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With over two hundred historical photographs, Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey City explores the cultural and commercial effects of railway travel in two important New Jersey cities. Because of their unique location directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, Hoboken and Jersey City have long been centers of transportation activity. When the railway industry was booming in the early twentieth century, four major passenger terminals dotted the...
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At the end of World War II, the nation's railroads were eager to replace their abundance of war-weary steam locomotives with sleek new diesel engines. From Cape May to Bayonne, New Jersey's tracks were soon humming with diesels while the old steamers were nudged onto the scrap tracks of the Central New Jersey, the Erie, and the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroads, among others. Powering a commuter train to Dover or a sand train to Millville's...
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Chartered in 1834 to provide a route between New York City and Boston, the Long Island Rail Road ran from the Brooklyn waterfront through the center of Long Island to Greenport. The railroad served the agricultural market on Long Island until branches and competing lines eventually developed on the north and south shores of the island and several hundred passenger stations were built. After Penn Station was opened in 1910, the number of passengers...
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The narrow gauge railroad arrived in the United States in the late nineteenth century. Based on the Welsh two-foot gauge, the American narrow gauge was expanded by railroad engineers to a three-foot gauge that became the standard track width for narrow gauge railroads in the United States. Maine, however, adopted the two-foot gauge that was developed by George E. Mansfield in Massachusetts. The narrow track width was ideally suited to the mountainous...
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For a century, the Norfolk and Western Railway operated as one of the greatest transportation companies in the southeastern United States. From developing the coal fields of West Virginia to accommodating passengers aboard its famous Powhaten Arrow and Pocahontas lines, the N&W was the last major railroad to abandon the steam engine. The story of the N&W is a story about people-a story of the tens of thousands of people who worked in the shops and...
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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...
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In 1848, the railroad extended to Cape Cod to serve the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company. By 1887, fourteen of the fifteen towns on Cape Cod were connected by the railroad. For a short time, even the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard had railroad lines. As the highways expanded in the years following World War II, the automobile became the primary mode of transportation. By 1959, year-round Cape Cod passenger service had been discontinued....
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Boston's rapid-transit Blue Line covers a distance of 5.94 miles, a twenty-three-minute commute that begins at Bowdoin station in downtown Boston, travels under the harbor, passes Revere Beach, and stops at Wonderland. Today's commuters might be surprised to learn that the line they are riding was once operated by trolley cars and narrow-gauge steam-powered commuter trains, for it was not until 1904 that the East Boston Tunnel under the harbor was...
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By 1908 Hartford had an extensive system of streetcar lines radiating from the city in all directions. The Hartford division of the Connecticut Company totaled more than one hundred twenty-five miles of track for streetcars, the dominant mode of public transportation in central Connecticut. One could take a car to New Britain, Stafford Springs, or all the way to Springfield, Massachusetts. By the 1920s, the lighter density streetcar lines were no...
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Chartered on April 24, 1834, as a route from Brooklyn to Boston, the Long Island Rail Road commenced in 1836 with service between Brooklyn and Jamaica, New York. The railroad has linked Long Island and New York City through several periods of increasing immigration and population beginning in the 1880s. Farmers and fishermen have depended on the railroad for their livelihood, and every summer thousands of tourists flock to Long Island beaches on the...
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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...
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Rail transportation has been part of daily life in Reading since the 1830s. Reading Trains and Trolleys portrays the good old days of the Philadelphia & Reading Railway (reorganized as the Reading Company in 1923), the Schuykill Valley Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Mount Penn Gravity Railroad, the Neversink Mountain Railroad, the Reading City Passenger Railway, and the Reading Traction Company. The Reading Railroad gained widespread recognition...
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The arrival of the railroad in South Dakota is directly responsible for the population boom and town development the state experienced in the early 1900s. Enticed by the promise of opportunity, many immigrants and East Coast residents hopped on the train and headed west, many settling in South Dakota. Railroads opened the doorway and made the West what it has become. Using over 200 images, authors Mike Wiese and Tom Hayes take the reader on a historic...
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The Southern Railway was the pinnacle of rail service in the South for nearly 100 years. Its roots stretch back to 1827, when the South Carolina Canal & Rail Road Company was founded in Charleston to provide freight transportation and America's first regularly scheduled passenger service. Through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Great Depression, rail lines throughout the South continued to merge, connecting Washington, D.C. to Atlanta and Charleston...
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The old port town of Alviso, nestled in the southernmost point of San Francisco Bay, was busy long before the gold rush. It began in the 1700s as a landing for Mission Santa Clara, where Californios drove oxcarts heavy with cowhides and tallow to load aboard ships bound for New England and Europe. Later immigrants disembarked from paddle-wheel steamers to establish farms and businesses throughout the South Bay. Quicksilver from the New Almaden mines,...
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All aboard for this photographic journey through the unique railroad history of Niles Canyon, near the city of Fremont. The melodic wail of the steam whistle first echoed off these canyon walls in 1866 when the Western Pacific Railroad laid track into Niles as part of a planned route from San Jose to Sacramento. That was three years before the transcontinental route from Sacramento to Omaha was completed in May 1869. Four months after the driving...
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Chartered as early as 1832, Northwestern Ohio railroads were among the first in the Midwest. Toledo, a rapidly developing lake port at the mouth of the Maumee River, was the destination point for many lines; others were just passing through on their way to Chicago and points west. By 1907, 20 lines served the northwestern counties. All had a series of stations along their lines, often with depots or other railroad structures. Although many have come...
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Planned and chartered on April 24, 1834, the Long Island Rail Road commenced operations in 1836 to provide a route to Boston. Stretching 110 miles east of New York City, the Long Island Rail Road has been the backbone of population growth and suburban development for over a hundred years. Electrification was begun on the Long Island Rail Road in 1905. Whether it was commuter, freight, or special trains, third-rail operations played a major role in...
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