Encyclopedia Of Western Railroad History Oregon Washington

Distributed by the University of Nebraska Press for Caxton Press This 352-page, triple indexed reference book covers nearly 500 names in the two north Pacific coast states. All known common carrier steam powered operations of ten or more miles are included, plus numerous logging companies, electric traction and diesel operations. The account covers their histories from inception until sale or abandonment - or until 1993 if still active. Railroad titles are full and exact.

Distributed by the University of Nebraska Press for Caxton Press This book includes 368 pages of maps, photographs and technical data on the history of railroading in California. There are detailed reports on dates of operation, mergers, miles of track, maximum grade, gauge and rail weight. It also includes the histories of thousands of locomotives.

Railroads are listed alphabetically by state with detailed company descriptions including dates of operation, miles of track, maximum grade, gauge, rail weight, and the histories of thousands of locomotives. With maps and black and white photos. The book also has chapters discussing the development of West, including construction of forts and post offices, and notes on railroad construction in the area (locomotive census, major builders, mileage, fuel consumption, etc.). The information in the book was gleaned from federal and state government data, and newspapers of the period.

In 1869, Jay Cooke, the brilliant but idiosyncratic American banker, decided to finance the Northern Pacific, a transcontinental railroad planned from Duluth, Minnesota, to Seattle. M. John Lubetkin tells how Cooke’s gamble reignited war with the Sioux, rescued George Armstrong Custer from obscurity, created Yellowstone Park, pushed frontier settlement four hundred miles westward, and triggered the Panic of 1873. Staking his reputation and wealth on the Northern Pacific, Cooke was soon whipsawed by the railroad’s mismanagement, questionable contracts, and construction problems. Financier J. P. Morgan undermined him, and the Crédit Mobilier scandal ended congressional support. When railroad surveyors and army escorts ignored Sioux chief Sitting Bull’s warning not to enter the Yellowstone Valley, Indian attacks—combined with alcoholic commanders—led to embarrassing setbacks on the field, in the nation’s press, and among investors. Lubetkin’s suspenseful narrative describes events played out from Wall Street to the Yellowstone and vividly portrays the soldiers, engineers, businessmen, politicians, and Native Americans who tried to build or block the Northern Pacific.

The streetcars that plied Oregon's small-town streets were every bit as diverse as those in Portland and their history even more fascinating. Learn of the devastating 1922 fire that scorched Astoria's plank road railways and put a halt to its once-thriving streetcar network. Muse over the tale of a beloved white horse named Old Charlie that proved more efficient at powering Albany's streetcars than the alternative steam locomotive. Laugh at the spectacle of university students being carted back to their dormitories on the Eleventh Street Line's special midnight "drunk express" trains. Take pride in the tiny town of Cherry Grove, which became the first in the West to embrace new battery technology. Local historian Richard Thompson celebrates the lost trolley lines that transported Oregon's people across the state for decades.