Twilight Rails

Author : H. Roger Grant
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 0816665621
Total Pages : 293 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Twilight Rails written by H. Roger Grant and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the start of the twentieth century railroads crisscrossed the nation, yet there were still those who believed that the railroad network in the United States was far from complete. Residents of small towns lacking rail access lobbied hard for steam and electric roads to serve their communities, and investors eagerly started new ventures that would fill the gaps in the railway map. While some of these roads enjoyed a degree of success, most of them were financial flops even before the rise of the highway system made them obsolete.In Twilight Rails, H. Roger Grant—one of the leading railroad historians working today—documents the stories of eight Midwestern carriers that appeared at the end of the railroad building craze. When historians have reflected on these “twilight” carriers, they have suggested that they were relevant only as examples of unwise business ventures. Grant finds that even the weakest railroads were important to the communities they served; the arrival of the railroad was cause for great celebration as residents were finally connected to the outside world. A railroad’s construction pumped money into local economies, farmers and manufacturers gained access to better markets, and the excitement generated by a new line often increased land values and inspired expansion of local businesses. Even the least financially successful carriers, Grant argues, managed to significantly improve their local economies.This thorough and highly accessible history provides a fascinating look at the motivations, accomplishments, and failures of the twilight carriers, granting a new breath of life to this neglected aspect of American railway history.

Author : H. Roger Grant
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253006333
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.32/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Railroads and the American People written by H. Roger Grant and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-17 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Railroads and the American People is a sparkling paean to American railroading by one of its finest historians.

Author : Simon Cordery
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253019125
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Iron Road in the Prairie State written by Simon Cordery and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-20 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1836, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas agreed on one thing: Illinois needed railroads. Over the next fifty years, the state became the nation's railroad hub, with Chicago at its center. Speculators, greed, growth, and regulation followed as the railroad industry consumed unprecedented amounts of capital and labor. A nationwide market resulted, and the Windy City became the site of opportunities and challenges that remain to this day. In this first-of-its-kind history, full of entertaining anecdotes and colorful characters, Simon Cordery describes the explosive growth of Illinois railroads and its impact on America. Cordery shows how railroading in Illinois influenced railroad financing, the creation of a national economy, and government regulation of business. Cordery's masterful chronicle of rail development in Illinois from 1837 to 2010 reveals how the state's expanding railroads became the foundation of the nation's rail network.

Author : H. Roger Grant
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253011876
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Rail Road written by H. Roger Grant and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-17 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the grand antebellum plans to build railroads to interconnect the vast American republic, perhaps none was more ambitious than the Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston. The route was intended to link the cotton-producing South and the grain and livestock growers of the Old Northwest with traders and markets in the East, creating economic opportunities along its 700-mile length. But then came the Panic of 1837, and the project came to a halt. H. Roger Grant tells the incredible story of this singular example of "railroad fever" and the remarkable visionaries whose hopes for connecting North and South would require more than half a century—and one Civil War—to reach fruition.

Author : J. Bradford Bowers
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1646421280
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Bound by Steel and Stone written by J. Bradford Bowers and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2021-07-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bound by Steel and Stone analyzes the Colorado-Kansas Railway through the economic enterprise in the American West in the decades after the supposed 1890 closing of the frontier. In it, J. Bradford Bowers weaves a tale of reinvention against the backdrop of the newly settled West, showing how the railway survived in one form or another for nearly fifty years, overcoming competition from other railroads, a limited revenue base, and even more limited capital financing. Offering the Colorado-Kansas Railway as an example of how shortline railroads helped to integrate the rural landscape with the larger urban and economic world, Bowers reveals the constant adaptations driven by changing economic forces and conditions. He puts the railway in context of the wider environmental and political landscapes, the growing quarrying and mining business, the expansion of agriculture and irrigation, Progressive-era political reforms, and land development. In the new frontier of enterprise in the early twentieth-century American West, the railroad highlights the successes and failures of the men inspired to pursue these new opportunities as well as the story of one woman who held these fragile industries together well into the second half of the twentieth century. Bound by Steel and Stone is an insightful addition to the history of industrialization and economic development in Colorado and the American West.

