Examines the history, services, accommodations, and problems of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.

This second volume in a series of books about railroading in Virginia details the history of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway from its inception as the Louisa Railroad in central Virginia in 1836 up to modern times. Each chapter explains how a subdivision of the railway developed, including the types of locomotive used, the nature of the traffic carried, and geographical considerations. The many photographs are mostly from the 1930-1960 era. Maps and track plans add to the rich illustrative treatment, making this a gazetteer of the line.

This C&O history by C&OHS Chief Historian Thomas W. Dixon Jr. is fully illustrated with great photos from the C&OHS Collection. It is a short but detailed history of C&O from the days of Louisa Railroad of the 1830s to the C&O/B&O era of the 1960s. It covers people, events, development, structures, cars, locomotives, physical plant, and corporate history of the C&O. An excellent book for the casual reader and a great reference for the researcher!

Take a photographic journey along the 184-mile Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, from the streets of Georgetown to the railway depot at the canal's western terminus. The C & O Canal sprang from the dreams of George Washington, who wanted to build a transportation link between tidewater Washington, D.C. and the Ohio River. Though commerce on the canal ceased years ago, today it is a place for contemplation and recreation, a unique and precious blend of human and natural history. In more than 100 beautiful photographs, author Gary Anthes offers stunning views of the natural world – including birds, fish, insects, and trees – as he peers into the past at the fading but resolute houses, locks, and aqueducts left behind by the men and women who kept the canal boats flowing one hundred years ago. This book is both a treasured keepsake for tourists and a wonderful resource for history buffs and nature lovers.

This book fuels the world-wide interest in American locomotives of the late-steam era, when strong performance, high horsepower, and functional beauty were givens. Among roads wealthy enough to afford such engines, Chesapeake & Ohio was in the forefront with its 'Super Power,' and this new book systematically sets forth the development, use, maintenance, and performance of these 'custom made' designs from the introduction in 1930 of the C&O T-1, then the world's most powerful two-cylinder locomotive, through the 'Kanawhas' and 'Greenbriers' of the 1940s, to the L-2 class of 1942 and 1948, the worlds heaviest Hudsons, to the last fifteen of the Allegheny type, which had established the highest drawbar horsepower record of any steam locomotive in the world. The fascinating story of C&O Super Power involves not only the road's own Mechanical Department in Richmond, Virginia, but its close association with Lima Locomotive Works, of Lima, Ohio, and its even closer kinship with the authoritative Advisory Mechanical Committee of Cleveland, Ohio. In giving the reader a fresh and penetrating examination of C&O Super Power, this book brings together over 175 photos, plus reproductions of C&O's own locomotive diagrams and an ICC inspection report for Allegheny no. 1604, preserved today in Baltimore. The photos were carefully selected for quality, relevance to the text, and originality. These action and still photos hopefully will offer images seldom if ever seen before that the viewer will greet with surprise and delight.

This book by T. W. Dixon, Jr., details the whole history of passenger train service on the C&O. Beginning with the Virginia Central in the 1840s and ending with Amtrak's takeover in 1971, much of the information has never before been published. Especially during the 1920-1971 period, the era of the heavyweight steel passenger equipment and the lightweight streamlined cars, the heaviest and most powerful steam locomotives, and the iconic E8 diesels - a wealth of detail. Mail, express, dining car, sleeping car, and ancillary service are covered, as well as motive power, cars, schedules, consists, methods of operation, stations, staff/personnel, advertising, and all the elements that went to make the C&O's passenger trains not only highly efficient, greatly successful, widely known, and well respected. Though passengers accounted for only 5% of C&O's revenue in the mid-20th century era, the company lavished a great deal of attention on it. The feeling was that, to truly be a first class railway, C&O had to have the very best passenger service. Innovations starting in the 1880s and leading up into the 1950s, put C&O at the forefront of passenger service development from an operational and technological viewpoint. In the final decades C&O absorbed the passenger losses in the belief that the passenger train was the best advertising that it could have.