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Railroad History

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"RAILROAD HISTORY, known as the R&LHS BULLETIN from 1921 until 1972, is the oldest railroad history journal in North America. In it you find original scholarship and fresh interpretations that set the standard in railway research. Here are articles, photographs, and art carefully selected by the journal’s editors. It offers, in its Book Division, the most complete reviews anywhere of the latest books about railroads and traction. It is issued twice yearly in an 8¼ by 10½-inch perfect-bound paperback edition.
CoverIssue Description
206cov (12K)No. 206 Spring/Summer 2012Inspection Locomotives: whether seating 4 or 94, these fascinating steam critters were an important part of railroading from earliest days until the diesel era. Almost always custom constructed, and usually home shop built and elegant, this is the definitive work on these curious and diverse machines. Shelburne,Mass.: The R&LHS corporate clerk explains the relationship between the so-called greatest rail engineering feat of the 19th century and Society World Headquarters. Stillborn Interurban: Iowa's Des Moines & Red Oak Railway. Zephyr Memories: A conversation with the train's D&RGW's manager Leonard Bernstein.
205cov (12K)No. 205 Fall-Winter 2011Tragedy and Recovery: This year’s earthquake and tsunami put Japanese engineering to the test. Car Repair Billing in the Information Age: How a PRR initiative ushered in a new era of railroad accounting. When German Prisoners of War Rode the Pennsy: Moving POWs to, and from, their U.S. camps during World War II. C&NW’s Origins in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula: Ore and timber were powerful lures for 19th-century builders.
203cov (12K)No. 204 Spring/Summer 2011R&LHS honors one of its own: John H. White Jr. is the dean of railroad historians, former transportation curator at the Smithsonian Institution, author of several authoritative reference works, and former editor of Railroad History. We'll trace his career, and we'll tell you why all of us are in his debt. The Warshaw Collection: an introduction to a little-known Smithsonian treasure trove. More archival gold, north of the U.S. border. The Bosporus crossing: noteworthy railroad architecture where Europe meets Asia. Railroads and the Nebraska state capitol. Medical railroading during the Korean War.
203cov (12K)No. 203 Fall/Winter 2010Don L. Hofsommer remembers the worthwhile life of Robert W. Downing. Derek Boles recounts the building, hiding, changing and destructing Toronto's Victorian Railway Stations. We’ll also mark the retirement of America’s last interlocking tower and present two other stories on the development of train control technologies. And we venture beyond America’s borders – to Canada and Tibet, in search of railroading old and new.
202cov (14K)No. 202 Spring/Summer 2010Tom Garver tells how he helped O. Winston Link produce his famous sound recordings. John H. White, Jr. returns with a look at a Big Four Route predecessor. Osama Ettouney of Miami University traces the origins of Africa’s first railroads in Railways Along the Nile. H. Roger Grant profiles a forgotten Iowa shortline that mirrored larger trends in American transportation. Preston Cook surveys the production and promotion of U.S. locomotive builders in World War II.
201cov (11K)No. 201 Fall/Winter 2009Railroads in the African American Experience:Through the kind permission of Johns Hopkins University Press, we present an extended excerpt from the forthcoming book by Theodore Kornweibel, Jr., professor emeritus of African American history at San Diego State University. Elsewhere in this issue, Cornelius Hauck observes the Colorado Railroad Museum's golden anniversary; Tony Reevy continues our "Artist of the Rail" series with a profile of photographer Jack Delano; John H. White, Jr. writes of the Kansas Pacific Railroad and the demise of the American bison; Kyle Wyatt traces the history of an early California locomotive; and Ray State offers a new interpretation of the Delaware & Hudson's first locomotives.
200cov (12K)No. 200 Spring/Summer 2009Railroad History's special 200th issue. R&LHS president J. Parker Lamb provides glimpses of the organization’s past and looks at its future. You’ll also see rare photos from early R&LHS trips to Altoona, Eddystone, and more. Also included: a series of stories pegged to the number 200. You’ll read about the first 200-mph train, the first 200-km/h train, and Amtrak’s 200-series F40s. You’ll also find a complete roster of locomotives numbered 200, which provides a surprisingly representative cross-section of American motive power from earliest times to the present. And, because 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, we present the story of Lincoln’s most famous case as you’ve never seen it before.
