The New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad arose in 1881 through the merger of several smaller railway companies that linked the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania to the industrial centers of the New York–New Jersey metropolitan area. Immediately successful in the coal business, the NYS&W also attracted tourists by promoting the beauty and rural charm of the Delaware Water Gap and building picnic facilities for same-day excursions from both ends of the line. The company's fortunes rose through the 1920s, fell in the 1930s, surged in the 1940s as it became one of the region's busiest and most innovative passenger lines, and slowly declined from the 1950s until finally passing into bankruptcy in 1976 and reorganization into a regional freight hauler. As expertly and engagingly told in this heavily illustrated book—the first in-depth history of the line—the story of the NYS&W vividly illustrates the challenges faced by the many smaller railroad companies that contributed to America's industrial growth and the inventive solutions their directors devised to surmount these difficulties in the service of local and regional needs. Robert E. Mohowski traces the company's tangled history from the founding of its direct ancestor—the New Jersey, Hudson, and Delaware Railroad—in 1832 through its acquisition by the Erie Railroad in 1898, its reemergence as an independent entity in 1940, and its thirty-six-year-long struggle to keep the railroad in business. As Mohowski accounts, the NYS&W throughout its history aggressively sought out new sources of revenue, particularly as the traffic in coal dwindled. Commuter service became the most successful of these activities, and the line's management invested heavily in upgrading its locomotive and passenger car fleets. The company introduced streamlined, self-propelled cars that provided fast, comfortable travel in northeast New Jersey (a prototype for New Jersey Transit's present-day Midtown Direct service). These efforts, however, proved insufficient to prevent the company's demise. Beloved by railroad enthusiasts, the New York, Susquehanna & Western serves as a case study in technological innovation and creative management and stands as an important chapter in the history of American railroads.

Originally incorporated in 1881, the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad has had a long history in New Jersey. The railroad expanded by the early 1890s into the thriving Pennsylvania coalfields and eventually grew to over 200 miles of trackage in the northern portion of New Jersey. Always viewed as an underdog in a marketplace surrounded by much larger railroads, the New York, Susquehanna & Western emerged from 40 years of Erie Railroad control; survived several bankruptcies, reorganizations, abandonments, and retrenchments through innovative passenger and freight service offerings; and transformed into today's regional rail carrier with a size far greater than ever imagined.

New York's Capital District was ideally situated to become one of the nation's earliest and most important transportation crossroads. The Mohawk River was the only water level gap in the Appalachian range to the west, which led to the construction of the Erie Canal. Soon after its completion, the state's first railroad began operating between Albany and Schenectady in 1831. Other pioneer railroads followed, heading north to Canada, south to New York City, west to Chicago, and east to Boston. Over the next century, railroads like the New York Central, Boston & Albany, Boston & Maine, and Delaware & Hudson built extensive passenger stations, freight and classification yards, and repair shops in the tri-city region. Passenger operations continue today at the Schenectady and Albany-Rensselaer Amtrak stations, while the Selkirk Yard is still an important classification point for CSX Transportation.

Originally incorporated in 1881, the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad has had a long history in New Jersey. The railroad expanded by the early 1890s into the thriving Pennsylvania coalfields and eventually grew to over 200 miles of trackage in the northern portion of New Jersey. Always viewed as an underdog in a marketplace surrounded by much larger railroads, the New York, Susquehanna & Western emerged from 40 years of Erie Railroad control; survived several bankruptcies, reorganizations, abandonments, and retrenchments through innovative passenger and freight service offerings; and transformed into todays regional rail carrier with a size far greater than ever imagined.

The Middletown and Unionville Railroad, successor to the Middletown, Unionville and Water Gap Railroad, operated from December 1, 1913, until May 31, 1946, when it was reorganized as the Middletown and New Jersey Railway. The railroads main revenue was derived from the transportation of dairy products, feed, coal, lumber, and passengers along its 14.5-mile right-of-way from the city of Middletown through Slate Hill, Johnson, Westtown, and Unionville in Orange County, New York. It provided a connection between the Erie Railroad in Middletown; the New York, Ontario & Western Railway in Middletown; and the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad in New Jersey. All three of these railroads had unique relationships with the M&U during its period of operation.

There was a point in American history when every town was connected by a rails. Whether it was a small electric line winding along city streets or a multi-track mainline separating the business district from the residential areas, every community had a hometown railroad that it relied on for commerce, transportation, and identity.Accomplished railroad author Frank Kyper spent many of his formative years in towns and cities like this throughout Vermont and New Hampshire, spending the 1940s through the 1970s moving around the area with his family. His free time was spent exploring local railroads like the Springfield Terminal, Claremont & Concord, Montpelier & Barre, Clarendon & Pittsford, and even the Mount Washington Cog Railroad. His travels and interests in the region also put him in contact with the Rutland and the various branch lines of the Boston & Maine, and placed him front and center for the early formation of Steamtown and the Conway Scenic Railroad. His personal contacts with several railroad officials at the time, including the president of the Rutland, gave him access to information as events unfolded that would drastically alter the landscape of New England railroading.This book is a firsthand account of a historian whose presence-of-mind to record events in real-time has created a virtual time capsule over 172 pages of text. A mix of over 160 color and black and white photos, many taken by Kyper himself, illustrate the stories that are woven together to paint a picture of Vermont and New Hampshire railroading in its classic era. This title is Frank Kyper's seventh book on railroading in the northeast.

"Do not think of the Pennsylvania Railroad as a business enterprise," Forbes magazine informed its readers in May 1936. "Think of it as a nation." At the end of the nineteenth century, the Pennsylvania Railroad was the largest privately owned business corporation in the world. In 1914, the PRR employed more than two hundred thousand people—more than double the number of soldiers in the United States Army. As the self-proclaimed "Standard Railroad of the World," this colossal corporate body underwrote American industrial expansion and shaped the economic, political, and social environment of the United States. In turn, the PRR was fundamentally shaped by the American landscape, adapting to geography as well as shifts in competitive economics and public policy. Albert J. Churella's masterful account, certain to become the authoritative history of the Pennsylvania Railroad, illuminates broad themes in American history, from the development of managerial practices and labor relations to the relationship between business and government to advances in technology and transportation. Churella situates exhaustive archival research on the Pennsylvania Railroad within the social, economic, and technological changes of nineteenth- and twentieth-century America, chronicling the epic history of the PRR intertwined with that of a developing nation. This first volume opens with the development of the Main Line of Public Works, devised by Pennsylvanians in the 1820s to compete with the Erie Canal. Though a public rather than a private enterprise, the Main Line foreshadowed the establishment of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1846. Over the next decades, as the nation weathered the Civil War, industrial expansion, and labor unrest, the PRR expanded despite competition with rival railroads and disputes with such figures as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. The dawn of the twentieth century brought a measure of stability to the railroad industry, enabling the creation of such architectural monuments as Pennsylvania Station in New York City. The volume closes at the threshold of American involvement in World War I, as the strategies that PRR executives had perfected in previous decades proved less effective at guiding the company through increasingly tumultuous economic and political waters.