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Go inside the transition from steam to diesel, the pinnacle of rail travel and the development of the South through much of the 20th century.

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 to Memphis. The Southern Railway was born in 1893 at the height of these mergers. It came to an end in 1982, merging with Norfolk and Western Railway to become Norfolk Southern Railway. The history of the railway lives on, however, and Norfolk Southern continues to "serve the South."

In 2003, the Southern Railway Historical Association selected the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History as the repository for its extensive archives. Included in this collection are hundreds of professional quality, black-and-white photographs taken by company photographers throughout the railway's history. While a few of these images have been seen by the public, the vast majority have not.

The Pennsylvania Railroad's Horseshoe Curve is known worldwide as an engineering wonder.

This landmark, located just west of Altoona, opened to traffic on February 15, 1854, and it enabled the Pennsylvania railroad line to climb the Allegheny Mountains and the eastern continental divide. The Horseshoe Curve's construction impacted railroad design and development for mountainous terrain everywhere, enabling access to coal and other raw materials essential for the industrial age. J. Edgar Thomson, chief engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad, is widely recognized for his engineering and design of the Horseshoe Curve, a concept never utilized previously. Today the curve is still in use and sees approximately 70 trains daily. Through vintage photographs, Horseshoe Curve chronicles how this marvel remains one of the vital transportation arteries linking the east and west coasts of the United States.

Early postcards and photographs reveal the begininngs of rail travel in Ohio, and the rail depots and buildings that served the passengers and their goods.

The first rail lines in northeast Ohio opened for business in July 1850, and by the 1890s, northeast Ohio was laced with railroad tracks. Cleveland was the hub of railroad activity, and important rail-served lake ports developed at Ashtabula, Conneaut, Fairport Harbor, Huron, and Lorain. Akron became a center of southerly east-west lines. Over 310 passenger and combination depots were established at various points along the railroads to serve the needs of passengers traveling throughout northeast Ohio. Depots were the focal point of communities--news arrived over their telegraphs, traveling salesmen gathered on the trackside platforms, depot staff maneuvered four-wheel wagons loaded with baggage, parcels, and milk cans, locals gathered to meet, greet, and send off family and friends. The depot was a veritable beehive of activity at train time. Railroad Depots of Northeast Ohio offers a glimpse into these golden years of train travel through the use of early postcards and photographs of selected depots and related structures.

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.

Because of their unique location directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, Hoboken and Jersey City have long been centers of transportation activity, but they excelled with railroads.

When the railway industry was booming in the early twentieth century, four major passenger terminals dotted the left bank of the Hudson: the Jersey Central, the Pennsylvania, the Erie, and the Lackawanna. Thousands of people streamed through these terminals every day to the ferries that took them across the river to New York City. With over two hundred historical photographs, Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey Cityexplores the cultural and commercial effects of railway travel in two important New Jersey cities, and follows the history of these railroads between the mid-1800s and the 1970s, as well as exploring how the once vibrant waterfronts of Hoboken and Jersey City went through tremendous decline and how, over time, the waterfront has been restored and redeveloped. New residential and commercial buildings have sprouted along the old Pennsylvania and Erie properties, the Lackawanna Terminal has been restored, and the Central Railroad Terminal is now part of Liberty State Park, one of New Jersey's most popular tourist destinations.

Discover the contribution and history of the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad through pictures from the earliest days of building and development.

The Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad laid track from Alexandria through Fairfax County and into Loudoun County towards the coalfields of West Virginia. In 1900, the Southern Railway, which had taken over the line, extended the railroad into Bluemont on the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Washington & Old Dominion Railway leased the Southern Railway's line in 1912, went into receivership in 1932, and was reorganized into the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad in 1935. The employees excavated the roadbed by hand, built stations and electric locomotives, reconfigured passenger cars, replaced diesel motors, and rebuilt bridges. Eventually, public roads and a lack of shipping and receiving industries forced the railroad into abandonment. Through old photographs, Washington & Old Dominion Railroad explores the efforts that went into building, operating, and maintaining the railroad whose right-of-way has now become the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority's Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park.

This book traces the history of the electric interurban in West Michigan, telling the story of the growth, operation, and demise of an electric railway.

The Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muskegon (GREG H&M) Railway was part of a network of electric railroads that spread across southern Michigan in the early part of the 20th century. For nearly 30 years, the railway connected Grand Rapids with Muskegon and Grand Haven on the Lake Michigan shore. The fast and frequent service it offered transformed life in Coopersville, Nunica, Berlin (now Marne), Fruitport, and other smaller communities along the way. In addition, the railway and the boats of the Goodrich and Crosby steamship lines provided an overnight connection with Chicago and Milwaukee. Moving both people and freight, this interurban had an important impact on both local and regional economies. Images of Rail: The Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muskegon Railway traces the history of the electric interurban in West Michigan, telling the story of the growth, operation, and eventual demise of an important electric railway in the region.

Explore the geography of Rosslyn, Great Falls, Leesburg and Purcelville along the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad.

Washington & Old Dominion Railroad covered the railroad's corporate history, construction, and operation. The images within offer a look at the railroad's feed and grain business, railfan-type views of equipment and a visual record of methods used to maintain the right-of-way and place equipment back on the tracks. Additionally, this work offers a history of the conversion of the right-of-way into thevery popular Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park.

Learn about the history of mills and their place in the local economy. See how the Burro crane was a jack of all trades. Look under the hood and inside the cab to imagine what it was like to be an engineer on one of the railroad's Baldwin-Westinghouse electric freight locomotives.