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.

Kentucky claims to be the birthplace of railroading west of the Appalachian Mountains. In 1832, the Lexington & Ohio Railroad (L&O) began to build track from Lexington to Louisville. Unfortunately the L&O got no further than Frankfort on the Kentucky River when it ran out of money. Railroad construction in Kentucky would stagnate until the 1850s when four companies started to build track, three were north-south and one east-west. An amalgamation of railroads using the name Kentucky Central would push south from Covington opposite Cincinnati OH, toward Chattanooga TN, but stalled at Nicholasville due to the Civil War. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N) would build southward from Louisville for Nashville TN, and Memphis TN, reaching both cities as the Civil War started. The Mobile & Ohio Railroad (M&O) during the same period completed a railroad from Mobile AL, to Columbus KY, on the Mississippi River. The east-west track reached from Louisville eastward to a junction at Frankfort KY.

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.

"Lynwood Montell has collected ghost tales all over the state of Kentucky, from coal mining settlements to river landings, from highways to battlefields. He presents these suspense-filled stories just as he first heard or read them: as bona fide personal experiences or as events witnessed by family members or friends. There are over 250 stories in Ghosts across Kentucky that are set in specific places and times. They include tales of graveyards, haunted dormitories, animal ghosts, and vanishing hitchhikers. Montell describes weird lights, unexplained sounds, felt presences, and disappearing apparitions. Phantom workmen, fallen soldiers, young lovers, and executed criminals appear in these pages, along with the living who chance upon them. Though the focus is on the stories themselves, Montell also includes a chapter explaining our fascination with the supernatural and the deep truths these storytelling traditions reveal about our lives and our pasts.William Lynwood Montell, emeritus professor of folk studies at Western Kentucky University, is the author of several books, including Killings."

The Frankfort & Cincinnati Railroad was a standard gauge, shortline that operated in Kentucky between Frankfort and Paris, by way of Stamping Ground and Georgetown. The line connected with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad at Frankfort and Paris and the Cincinnati Southern Railway at Georgetown. The line operated 40 miles of track. The line was called The Whiskey Route after the number of distilleries located along its right of way.

A good ghost story can make your hair stand on end, your palms sweat, and your heart race. The bone-chilling collection Tales of Kentucky Ghosts presents more than 250 stories that do just that. In his new book, William Lynwood Montell has assembled an entertaining and diverse array of tales from across the commonwealth that will keep you checking under the bed every night. The first-person accounts in this collection showcase folklore that Montell has drawn from archives, family stories, and oral traditions throughout Kentucky. The stories include that of the ghost bride of Laurel County, who appears each year on the anniversary of her wedding day; the tale of the murdered worker who haunts the Simpson County home of his killer and former employer; and the account of the lost mandolin that plays itself in a house in Graves County. These and many other chilling stories haunt the pages of Tales of Kentucky Ghosts. In the tradition of Montell's previous Kentucky ghost books (Ghosts across Kentucky and Haunted Houses and Family Ghosts of Kentucky), Tales of Kentucky Ghosts brings together a variety of terrifying narratives that not only entertain and frighten but also serve as a unique record of Kentucky's rich heritage of storytelling.