Founded in 1871 by a group of entrepreneurs from Cleveland, Akron, and Canton, the Valley Railway paralleled the Cuyahoga River Valley, stretching from southeast Cleveland to Akron and then on to Canton and Valley Junction in Tuscarawas County. The Railway filled a need in the region by providing an important passenger rail link among the three cities and provided direct access to the coal fields in Stark and Tuscarawas Counties, supplying coal for Cleveland's iron mills and other growing industries. The Railway began operation in 1880, continued service until 1962, and was revived in the early 1970s. Construction of the Valley Railway coincided with a growing interest in travel and tourism in the United States. It was in the spirit of tourism and boosterism that John Reese wrote his Guide, which is the only primary-source account of the landscape and communities of the region in 1880. Reese discusses both the built environment - bridges, viaducts, trestles, and roadbeds - and natural features in plain view from the train and illustrates it all with thirty period engravings. In addition, the Guide is filled with advertisements for all sorts of tradesmen, merchants, and businesses then found along the line, providing an added degree of interest - and amusement - for modern readers. In their new Introduction, historians Sam Tamburro and Juliet Galonska provide a corporate history of the Valley Railway, a thorough examination of the impact of the Railway on the rural communities through which it passed, and a discussion of the brief but vital role it played in tying together the regional ""metropolitan corridor"" of Cleveland, Akron, and Canton, all complemented with photographs of the region today.

Exploring the social, economic, and legal impact of the growth of the railroads, Sarah Gordon has written a richly informed narrative history of an American icon-with surprising conclusions. Where the railroads and their entrepreneurs are ordinarily celebrated for drawing together the vast geographical reaches of the union, Ms. Gordon finds that this accomplishment was achieved at high cost. Conflicts of interest-at local, state, and regional levels-characterized railroad growth at every stage. Despite the stated aims of government and the railroad corporations to promote settlement and commerce, Ms. Gordon explains, the states lost control and lost the economic benefits of the roads that ran through them. Smaller towns withered as people and money flowed to larger cities. By 1900 the union that had emerged reflected the worst fears of railroad critics. The South and West had been settled, but wealth had become so concentrated in cities that rural life had lost its attraction. Drawing from a wide variety of sources, including literature, diaries, and memoirs, Sarah Gordon has constructed an absorbing story of apparent triumph and real loss.

Charles P. Brown--"a boomer railroad man"--offers in this exceptional autobiography an unusually vivid portrayal of everyday life as a trainman for some of the country's greatest rail lines.
An itinerant railroad worker, or "boomer," Brown hopscotched across America between 1900 and 1913 seeking employment wherever opportunities arose. His wanderlust led him into a variety of jobs--including fireman, brakeman, switchman--for such railroads as the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Wabash, and New York Central until he was disabled at age thirty-four in a railroad accident. In this sometimes tragic, frequently funny, behind-the-scenes account of railroading, Brownie reveals the reality of working conditions for the railroad laborer at the turn of the century as he relates his many adventures and misadventures.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which journalist LuciusBeebe once called the "Mother of Railroads," was the brainchild of Baltimorecity planners who hoped to outstrip New York in the race for western trade,wealth, and populace. Although Baltimore lost the race, it gave New York a runfor its money early in the 19th century and certainly achieved manyfirsts: the first timetable in 1830, the first eight-wheel passenger coach in1831, and right-of-way for the first telegraph in 1844. In later decades, itwould be a pioneer in the introduction of electric locomotives, diesels, andair conditioning. Author of six earlier books about United States railroads,John F. Stover packs this narrative history with careful scholarship andcolorful description which will appeal to the railroad buff and theprofessional historian, as well as to any reader who wishes to travel with the "Motherof Railroads" through an exciting period in United States history.

This study provides a detailed, in-depth analysis of a single incident rooted in the effort of a group of professional employees to serve the public welfare It reveals in microcosm the interplay of political forces, economic interests, personal ambition, organizational structure, and professional ethics that culminated in an act of whistle-blowing. The incident took place during the final construction phase of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART), designed to be America's first attempt at space-age mass transportation. Three BART engineers, convinced of the lack of responsiveness of management to their concerns about the system's safety, were fired for insubordination and other organizational sins. Based upon repeated interviews with the engineers, with BART managers and directors, and with the professional societies involved, as well as upon an extensive body of documents and court depositions, legislative reports, media reports, and institutional memoranda. Divided Loyalties sets a theoretical context for the issues, traces the incident from its beginning, examines the aftermath of the engineers' dismissal, and concludes with a set of recommendations that should be considered by public and private organizations, professional associations, agencies of government, and individual professional employees.

&&LI&& Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:"; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} This engaging study provides an account of the independent railroad brotherhoods from the period of their formation in the 1860s and '70s to the consolidation of their power on the eve of World War I. By commanding the attention of U.S. presidents and establishing the eight-hour workday, railroad brotherhoods employed responsible trade unionism to their advantage. Paul Michel Taillon focuses on the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Order of Railway Conductors, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen to investigate the impact of these unions on early twentieth-century politics and society. Notorious for their conservative bent and exclusiveness based on race and trade, the unions also demonstrated a capacity for change and a particular acumen for negotiating in political and public circles, all but guaranteeing brotherhood survival. In highlighting the successes and failures of these railroad unions, Taillon shows how they employed capitalist principles; how they were influenced by considerations of gender, race, and class; and how they prompted momentous debates about the proper relationships among government, private enterprise, labor, and management.

From the time the first tracks were laid in the early nineteenth century, the railroad has occupied a crucial place in America's historical imagination. Now, for the first time, Eric Arnesen gives us an untold piece of that vital American institution--the story of African Americans on the railroad. African Americans have been a part of the railroad from its inception, but today they are largely remembered as Pullman porters and track layers. The real history is far richer, a tale of endless struggle, perseverance, and partial victory. In a sweeping narrative, Arnesen re-creates the heroic efforts by black locomotive firemen, brakemen, porters, dining car waiters, and redcaps to fight a pervasive system of racism and job discrimination fostered by their employers, white co-workers, and the unions that legally represented them even while barring them from membership. Decades before the rise of the modern civil rights movement in the mid-1950s, black railroaders forged their own brand of civil rights activism, organizing their own associations, challenging white trade unions, and pursuing legal redress through state and federal courts. In recapturing black railroaders' voices, aspirations, and challenges, Arnesen helps to recast the history of black protest and American labor in the twentieth century.

This beautifully written, meticulously detailed, highly engaging book is a rare treat. It evokes a vanished world of railways that achieved extraordinary things logistically while using what is by modern standards distinctly old-fashioned technology. Lifelong railwayman Terry Collins takes the reader on a journey into the heart of what working on the railways between 1962 and 1996 was like, from the days of steam, to the dawn of the modern railway age. The book is also a real eye-opener about many of the behind-the-scenes incidents the public never hears about. 'Never a Dull Moment' is an absolutely unforgettable book As Terry himself says: 'I really enjoyed working on the railways. We had our tragedies, sadly, but we also dealt with many other challenging incidents, including some bizarre ones, and when we won, against the odds, and got the trains and people moving again, it was a great feeling! I say "we" because this book is also very much about the many people in the signal boxes, Traffic Control, stations, yards and on the track, that I worked with, some of them "larger than life" characters, but almost without exception, determined to win. And we did!'