William Warden began photographing logging railroads in West Virginia in 1957. This book explains--and illustrates with both color and black & white photographs--the operations of logging railroads in the state from about 1940-1960. It includes a fascinating look at the rapid and haphazard laying of track, the challenge of getting up the mountains, and the hazards of derailing locomotives. Warden's book addresses the romance of back woods railroading. With puffy white clouds in an azure blue sky, a Shay type narrow gauge geared locomotive on the Ely-Thomas Lumber Company's logging railroad hauls a train of logs toward the mill in June 1954. This scene is typical of the interesting West Virginia logging railroad operations that are portrayed in this book. In another Ely-Thomas Lumber Company scene, Shay No. 5 prepares to cross Manns Run, near the end of this narrow gauge logging line's life in October. William E. Warden began photographing logging railroads in West Virginia in 1957. He prepared this book to illustrate and explain the methods and operations of logging railroads in West Virginia in the last twenty years that they ran, ending about 1960. West Virginia was one of the nation's largest producers of lumber beginning in the late 19th Century and extending into the middle third of the 20th Century. It had hundreds of logging railroads carrying huge quantities of timber to mills for processing into finished lumber, which was then shipped all over the United States, again by rail. The lumber industry in West Virginia began its decline when the great stands of virgin forest began to be depleted, and by the 1950s, there were only a half-dozen or so operations left still using logging railroads. There remain many logging and lumber milling operations in the state, but today the logs are taken from the forest by motor truck to modern, highly automated mills. The romance of back woods railroading holds a particular allure and nostalgia today, even as it did when these last few lines were still operating. We are lucky that Bill Warden and others were there to photograph the last decades. The book treats in detail five of the last and largest companies to use logging railroads and illustrates each line in some detail. Also included are chapters about logging in West Virginia and the locomotives that were favorites of the loggers--the famous geared Shay, Climax, and Heisler types. Today tourists can experience some of the logging railroad flavor by riding the Cass Scenic Railroad over the old line of the Mower Lumber Company out of Cass, W.Va.

Built by James Everell Henry, the East Branch & Lincoln Railroad (EB&L) is considered to be the grandest and largest logging railroad operation ever built in New England. In 1892, the mountain town of Lincoln, New Hampshire, was transformed from a struggling wilderness enclave to a thriving mill town when Henry moved his logging operation from Zealand. He built houses, a company store, sawmills, and a railroad into the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River watershed to harvest virgin spruce. Despite the departure of the last EB&L log train from Lincoln Woods by 1948, the industry's cut-and-run practices forever changed the future of land conservation in the region, prompting legislation like the Weeks Act of 1911 and the Wilderness Act of 1964. Today, nearly every trail in the Pemigewasset Wilderness follows or utilizes portions of the old EB&L Railroad bed.

Describes the history of seventeen rail lines used for logging in northern New England from the turn of the 20th century.

Short line mountain railroads are often miracles of construction. Built primarily for shipping logs, the Mount Mitchell Railroad was no exception. Within a span of 21 miles, the road climbed 3,500 feet, but utilized only three trestles and nine switchbacks, while maintaining a grade of five and a half percent. In this richly illustrated work the author brings to life a time when Mount Mitchell was dressed in virgin timber. Access to the mountain, located in Western North Carolina, was slow and difficult; but after completion of the railroad, a timbering industry was born. The railroad also provided tourists with scenic trips along its rugged contours.

An entertaining and historical account of Gould's life as a railroad engineer. His fifty-year career spanned the transition from steam engines to diesel locamotives.

The period of 1890-1950 marked the romantic era of steam power as the rails reached deep into the old growth of the Adirondack woods to harvest the timber crop. In this volume, not only does William Gove provide an in-depth history of railroad activity in the Adirondacks he also describes the logging methods used, the role of railroads in the logging industry, and the influence of the railroads on the condition of the Adirondack forest today. In addition, he addresses the political and economic forces determining the location and viability of logging railroads, villages, and the forest industry.