Great Railroad Tunnels of North America

Author: William Lowell Putnam
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786489200
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
Describing and detailing the boring of major railroad tunnels throughout Canada, the United States, and Mexico, this book covers the period from the creation of Virginia's Blue Ridge Tunnel in the 1850s to Copper Canyon's Continental and El Descanso tunnels in the early 1960s. Other notable tunnels featured here include Massachusetts' notoriously expensive and slow-progressing Hoosac Tunnel; Colorado's rail and water Moffat Tunnel; Montana's Flathead Tunnel; and several major tunnels along the Canadian Pacific's main line. In addition to providing details on the tunnels, the author considers the reasons they were created, their engineers, and their use. The book includes more than 50 period and contemporary photos. A glossary explains concepts related to railroad construction and maintenance.

Ghosts of Gold Mountain

Author: Gordon H. Chang
Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN: 1328618579
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Book Description
Guangdong -- Gold Mountain -- Central Pacific -- Foothills -- The High Sierra -- The Summit -- The Strike -- Truckee -- The Golden Spike -- Beyond Promontory.

Tunnels, Nitro and Convicts

Author: Stephen R. Little
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1452067716
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 42

Book Description
Still suffering the devastation of the Civil war that ended only ten years earlier, North Carolina shipped prison inmates from Raleigh to build the Mountain Division of the western North Carolina railroad. Some amazing and astonishing events occurred from 1875 through 1879 as this mountain railroad (3 miles straight-line distance, requiring 9+ miles of track) was pushed up the eastern continental divide. Six tunnels were excavated, from 89 to 1,800 feet long, each 15 feet tall. For open cuts, solid rock was cracked by dousing cold mountain water on roaring fires. The first use in the southeastern U.S. of a new product called Nobel's Blasting Oil (now called nitroglycerin!) was on the project. It was mixed with sawdust and corn meal, making nitroglycerin mash. A very heavy wood-burning locomotive was picked up off the tracks by the convicts and pushed several miles overland to the top of the mountain to help dig out the longest tunnel. The most common tool used was a flat rock held in the strong hands of the convicts to dig and spread dirt as they prepared the flat path needed to lay crossties for the rails. Tunnels, Nitro and Convicts condenses the incredible history of the most ambitious earth-moving, mountain-conquering project in the United States as of the 1870s into an engaging, easy-to-read story. The fascinating and compelling intertwining of long dark caves, blasting and cracking of massive rocks, the first use of nitroglycerin in the southeastern United States, and pushing a big locomotive several miles through the woods up a mountain ... all by hundreds of convicts who worked under severe conditions with the most basic tools ... makes this true account of post-civil war railroad history a story you must read!

Dead Man's Tunnel

Author: Sheldon Russell
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1250010586
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Book Description
Dead Man's Tunnel is the third installment in Sheldon Russell's 1940s series featuring yard dog Hook Runyon. Near the end of WWII, Hook Runyon, railroad bull, and his dog, Mixer, are sent to the West Salvage Yard in the high desert of Arizona. Not far away is the Johnson Canyon Tunnel. Though remote and ordinary as tunnels go, it is the gateway to the steepest railroad grade in North America and a potential bottleneck for the delivery of war supplies. So vital is this tunnel to the war effort that a twenty-four hour military guard has been assigned for the duration. Hook's orders are to catch copper thieves and to stay out of sight and out of trouble. But things go awry when Hook receives a call that one of the guards has been killed mid-tunnel by an oncoming train. Lieutenant Allison Capron from the Army Transportation Department is called in to help with the investigation. At first, suicide by train is suspected, but the evidence soon suggests homicide resulting from a love triangle. Unable to fit his own findings into either of these theories, Hook suspects something more sinister.

