Details the history of railroad closings and their impact on the railroad traffic running from the industrial North and East to the agricultural South and West.

Ghost Railroads of Kentucky (first published in 1967) and its two sister volumes, Ghost Railroads of Indiana (1970) and Ghost Railroads of Tennessee (1975), provide the authoritative account of the abandoned lines in the railroad heartland east of the Mississippi. No mere compilation of dry statistics on track closings and running schedules (though they are here too!), this book is full of the life and vigor of Kentucky's economic arteries. Professor Sulzer, a consummate storyteller, recounts the human drama surrounding these ghost lines. Even poor Alex Richardson, shamefully lynched on the new railroad bridge over the Kentucky River at West Irvine, has his sad story told.

Railroads have played a major role in transportation, logistics and development in the state of Indiana. A perfect resource for railroad enthusiasts or students of Indiana history, Indiana Railroad Lines provides a comprehensive and detailed account of the railroad companies that operated in the state between 1838 and 1999 and the counties and towns they served. This volume provides the dates of the contraction, purchase, sale, lease and abandonment of the various railroad lines and is complete with charts and maps that provide information on the development and decline of railroads in the state.

Professor Sulzer introduces us to both the mighty and the humble lines that once traversed this important railroad state. Here we meet Tennessee's own Nashville & Chattanooga (later called the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis) and the Tennessee Central. We also come across the Dummy Line, the Jerkwater, and the Tweetsie. We follow the story as 4,078 miles of rail in 1920 dwindles to 2,969 by 1975. But this is not a mere compilation of dry statistics on track closings and running schedules. It is a book full of the life and vigor of Tennessee's economic arteries. Although Tennessee's mining and logging resources were depleted and the rail lines abandoned, the isolated towns and villages find their voice in Professor Sulzer's storytelling.

Despite the huge amount of interest in railroads, this is the first complete description and history of the railroads of Indiana from the first line, completed in 1838, up to the present. Simons and Parker follow Indiana's railroads through five distinct eras - 1830 to 1860, 1860 to 1900, 1900 to 1930, 1930 to 1960, and 1960 to 1996. The broad themes of Indiana railroad history are sketched within the framework of these periods. In addition, there is a brief synopsis of each railroad system, tracing its corporate and physical growth and evolution. A third section is devoted to commonalities among the various railroads, focusing on services, facilities, personalities, and accidents.

Photographs, advertising and promotional materials, and detailed maps resurrect its speedy passenger trains and heavy-tonnage freights, and show how it earned its slogan: "The Standard Railroad of the World.""--BOOK JACKET.

"Christopher Rund chronicles the development of the Indiana Rail Road Company from its origins of part of America's first land grant railroad - the Illinois Central - through the political and financial juggling required by entrepreneur Tom Hoback to purhcase the line when it fell into disrepair. The company was reborn as a robust, profitable carrier and has become a new model for America's regional railroads."--BOOK JACKET.