199cov (10K)No. 199 Fall/Winter 2008Art in the Age of Steam: An unprecedented museum exhibition shows how railroads changed the world that the great artists saw. Espee without cab-forwards: We tell you how close it came to happening. Managing B&O dining cars in the final years. Was the Stourbridge Lion really the first commercial locomotive in America? How the Lackawanna pioneered the use of radio for train operations. And, to wrap up the presidential election year of 2008, we look at how William Jennings Bryan used railroads to change the nature of campaigns.
198cov (11K)No. 198 Spring/Summer 2008Philip R. Hastings, a sensitive and talented observer of the railroad scene. Eastern ideologies: comparing Baltimore & Ohio and Erie Lackawanna as the two roads faced the challenges of the 1960s. Culinary attraction: how railroads used dining car service and amenities to attract passengers. Trouble in the Heartland: examining the demise of railroad passenger service on major Midwestern cities in the postwar era.
197cov (10K)No. 197 Fall/Winter 2007No. 197 is a Special All-Steam presentation featuring a revised version of John H. White Jr.’s 1982 book, A Short History of American Locomotive Builders in the Steam Era. The volume summarizes the histories of virtually every builder of American steam locomotives, including a compilation of production levels for most companies. The new edition includes many new photographs of steam power from the late 19th century to the end of production in the 1950s and incorporates digital renderings of rare drawings and engravings. Also new for this edition: biographical entries for 50 leading figures in the development of American steam power. This is a handsome reference edition for any serious student of steam.
196cov (19K)No. 196 Spring 2007Why Cairo, Illinois, failed to become a great rail center. The golden age of highballing in the 1890s and its revival with the coming of streamliners. How Amtrak stacks up. NYC locomotive 999’s speed record is little documented. Steam’s last years in Colorado and Wyoming through the camera-eye of Richard Kindig. A McCloud River Railroad engineer takes a fond look at Baldwin’s 90-ton Mikados. A roster of 90-ton Baldwin Mikes used in North America. Coveted by E. H. Harriman and built to American standards by Imperial Japan, the South Manchuria Railway introduced modern railroading to the Orient. Engineer Joseph Santucci tells stories about his world and wins a world-wide audience on the web.
195cov (12K)No. 195 Autumn 2006The evolution of Canada's passenger service 1945-2005. Six decades of roling stock used by CNR, CPR and VIA Rail. Serving the remote areas of Northern Manitoba. Update on crossing into Canada from the USA. Jimmy Rodgers was the singing brakeman. A Stroll Through Mount Clare Shops in 1872Military escorts ride the rails in Pakistan. Monuments to Railroaders in Bronze and Stone.
194cov (11K)No. 194 Spring 2006Meet Georgia & Florida, the hard luck line. Passenger trains and motive power on the "God Forgotten." Profiles of forgotten RR history authors. Alco building and taking orders of their pioneer high hoods. Jack Delano's photos of men in Chicago wartime freight. The fight over Penn State's coal traffic. Western Front tasks of the railroaders in the Great War. 4-4-0 Baldwins in Finland.
193cov (12K)No. 193 Autumn 2005The streetcars took a hit with the flood. Lucius Beebe pioneered the railfan book with colorful prose and pictures. Facts sometimes got in the way. The steam power that Soviet Russia gave to China started in America. A case study of technology transference. A connoisseur of steam returns to China for a last hurrah. Coal dust, Reshui, and other bittersweet adventures. How to counter the popularity of the automobile? SP&S tried coordinated bus-rail service on its Portland-Pacific Coast line. 19th-century builders take the lead in selling the image and mechanics of locomotives. Restoring the art of another age.
192cov (11K)No. 192 Spring 2005For close to a century, workers on the Wabash had enviable access to on-line hospitals. A 1905 account of Southern Pacific’s hospital car. Employee associations persist in a world of for-profit medicine. Railroad publisher and writer Zerah Colburn lost everything and died in disgrace. All about the railroad that burrowed under Baltimore and proved the practicality of main-line electric traction. Pigmy electrics plied their trade on the narrow streets of East Baltimore. From shad eggs to 60-pound sharks, fish traveled in cars designed for their safety and comfort. How woodcuts, engravings, lithographs, and printers’ trains spread the image of early railways to the masses. Recovering an i mportant tranche of railroad records took organization, time, and elbow grease.
