsburg, Luman Lu Ramsdell and his gang stopped the train to rob and terrorize nearly 150 people on board. They pistol-whipped several and shot at others before exiting the train to next rob a tavern and hijack getaway cars. National headlines likened the event to the exploits of Jesse James and the infamous days of the Wild West. Lu and the gang led authorities on a chase that ended with a harrowing shootout five blocks from the White House. Climb aboard with author Wilson Casey for a firsthand account from the head bandit himself in this true tale of America's last moving train robbery.

In 1849, Virginia began a bold railroad expansion toward the Ohio River and its lucrative trade connections. The project's plan covered 423 miles and called for piercing two mountain chains with three railroads. The Blue Ridge Railroad was the shortest of these but crossed the most mountainous terrain. At times, hired slaves, who prepared the tracks, and Irish immigrants, who blasted the tunnels, faced challenges that seemed almost insurmountable. Many were killed by explosions and falling rock. Those deaths often resulted in labor strikes. The unrest slowed progress and haunted chief engineer Claudius Crozet for seven years. In this first full-length history of the Blue Ridge Railroad, award-winning author Mary E. Lyons uses a wealth of historical documents to describe construction on what Crozet called dangerous ground.

Take a tour of Virginia's scenic rail trails with author Joe Tennis as he explores restored train stations, discovers a railroad's lost island graveyard and crosses the commonwealth on its idyllic paths.

These classic rail lines of Virgina that were once only accessible to train engineers or a few lucky passengers can now be enjoyed by anyone looking for a scenic hike or bike ride. The trails highlight the natural beauty of Old Dominion, from the sunrise side of the Eastern Shore to the setting sun at the Cumberland gap, and each trail, with names like the Virginia Creeper and the Dick & Willie, has a personality and grandeur all its own.

Told through the eyes of three Irish immigrant families who helped build it, discover the groundbreaking story of the  construction of the Blue Ridge Tunnel.

In one of the greatest engineering feats of his time, Claudius Crozet led the completion of Virginia's Blue Ridge Tunnel in 1858. Two centuries later, the National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark still proudly stands, but the stories and lives of those who built it are the true lasting triumph. Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Hunger poured into America resolute for something to call their own. They would persevere through life in overcrowded shanties and years of blasting through rock to see the tunnel to completion. Prolific author Mary E. Lyons follows three Irish families in their struggle to build Crozet's famed tunnel and their American dream.