The Blue Ridge Tunnel

Author: Mary E. Lyons
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1625849524
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Book Description
The true story of the construction of the historic Crozet railroad tunnel—as seen through the eyes of three Irish immigrant families who helped build it. In one of the greatest engineering feats of the time, Claudius Crozet led the completion of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Tunnel in 1858. More than a century and a half later, the tunnel stands as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, but the stories and lives of those who built it are the true lasting triumph. Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Hunger poured into America resolved to find something to call their own. They would persevere through life in overcrowded shanties and years of blasting through rock to see the tunnel to completion. In this intriguing history, Mary E. Lyons follows three Irish families in their struggle to build Crozet’s famed tunnel—and their American dream. Includes photos and illustrations

Santa Cruz Trains

Author: Derek R. Whaley
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781508570738
Category : California
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
Once there was an endless redwood wilderness, populated by only the hardiest of people. Then, the sudden blast of a steam whistle echoed across the canyons and the valleys-the iron horse had arrived in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Driven by the need to transport materials like lumber and lime to the rest of the world, the railroad brought people seeking out new ways of living, from the remote outposts along Bean and Zayante Creeks to the bustling towns of Los Gatos and Santa Cruz. Bridges and tunnels marked the landscape, and each new station, siding and spur signaled activity: businesses, settlements, and vacation spots. Summer resorts in the mountains evolved into sprawling residential communities which formed the backbone of the towns of the San Lorenzo Valley today. Much of the history of the locations along the route has since been forgotten. This is their story. Third Revision (February 2016) Addenda available at http://www.whaleyland.com/downloads/addenda1.3.pdf Exclusive CreateSpace Discount: Enter MU236Q6V into the coupon code field and get this book for $5.00 off! Offer only valid through CreateSpace. Review this book at GoodReads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25144919)

Encyclopedia of North American Railroads

Author: William D Middleton
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253027993
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 1295

Book Description
Lavishly illustrated and a joy to read, this authoritative reference work on the North American continent's railroads covers the U.S., Canadian, Mexican, Central American, and Cuban systems. The encyclopedia's over-arching theme is the evolution of the railroad industry and the historical impact of its progress on the North American continent. This thoroughly researched work examines the various aspects of the industry's development: technology, operations, cultural impact, the evolution of public policy regarding the industry, and the structural functioning of modern railroads. More than 500 alphabetical entries cover a myriad of subjects, including numerous entries profiling the principal companies, suppliers, manufacturers, and individuals influencing the history of the rails. Extensive appendices provide data regarding weight, fuel, statistical trends, and more, as well as a list of 130 vital railroad books. Railfans will treasure this indispensable work.

Through an Unknown Country

Author: Charles Helm
Publisher: Rocky Mountain Books Ltd
ISBN: 1771601345
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 171

Book Description
"Based on previously unpublished reports and journals thought to be lost, Through An Unknown Country provides the reader with a harrowing and riveting account of a 19th century expedition through the northern mountain ranges of western Canada. In the winter of 1874-75, Edward Worrell Jarvis (1846 1894) and Charles Francis Hanington (1848-1930) took part in an expedition on behalf of the Canadian Pacific Survey from Quesnel, British Columbia, to Winnipeg, Manitoba. It led them over the northern Rocky Mountains through what would come to be known as Jarvis Pass (Kakwa Provincial Park, British Columbia) and eventually onto the Canadian plains. The trip took them 116 days and covered over 3000 kilometres, of which almost 1500 was travelled on snowshoes. Through An Unknown Country brings together the day-to-day reports of Jarvis and the more entertaining narrative of the epic journey by Hanington into a single volume for the first time. Recounting harrowing treks through deep mountains, densely forested valleys, open foothills and wide prairie, this highly readable adventure story can most certainly be read alongside the better-known journals of Alexander Mackenzie, Simon Fraser, David Thompson and Paul Kane."--

How We Survived in UHF Television

Author: Kitty Broman Putnam
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786488093
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Book Description
This personal narrative is co-authored by two of the best-known names in American UHF television broadcast management: Kathryn "Kitty" Broman Putnam and William Lowell "Bill" Putnam. During the first two decades of Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) television, when the established VHF (Very-High Frequency) stations dominated the TV marketplace, the Putnams built and operated three successful UHF outlets: WWLP-TV in Springfield, Massachusetts; WKEF-TV in Dayton, Ohio; and KSTU-TV in Salt Lake City, Utah. Kitty and Bill recall how they labored for survival during the "dozen lean years" between 1952 and 1964, and the events along their way to leadership in the world of advertiser-supported analog television. Included are several original poems written by Bill, and tantalizing recipes created for Kitty's long-running local cooking show.

The Underground Railroad

Author: Colson Whitehead
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0345804325
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • "An American masterpiece" (NPR) that chronicles a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. • The basis for the acclaimed original Amazon Prime Video series directed by Barry Jenkins. Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him. In Colson Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman's will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share. Look for Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Crook Manifesto, coming soon!