Covering legendary and obscure intercity passenger trains in a dozen Southeastern states, this book details the golden age of train travel. The story begins with the inception of steam locomotives in 1830 in Charleston, South Carolina, continuing through the mid-1930s changeover to diesel and the debut of Amtrak in 1971 to the present. Throughout, the book explores the technological achievements, the romance and the economic impact of traveling on the tracks. Other topics include contemporary museums and excursion trains; the development of commuter rails, monorails, light rails, and other intracity transit trains; the social impact of train travel; and historical rail terminals and facilities. The book is supplemented with more than 160 images and 10 appendices.

RAILS ACROSS THE LAND traces the numerous railroads that crisscrossed the country from East to West, North to South during the late steam/early diesel era. 242 photos, $41.95. RIO GRANDE MEMORIES, standard & narrow gauge operations of the Rio Grande Railroad, $41.95; MILWAUKEE ROAD NARROW GAUGE describes this 36-mile line in eastern Iowa; hardbound, $39.95. TRAINS OF AMERICA, 204 pages,all-color, $44.95; WABASH RAILROAD, 320-pages, 550 photos, $41.95. LOGGING RAILROADS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 260 pages of logging railroads & logging camps, $42.95. ALONG THE EAST BROAD TOP tells the story of this coal-hauling 3-foot guage line in Pennsylvania, $41.95. THE MAN WHO LIVES IN PARADISE, autobiography of A.C. Gilbert who invented American Flyer trains & Erector sets, paper, $24.95. A.C. GILBERT'S HERITAGE, history of Gilbert Company, $15.95; JOHN NORWOOD'S WESTERN COOKBOOK, 150 delicious trailside & indoor kitchen recipes, paper, $9.95; VICTORY BRANCH RAILROAD OF VERMONT, logging railroads, 32 pages, $9.95. BUILDING & OPERATING MODEL RAILROADS features 18 model railroads in more than 200 photos, softbound, $9.95. Heimburger House Publishing.

"A tale of grand dreams, shady politics, daring engineering experiments, greed, ambition, and westward expansion, Rails across the Mississippi is the first book-length history since 1881 to document the planning, financing, and construction of the first bridge across the Mississippi River at St. Louis, a national engineering landmark completed in 1874 that is now known as the Eads Bridge. Robert W. Jackson takes a fresh look at this monumental project, dispersing the myths and filling in the gaps left by earlier scholarship."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The story of the men who build the transcontinental railroad in the 1860's.

In 1790, America was in enormous debt, having depleted what little money and supplies the country had during its victorious fight for independence. Before the nation's greatest asset, the land west of the Ohio River, could be sold it had to be measured out and mapped. And before that could be done, a uniform set of measurements had to be chosen for the new republic out of the morass of roughly 100,000 different units that were in use in daily life. Measuring America tells the fascinating story of how we ultimately gained the American Customary System—the last traditional system in the world—and how one man's surveying chain indelibly imprinted its dimensions on the land, on cities, and on our culture from coast to coast.

American transportation has undergone many technological revolutions: from sailing ships to steam ships; from passenger trains and urban rail transit to airplanes and automobiles. Normally, the government has allowed and even encouraged these revolutions, but for some reason the federal government is spending billions of dollars trying to preserve and build obsolete rail transit and passenger train lines, including high-speed trains that cost more but are less than half as fast as flying. O'Toole asks why passenger trains have been singled out -- and whether this policy makes sense. -- adapted from jacket

An overview of railroads in the United States and Canada from the 1830s to the present day.