Name: Greater Wyoming Valley Trolleys
Brand: Harrison Wick
SKU: 9780738565873
Price: 18.74 USD
Availability: InStock

Greater Wyoming Valley Trolleys

9780738565873

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The Wyoming Valley is nestled among the Endless Mountains in Luzerne County with the scenic Susquehanna River meandering through it. Best known for its rich deposits of anthracite coal, the Wyoming Valley was first colonized by Connecticut settlers in 1769. Electric trolleys served many urban centers in Pennsylvania. Trolley service in the Wyoming Valley started in 1888 and lasted for more than 60 years. Trolley lines went through the boroughs and townships of Ashley, Courtdale, Edwardsville, Forty Fort, Hanover, Kingston, Larksville, Miners Mills, Nanticoke, Parsons, Pittston, Plains, Plymouth, Sugar Notch, West Pittston, West Wyoming, Wilkes-Barre, and Wyoming. Greater Wyoming Valley Trolleys features rare photographs dating from the 1890s to 1950 documenting the trolley system and the communities of the Wyoming Valley.

Chicago Trolleys

9781467126816

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Before the rise of automobiles, where new trolley car lines were built, people, businesses, and neighborhoods followed, and trolleys quickly helped Chicago become a world-class city.

Chicago's extensive transit system first started in 1859, when horsecars ran on rails in city streets, cable cars and electric streetcars following soon after, but once trolleys appeared on the scene, Chicago metaphorically exploded. At its peak, Chicago had over 3,000 streetcars and 1,000 miles of track--the largest such system in the world. By the 1930s, there were also streamlined trolleys and trolley buses on rubber tires. Some parts of Chicago's famous "L" system also used trolley wire instead of a third rail. Trolley cars once took people from the Loop to such faraway places as Aurora, Elgin, Milwaukee, and South Bend. Though seemingly-outdated in the 21st century, there are still a few trolleys running today for anyone who prefers to take the scenic route.

Hagerstown

9780738515076

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Hagerstown, Maryland's history is inextricably linked to the railroad. Hagerstown's nickname of the "Hub City" comes from the wheel-spoke effect that the many rail lines in and out of the city created. The first train cars from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad reached the limits of Washington County on December 3, 1834, where the line crossed into Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. The railroad was instrumental in transporting both goods and passengers and helped spell the demise of the C & O Canal. Through the years, the railroads continued to ply the tracks through the county providing work for many, and transportation of freight and passenger service from Baltimore in the east to the great expanse of the country to the west. Today, passenger service no longer runs through Hagerstown, but freight service continues and trains are far from forgotten.

Niles Canyon Railways

9780738529837

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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 of the Golden Spike that joined the eastern and western United States by rail, the connecting route from Sacramento to Oakland through Niles Canyon was finished--the very last leg of a rail route that truly joined the Atlantic to the Pacific waters for the first time.

Railroading in Pinellas County

9780738585505

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Pinellas County's railroad heritage began in 1888 and lasted almost a century. Today few people who walk, run, or bike the 41-mile Pinellas Trail realize the importance of this path as they travel through Pinellas County railroad history. Railroading in Pinellas County transports the reader through 100 years. History is brought to life through photographs of the individuals who brought to Pinellas the railroad, railroad stations, railroad engines, passenger and freight cars, railroad companies, employees, and industries such as tourism that utilized this form of transportation. These photographs were culled with the assistance and permission of local historical societies, county and state archives, and various private collections.

Steam to Diesel in New Jersey

9780738510859

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Illustrated with nearly 200 historic images, the pivotal birth of diesel dominance and New Jersey's critical role is documented and investigated.

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 Wheaton glass plant, the diesels instantly proved their worth, praised by railroad employees for their ease of running and maintenance. In an era when most clothes were dried outside, the public accepted the new lack of trackside coal ash with gusto. Steam to Diesel in New Jersey presents the mixed era of late-steam and early-diesel power on the big and small railroads of New Jersey, from the mid-1940s to the end of the 1950s. From the Baldwins to the Alcos, the steam-spewing Behemoths to the smooth-running RS series, this engaging collection of vintage photographs remembers a time filled with wonder and change. With nearly two hundred images, Steam to Diesel in New Jersey showcases the departing steam engines and the emerging diesels that ushered in a new period of railroad history.

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.

Copper Country Streetcars

9780738599861

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During the early 1900s, copper mining was at its peak in the "Copper Country" of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Numerous communities sprang up throughout the region, but travel between towns was difficult as the roads were not paved and became impassable during the winter months when over 200 inches of snow would inundate the area. The poor travel conditions and boom period in the Copper Country were instrumental factors that resulted in the construction of a streetcar line to serve the area. Service began in 1900, and the network was extended several times over the next few years. Ridership peaked in 1910, when over six million passengers rode the system; however, it declined in the 1920s as automobiles became more popular, roads were improved, and the copper boom subsided. Service finally ended in 1932. It is a fascinating history that surprises many of today's residents that streetcars operated in the area.

Rails in Rochester and Monroe County

9781467134378

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From photography to farming and from medicine to music, Rochester and the county in which it resides, Monroe County, are known throughout the world. This book brings to life the role that rail transportation had in developing an economy that made these contributions possible. By 1900, some of the county's biggest railroads had been drawn to the Rochester and Monroe County markets. They attracted people and businesses to the area and ensured the flow of products to the marketplace. Trolleys enabled people to commute to and from work as well as to enjoy the recreational resources of Lake Ontario and Irondequoit Bay. Rail transportation helped make Rochester and Monroe County truly great places to live and work.

North Beach Peninsula's IR&N

9780738570204

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For nearly 40 years, the quirky little narrow-gauge railroad, begun in 1889 by the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company, ran along the North Beach Peninsula in southwestern Washington. The train provided the primary transportation link from Ilwaco in the south to Nahcotta in the north, making peninsula communities accessible to one another and supplying a reliable route to outside markets for the area's major industries--oystering, logging, and cranberry farming. A tide table, not a timetable, governed the railroad's schedule, allowing coordination with the steamers that met the train at either end of its daily journeys. Old-timers of the area still speak affectionately of the train's unorthodox schedule and its informal and accommodating service. And they remember with fondness that the IR &N was widely known as the "Irregular, Ramblin' and Never-get-there Railroad."

Slabtown Streetcars

9781467133555

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No area of Portland, Oregon, played a more important role in street railway history than Northwest Portland and the neighborhood known as Slabtown. In 1872, the city's first streetcars passed close to Slabtown as they headed for a terminus in the North End. Slabtown was also home to the first streetcar manufacturing factory on the West Coast. In fact, until locally built streetcars began to be replaced by trolleys from large national builders in the 1910s, more than half of all rolling stock was manufactured in shops located at opposite ends of Northwest Twenty-third Avenue. All streetcars operating on the west side of the Willamette River, including those used on the seven lines that served Northwest Portland, were stored in Slabtown. When the end finally came in 1950, Slabtown residents were riding two of the last three city lines.