Trains & Railroads

The Chicago and North Western, in its second century of operations, experienced near-collapse, booming success as an employee-owned railroad and, finally, acquisition by the Union Pacific. From Chicago to Freemont, Nebraska, Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Wyoming, and Minneapolis to Kansas City, these final and dynamic years of the C&NW are chronicled in photos.

The Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad was one of the Upper Midwest's foremost freight and passenger lines, and eventually merged into the Burlington Northern. This book assembles a collection of photographs from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin that includes steam engines, rolling stock, depots, shops, yards, tunnel and line construction.

The first illustrated history of the people, machines, facilities, and operations that made Chicago the hub around which an entire continent's rail industry still revolves. In the mid-nineteenth century, Chicago's central location in the expanding nation helped establish it as the capital of the still-new North American railroad industry. As the United States expanded westward, new railroads and rail-related companies like Pullman established their headquarters in the Windy City, while eastern railroads found their natural western terminals there. Historically, railroads that tried to avoid Chicago failed. While the railroad industry has undergone dramatic changes over the course of its existence, little has changed regarding Chicago's status as the nation's railroad hub. In Chicago: America's Railroad Capital, longtime, prolific railroading author and photographer Brian Solomon - joined by a cast of respected rail journalists - examines this sprawling legacy of nearly 180 years, not only showing how the railroad has spurred the city's growth, but also highlighting the city's railroad workers throughout history, key players in the city and the industry, and Chicago's great interurban lines, fabulous passenger terminals, vast freight-processing facilities, and complex modern operations. Illustrated with historical and modern photography and specially commissioned maps, Chicago: America's Railroad Capital also helps readers understand how Chicago has operated - and continues to operate - as the center of a nationwide industry that is an essential cog in the country's commerce.

Written by the late Michael Brode, a former life-long resident of Windsor, Ontario; Connected, tells the story of how the railroad "put Windsor on the map.” Michael Brode tells this wonderful history of Windsor's railroad suing an array of old photographs of stockyards, stations and trains from around the area, some of which are new images to even local train buffs. The author’s background in history is obvious in the research, but his writing style is conversational rather than academic, as if he were telling these stories of long-ago corporate giants and heroic passengers and cowardly engineers while sitting across the kitchen table from the reader. This history covers a number of issues including: • Early railways in Canada, Michigan, and New York from 1830 to 1850 • The Great Western Railway to 1855 • The Canada Southern Railway to 1876 • The End of the Great Western Railway, 1855 to 1882 • The Canada Southern Railway as a Vanderbilt property • The arrival of the Canadian Pacific • Mr. Walker's Railroad • Railroads of the early 20th century • And a map of Essex County rail lines

Emotions are the driving force when an artist puts brush to canvas. This is the fifth fine-art book by the Guild of Railway Artists since being formed just over 30 years ago, but one with a difference. Earlier titles adhered to a specific theme, but this time the artists have been given the freedom to choose their own railway scene. They were simply asked to paint pictures of subjects that have inspired them personally. This is unusual for many of the artists concerned as more often than not they work to strict commissions. This is a unique selection of paintings by Britain’s top railway artists.

The people, trains and stations of those who participated in Ontario's golden days.

In the world of railway enthusiasts and modelers, freight carriers are every bit as technically involved and evocative as engines and cabooses. This color gallery pictures and describes, well, a trainload of "rolling stock" -- boxcars, flatcars, hoppers, gondolas, tank cars, auto-rack transports and others -- representing a variety of railways in action around the nation. Engines may provide the power and cabooses the sentimetal value, but without that which comes in between, both are moot.

The upper Mississippi River route is a non-stop parade of heavy tonnage freight trains carrying intermodal containers, piggyback trailers, coal, taconite, grain, and automobiles. Magnificent scenery, delightful river towns and plenty of trains are shown along the historic upper Mississippi routes. Included are the rail lines of Burlington Northern Sante Fe, Canadian Pacific Railway, Iowa, Chicago & Eastern and predecessor lines Burlington Northern, Milwaukee Road, and Soo Line.

James Richardson Forman was born in 1822 at Halifax, and returned from Scotland in 1854 to oversee the construction of the Nova Scotia Railway, the first publicly owned railway in the British Empire. But did he become a victim of Nova Scotia’s venal politics? He had been appointed to his post at the request of Reformer Joseph Howe, but was dismissed from office in 1858 by James W. Johnston, who became Conservative premier of the province in 1857. Two years after he left for a brilliant career in Scotland, it was discovered that most of the reasons for his dismissal were the fault of his second-in-command, who was also Johnston’s nephew! From Folly to Fortune examines the unfair treatment Forman received at the hands of his Nova Scotia countrymen, and asks the question if it could have been Forman, and not Sandford Fleming, who would later (in 1867 to 1876) have built Canada’s Intercolonial Railway from Nova Scotia to Quebec City, had he been allowed to stay on the project. Jay Underwood is a former Nova Scotia journalist. From Folly to Fortune is the fourth of his works on Canadian railway history.