191cov (7K) No. 191 Autumn 2004History of the Dome Car; Cuba and Railroads: Part 2: Fifty Years Too Soon; Aftermath of an Ohio interurbans cutting of coal rates; Railroad Soldiers: Thumbnail history of U. S. Military Railways; The Bridge that Never Was: Japan's WWII Burma-Siam railway.
190cov (7K)No. 190 Spring 2004The Curve: Horseshoe Curve exerts staying power as an engineering feat and train-watching paradise; Cuba and Railroads: Part 1: Main Lines, 1837-2003; O. Winston Link; Requiem for a Runaway: In search of the remains of a Mallet that disappeared off Rollins Pass in 1924.
189cov (7K)No. 189 Autumn 2003 Railroads and Slavery; Defeating Division 699: The 1916 railway strike in Washington, DC; Santa Fe's Poster Genius; Loss at Kinzua: History of Kinzua Viaduct; David P. Morgan bio Part Two.
188cov (6K)No. 188 Spring 2003 Too Big to Fail?: The political and regulatory mindset that led to Penn Central; Forgetting St. Louis and Other Map Mischief: The oddities and deception of railroad mapmaking; David P. Morgan bio: Part 1; Overwhelmed with Good Fortune: Sir Henry Tyler vs. the Vanderbilts in a gilded age battle for Chicago.
187cov (6K)No. 187 Autumn 2002 Railroaders: Lives and Stories; Hitler's Locomotives: Part 2; American Variety: Comparing engine classes here and abroad; The amiable New York & Greenwood Lake.
186cov (6K)No. 186 Spring 2002Rails Across the Hudson: Getting across the barrier, then and now; On the Waterfront: New York Harbor railroading in the 1950s and 1960s; Hitler's Locomotives: Part 1; German Railroaders and the Holocaust; Strategic Short Line: All about South Carolina's Columbia, Newberry & Laurens.
185cov (3K)No. 185 Autumn 2001160 pages. Includes our EXCLUSIVE coverage of PATH operations during and after the terrorist attack of September 11, “Bravery at the WTC.” Plus Staggers Act deregulation, the saga of abandoned rail corridors, blue-collar “boomer” tales, Wheeling & Lake Erie locomotives, restoring the company town of Pullman, and discovering the beauty of dining-car menus.
184cov (3K)No. 184 Spring 2001160 pages. Features wrecks, explosions, and pile-ups, a comprehensive history of railroad accidents and disasters, with eight articles, an exclusive list of notable accidents (1831-2000), and many photographs. Plus recently restored photographs of the Pennsylvania Railroad, steam on the Virginian Railway, and German-built diesel-hydraulic engines on the Southern Pacific.
183cov (3K)No. 183 Autumn 2000160 pages. Includes "Century Gone," by Tom Taber and Mark Reutter, a superb overview of the many changes in railroading in the 20th century, embellished with period timetables and posters. In addition, "Race to Chicago" details the rivalry between the Michigan Central and Michigan Southern to get to Chicago first; "Sahara's Lost Railroads," offers an account of desert railroads that once fueled Mussolini's dreams and played a role in World War II; and "Semaphore Blades by Night" provides a missing chapter in the evolution of signaling. PLUS, the issue features the stunning night photography of Ben Halpern.
182cov (3K)No. 182 Spring 2000144 pages. Features the 4-8-4 locomotive by Robert A. Le Massena, with a gallery of historic action photos. Plus “The Railroad Pass: Perk or Plunder;” “Good Night, Madison,” an award-winning remembrance of growing up with tall tales and towermen in Wisconsin; a portrait of Henry U. Mudge, unsung Rio Grande mogul; and “Vanishing Triangles” on the New Haven.
diescov (6K)DieselThe Diesel Revolution
A 160-page special RRH issue, published to critical acclaim in April 2000, on the conquest of the diesel locomotive (1920-1960), featuring original essays by Wallace W. Abbey, Robert Aldag, Albert J. Churella, Colin Divall, Don L. Hofsommer, Maury Klein, Jeffrey Meikle, William D. Middleton, and Mark Reutter. With trackside photographs by J. Parker Lamb and vintage EMC and Alco locomotive images. Already a collector’s item.
181cov (6K)No. 181 Autumn 1999160 pages. Features a social and economic history of toy trains, from floor-running “dribblers” of the 1840s to the microprocessor locomotives today. Also slavery on antebellum railroads, why the Union Pacific and Santa Fe did not electrify, and “Liquidating the Rock,” a personal account of dismantling the CRI&P.


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