A fascinating history of railroad development on every continent.

First published in 1999

With over 400 high quality maps, plans, and photographs this book brings the subject to life, revealing all aspects of rail transportation and technology. It maps the spread of the networks across the country, showing the stations and important intersections, the layout and location of major bridges and tunnels, and much more. It examines railroad technology, from the early steam engines, through diesel and electric locomotives. It also details the building of stations, railroad constructions and factories that grew up around the railroad network. Social history is explored, covering the movement of people, farm produce and manufactured goods, giving a real insight into the role that rail transportation played.

" ... the history of the railroad in North America, from its origins in Britain in the 1820s and short lines connecting Eastern Seaboard rivers in the 1830s to Amtrak and the modern intermodal freights driving today's railroad revival."--Jacket.

A fascinating visual exploration of the transportation system that helped shape the modern world.

Containing 202 hand-drawn color maps of every railroad line in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, this book provides a unique record of a time when passenger trains still made stops in every town and freight trains carried the bulk of the nation's cargo. Drawn at a scale of 1 inch to 4 miles, the maps include main and branch passenger and freight lines, former steam locomotive and manual signal tower stations, towns that functioned as crew change points, track pans, coaling stations, and a variety of indexes of railroad features. Carpenter is a longtime observer and collector of railroad history. This is the first volume in a series that eventually will provide the first comprehensive atlas of the U.S. post-World War II railroad system. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).