In 1922, the US Forest Service offered one of the largest timber sales in the agency's history, encompassing 890 million board feet of mostly Ponderosa pine timber in the mountains north of Burns, Oregon. Among other requirements, the sale terms required the successful bidder to build and operate 80 miles of common carrier railroad through some of the most remote and undeveloped country in the state. The Fred Herrick Lumber Company and its Malheur Railroad initially won the bidding, only to lose it when a crash in the lumber market forced the company into insolvency. The Edward Hines Lumber Company of Chicago picked up the pieces, and from 1929 until 1984, its subsidiary Oregon & Northwestern Railroad made a living hauling logs, lumber, and occasional livestock between Burns and Seneca, Oregon.

Most of Oregon east of the Cascade Mountains is a raw and inhospitable land, largely the product of recent volcanic activity. Railroad builders constructed a couple mainlines skirting the edges of the region and some branch lines into agricultural communities, but found very little else to attract their interest. Over time, however, a small collection of interesting shortline railroads built or bought rail lines, either in conjunction with the developing timber industry in the Blue, Ochoco, and Wallowa mountains or to connect a few existing communities with the mainline that bypassed the town. This book tells the stories of these small railroads and the roles they played in the development and economies of the region; covered railroads includes the Big Creek & Telocaset; City of Prineville; Condon, Kinzua & Southern; Idaho, Northern & Pacific; Klamath Northern; Oregon & Northwestern; Oregon, California & Eastern; Oregon Eastern Division of the Wyoming/Colorado; Sumpter Valley; Union Railroad of Oregon; Wallowa Union; and others.

California's sawmill and railroad industries grew up together, each at least partially depending upon the other for survival. However, not all of the Golden State's sawmills lay upon the routes of mainline railroads, resulting in the development of a number of shortline railroads connecting remote sawmills with the nation's rail network. In addition to serving the lumber industry, these shortlines often became economic lifelines to other industries in rural parts of the state. Many of these railroads also carried passengers, either as part of their common carrier service in the early years and/or as tourists in recent decades.

Dismissed in early years as a wasteland, the rolling open country that covers the interior parts of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho is today one of the richest farmlands in the nation. This work is the story of its transformation. Meinig traces all of the aspects of its development by combining geographic description with historical narrative.

North to West: The Best of Modern Chicagoland Rail showcases North and West Chicago's suburbs' best locations, trains, and photographs from the modern 2010s-2020s era. These suburbs of the United States' largest rail hub are filled with unique locations and trains you simply cannot see anywhere else in the world. Anyone can go out and find generic trains on these mainlines, but the authors pride themselves in documenting the history before their eyes. Unfortunately, as the times change, some of these trains and locations no longer exist, but that's the point of documenting history! From the country-wide class ones to small grain elevator short lines, the Chicagoland rail subdivisions into Wisconsin and Iowa are some of the most important arteries to the United States and Canada. Through the eyes of two experienced and dedicated photographers from Northern Chicagoland, the journey through the Northwestern suburbs is a largely undocumented and underappreciated gem in the Midwestern United States. From the popular Rochelle Railroad Park and the Cornfields of Southern Wisconsin, to the hustle and bustle of just outside the Windy City of Chicago itself, join James Keats Jr. and Dave Zeman as they showcase the best of modern Chicagoland railroads!