This second volume in a series of books about railroading in Virginia details the history of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway from its inception as the Louisa Railroad in central Virginia in 1836 up to modern times. Each chapter explains how a subdivision of the railway developed, including the types of locomotive used, the nature of the traffic carried, and geographical considerations. The many photographs are mostly from the 1930-1960 era. Maps and track plans add to the rich illustrative treatment, making this a gazetteer of the line.
This C&O history by C&OHS Chief Historian Thomas W. Dixon Jr. is fully illustrated with great photos from the C&OHS Collection. It is a short but detailed history of C&O from the days of Louisa Railroad of the 1830s to the C&O/B&O era of the 1960s. It covers people, events, development, structures, cars, locomotives, physical plant, and corporate history of the C&O. An excellent book for the casual reader and a great reference for the researcher!
This book by T. W. Dixon, Jr., details the whole history of passenger train service on the C&O. Beginning with the Virginia Central in the 1840s and ending with Amtrak's takeover in 1971, much of the information has never before been published. Especially during the 1920-1971 period, the era of the heavyweight steel passenger equipment and the lightweight streamlined cars, the heaviest and most powerful steam locomotives, and the iconic E8 diesels - a wealth of detail. Mail, express, dining car, sleeping car, and ancillary service are covered, as well as motive power, cars, schedules, consists, methods of operation, stations, staff/personnel, advertising, and all the elements that went to make the C&O's passenger trains not only highly efficient, greatly successful, widely known, and well respected. Though passengers accounted for only 5% of C&O's revenue in the mid-20th century era, the company lavished a great deal of attention on it. The feeling was that, to truly be a first class railway, C&O had to have the very best passenger service. Innovations starting in the 1880s and leading up into the 1950s, put C&O at the forefront of passenger service development from an operational and technological viewpoint. In the final decades C&O absorbed the passenger losses in the belief that the passenger train was the best advertising that it could have.
Take a photographic journey along the 184-mile Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, from the streets of Georgetown to the railway depot at the canal's western terminus. The C & O Canal sprang from the dreams of George Washington, who wanted to build a transportation link between tidewater Washington, D.C. and the Ohio River. Though commerce on the canal ceased years ago, today it is a place for contemplation and recreation, a unique and precious blend of human and natural history. In more than 100 beautiful photographs, author Gary Anthes offers stunning views of the natural world – including birds, fish, insects, and trees – as he peers into the past at the fading but resolute houses, locks, and aqueducts left behind by the men and women who kept the canal boats flowing one hundred years ago. This book is both a treasured keepsake for tourists and a wonderful resource for history buffs and nature lovers.
The best-loved company symbol of all time. Introduced in 1933, Chessie appeared on calendars, railroad memorabilia, and in advertisements and was modernized to form the logo for the new Chessie System paint scheme in 1972.
“The first comprehensive history of the Hocking Valley Railway ever published fills a gap in the literature. Miller has written the definitive history of this railroad,” says Richard Francaviglia, author of Hard Places: Reading the Landscape of America's Historic Mining Districts. The Hocking Valley Railway was once Ohio's longest rail line, filled with a seemingly endless string of coal trains. Although coal was the main business, the railroad also carried iron and salt-and kept the finest passenger service in the State of Ohio. Despite the fact that the Hocking Valley was such a large railroad, with a huge economic and social impact, very little is known about it.The Hocking Valley Railway traces the journey of a company that began in 1867 as the Columbus and Hocking Valley, built to haul coal from Athens to Columbus. Extensions of the line and consolidation of several branches ultimately created the Columbus, Hocking Valley and Toledo. This was a 345-mile railway, extending from the Lake Erie port of Toledo through Columbus, and on to the Ohio River port of Pomeroy. The history of the Hocking Valley, as with other railroads, is one of boom times and depression. By the 1920s, the Hocking fields were largely depleted, and the mass of track south of Columbus became a backwater, while the Toledo Division boomed. The corporate name has been gone for more than three quarters of a century, but the Hocking Valley lives on as an integral part of railroad successor CSX. Historians and railroad enthusiasts will find much to savor in the story of this ever-changing company and the managers who ran it. The Hocking Valley Railway, complete with more than 150 photographs and illustrations, also documents a historic transformation in Midwest transportation from slow canalboats to speedy railcars.The author, Edward H. Miller is retired from Hocking Valley successor CSX. This is his first book, which has been over thirty years in the making.
In the late 1860s, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) pushed its first tracks westward from Virginia's Tidewater region across the mountains into what was then the new state of West Virginia. Ultimately its tracks stretched across a half-dozen states and even into Canada. Appalachian coal was the C&O's primary cargo, but its fast freights carried shipments of all kinds, and its crack passenger trains were marvels of their day. In 1963, the C&O merged with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the first of what would become a wave of railroad mergers. Today the old C&O is part of giant CSX Transportation. Images of Rail: The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway gathers 200 photographs that chronicle the C&O story. Here is a fond look back at its mammoth steam locomotives and the diesels that replaced them, its bustling passenger stations, and much more, including the legendary John Henry, who beat that steam drill, and Chessie, the sleeping kitten that was the C&O's much-loved trademark.