Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas

Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas
Author: Michael E. Hibblen
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 1
Release: 2017
Genre: History
ISBN: 1467125385

For nearly 80 years, the Rock Island was a major railroad in Arkansas providing passenger and freight services. A decline in rail travel after World War II and an increase in trucks hauling freight over government-subsidized interstates were among factors that left the railroad struggling. Efforts to merge with other railroads were stalled for years by federal regulators. The Rock Island filed for bankruptcy in 1975 and attempted a reorganization, but creditors wanted the assets liquidated, with a judge shutting it down in 1980. Most of the tracks that traversed the state were taken up, but a few relics, like the Little Rock passenger station and the Arkansas River bridge, remain as monuments to this once great railroad.

The Railroad That Never Was

The Railroad That Never Was
Author: Herbert H. Harwood
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2010-09-06
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 0253001552

This account of a doomed enterprise is “an important contribution to both rail and road history, as well as to business history”—photos and maps included (The Lexington Quarterly). Stretching over two hundred miles through Pennsylvania’s most challenging mountain terrain, the South Pennsylvania Railroad would form the heart of a new trunk line, from the East Coast to Pittsburgh and the Midwest. Conceived in 1881 by William H. Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and a group of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia industrialists, it was intended to break the rival Pennsylvania Railroad’s near-monopoly in the region. But the line was within a year of opening when J.P. Morgan brokered a peace treaty that aborted the project and helped bolster his position in the world of finance. The railroad right of way and its tunnels would sit idle for sixty years—before coming to life in the late 1930s as the original section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Based on original letters, documents, diaries, and newspaper reports, The Railroad That Never Was uncovers the truth behind this mysterious railway, one of the most infamous construction projects of the late nineteenth century.

Railroading Around Hazard and Perry County

Railroading Around Hazard and Perry County
Author: Martha Hall Quigley
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780738542737

Besides the 1795 settling of what later became Hazard, Kentucky, and the establishment of Perry County in 1821, no other event has had the historical significance of the coming of the railroad. Until the track-laying train came through the tunnel north of town and stopped briefly for a celebration, Hazard was landlocked, and the townspeople had never heard the earthshaking sound of the train whistle. Before the railroad, the river was their road. The only few household conveniences known to these isolated people were laboriously brought up the river on push boats. Many materials used to build the railroad were also transported on flatboats. As a bridge and tunnel were built, and a passage was made for the engine that carried the railroad ties, John G. Kinner documented the change with his camera. Images of Rail: Railroading Around Hazard and Perry County features John G. Kinners vivid and historic\photographs and others from the Bobby Davis Museum collection. Besides the 1795 settling of what later became Hazard, Kentucky, and the establishment of Perry County in 1821, no other event has had the historical significance of the coming of the railroad. Until the track-laying train came through the tunnel north of town and stopped briefly for a celebration, Hazard was landlocked, and the townspeople had never heard the earthshaking sound of the train whistle. Before the railroad, the river was their road. The only few household conveniences known to these isolated people were laboriously brought up the river on push boats. Many materials used to build the railroad were also transported on flatboats. As a bridge and tunnel were built, and a passage was made for the engine that carried the railroad ties, John G. Kinner documented the change with his camera. Images of Rail: Railroading Around Hazard and Perry County features John G. Kinners vivid and historic\photographs and others from the Bobby Davis Museum collection.

Hazard, Perry County

Hazard, Perry County
Author: Martha Hall Quigley
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780738505756

Hazard and Perry County have enjoyed a long and colorful history since founder Elijah Combs first settled in the area in 1795. The years have brought a multitude of changes, explored in this engaging visual history. Contained within these pages are vintage photographs depicting the history of an American small town that has always fancied itself a city. Images were culled from the collection at the Bobby Davis Museum, which includes selected photographs from John Kinner, Hal Cooner, L.O. Davis, and others. This work traces the area's development from an isolated mountain village to a center of Eastern Kentucky commerce and culture. Recorded in these images are the devastating floods that often threatened the community, as well as the building of the railroad that brought in everything from automobiles and telephones to Sears and Roebuck prefabricated homes. Aerial shots from the 1940s and 1950s are also included, and accompanying captions document the names and places familiar to oldtimers and intriguing to newcomers in Hazard, Perry County.

History of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad

History of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad
Author: Maury Klein
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 535
Release: 2014-04-23
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 0813146763

An updated, in-depth history of the rise and fall of the L&N Railroad that serviced the southeastern United States. After the Civil War, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad took the lead among southern railroads in developing rail systems and organizing transcontinental travel. Through two world wars, federal government control, internal crises, external dissension, the Depression, and the great Ohio River flood of 1937, the L&N Railroad remained one of the country's most efficient lines. It is a southern institution and a railroad buff's dream. When eminent railroad historian Maury Klein’s definitive History of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad was first published in 1972, it quickly became one of the most sought-after books on railroad history. This new edition both restores a hard-to-find classic to print and provides a new introduction by Klein detailing the L&N’s history in the thirty years since the book was first published. Praise for History of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad “A fascinating look at the L&N’s long and tumultuous history.” —Business Horizons “Stands both as an excellent example of what business history can accomplish and as an illustration of the work that remains to be done in the field.” —H-Net Reviews “Reading like an epic saga, albeit with a corporation as the main character, this enduring and definitive account of the L&N successfully offers a broad yet detailed survey befitting a company that at one time helped develop and mold the South while amassing great wealth.” —Journal of Appalachian Studies “A detailed account of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad’s first century of operation. The story of the L&N is a great one, and Klein has written a definitive corporate and financial history of the railroad. Klein's vivid account of this period in the L & N’s history will be very informative to those who wonder why America’s railroads are what they are today.” —Journal of Southern History