Railroads and mining in Bingham Canyon have gone hand in hand since the first railroad was constructed in the canyon in late 1873. Bingham Canyon in the early years was a gold and silver mining camp, and the railroads were small operations. Copper mining took hold in the late 1890s, and the mines, mining companies, and railroads that served them expanded rapidly. Bingham Canyon soon became the largest and richest mining district in the western United States and was the source for as much as a third of the copper mined in the nation. A variety of locomotives worked in the canyon, including a small number of Shay locomotives, several large articulated steam locomotives, and the nation's largest roster of electric locomotives. The last Bingham Canyon ore train ran in late 2001. While the railroad tracks have been removed, the mine itself is very much in full production and remains the source for 25 percent of the nation's copper production.

The Northwestern Pacific Railroad--the Redwood Empire Route--once stretched its shining track from Humboldt Bay to San Francisco Bay. Created by the amalgamation of 42 different companies, the North Coast railroad network ranged from the Sonoma Prismoidal, an early wooden monorail, to broad-gauge logging lines built to be hauled by horses. In between were the two-foot Sonoma Magnesite Railroad, the narrow-gauge North Pacific Coast, and standard-gauge lines. Determining the route of major highways, this versatile transportation system also incorporated electric interurbans, ferry steamboats, sternwheel riverboats, tugs, car f loats, and unusual connectors like funiculars and scenic tourist railways. From the time of its formation in 1907 until the 1970s, Northwestern Pacific trains and boats were loaded with passengers and freight.

The first complete history of Utah in encyclopedic form, with entries from Anasazi to ZCMI!

Shortly after the International Smelter offered economic salvation to Tooeles struggling desert community, the Tooele Valley Railroad became the town artery. Though originally built in 1908 to connect the smelter to the Union Pacific and Western Pacific lines west of town, the railroad became central to daily life. Hundreds of local workers rode it to and from work each day. As technology continued to change Tooele, the Tooele Valley Railroad shared Vine Street with the first automobilessafety precautions required that the caboose, with a horn mounted to warn motorists, lead the oncoming train. However, the smelters decades of prosperity proved short-lived, and by the 1930s, the town had fallen on difficult times once again. The railroad outlived the smelter, but operations ceased in the early 1980s, and the city had the abandoned tracks removed.