Author : Julia Cresswell
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199547939
Total Pages : 514 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins written by Julia Cresswell and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2010-09-09 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains alphabetically arranged entries that explore the origin, evolution, and social history of over three thousand English language words.

Author : H. Roger Grant
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253066735
Total Pages : 239 pages
Book Rating : 4.32/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Sunset Cluster written by H. Roger Grant and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2023-07-04 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the Sunset Cluster--railroads that were doomed to fail? The first two decades of the 20th century were the twilight of the Railroad Age. Major routes had long been established, and local service became the focus of new construction. Beginning in 1907, a cluster of five shortline railroads were established in otherwise unconnected parts of Iowa. They, however, would short lived. The five Iowa 'sunset cluster' railroads might appear to deserve eternal obscurity, being at best minor footnotes to American railroad history. After all, their total mileage barely exceeded 100 miles. Their average life span, moreover, covered about five years, and the Des Moines & Red Oak Railway (DM&RO) never turned a wheel. Yet, these Iowa shortlines had an immediate positive impact to their service area, but disappointingly they became victims of modal competition and the Good Roads Movement. Using contemporary newspapers, government reports, and other little-known sources, renowned railway historian H. Roger Grant offers a fascinating look at these shortline railroads. Sunset Cluster explores the almost desperate desire by communities to benefit from steel rails before the regional railroad map finally imploded and the challenges faced by latter-day shortline builders.

Author : Tom Zoellner
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0698151399
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Train written by Tom Zoellner and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-01-30 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An epic and revelatory narrative of the most important transportation technology of the modern world In his wide-ranging and entertaining new book, Tom Zoellner—coauthor of the New York Times–bestselling An Ordinary Man—travels the globe to tell the story of the sociological and economic impact of the railway technology that transformed the world—and could very well change it again. From the frigid trans-Siberian railroad to the antiquated Indian Railways to the Japanese-style bullet trains, Zoellner offers a stirring story of this most indispensable form of travel. A masterful narrative history, Train also explores the sleek elegance of railroads and their hypnotizing rhythms, and explains how locomotives became living symbols of sex, death, power, and romance.

Author : Jan Young
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 055709383X
Total Pages : 188 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Studebaker and the Railroads - Volume 2 written by Jan Young and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studebaker and the Railroads is a history of the Studebaker Corporation and of the railroads that served it in and around the city of South Bend, Indiana. Both Studebaker and the railroads of northern Indiana have extensive and dramatic histories and there are many connections between the two. Studebaker lovers and railfans will equally enjoy the stories and facts reported.Divided into two volumes, Studebaker and the Railroads comprises over four hundred fifty pages and contains over three hundred fifty photographs, drawings, maps and diagrams.Volume 1 covers the Studebaker and the steam railroads that once decorated South Bend. Volume 2 covers the extensive electric railroad history of the area and includes a history of Studebaker's private in-plant railroad, the Chicago & South Bend, together with additional topics linking Studebaker and railroading. Both volumes feature detailed indexes. Volume 2 includes an extensive bibliography, numerous maps, and corporate history charts.

Author : Ralf Roth
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000591220
Total Pages : 499 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The City and the Railway in the World from the Nineteenth Century to the Present written by Ralf Roth and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-07-18 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the relationship between cities and railways over three centuries. Despite their nearly 200-year existence, The City and the Railway in the World shows that urban railways are still politically and historically important to the modern world. Since its inception, cities have played a significant role in the railway system; cities were among the main reasons for building such efficient but lavish and costly modes of transport for persons, goods, and information. They also influenced the technological appearance of railways as these have had to meet particular demands for transport in urban areas. In 25 essays, this volume demonstrates that the relationship between the city and the railway is one of the most publicly debated themes in the context of daily lives in growing urban settings, as well as in the second urbanisation of the global South with migration from rural to urban landscapes. The volume’s broad geographical range includes discussions of railway networks, railway stations, and urban rails in countries such as India, Japan, England, Belgium, Romania, Nigeria, the USA, and Mexico. The City and the Railway in the World will be a useful tool for scholars interested in the history of transport, travel, and urban change.