The familiar image of Los Angeles as a metropolis built for the automobile is crumbling. Traffic, air pollution, and sprawl motivated citizens to support urban rail as an alternative to driving, and the city has started to reinvent itself by developing compact neighborhoods adjacent to transit. As a result of pressure from local leaders, particularly with the election of Tom Bradley as mayor in 1973, the Los Angeles Metro Rail gradually took shape in the consummate car city. Railtown presents the history of this system by drawing on archival documents, contemporary news accounts, and interviews with many of the key players to provide critical behind-the-scenes accounts of the people and forces that shaped the system. Ethan Elkind brings this important story to life by showing how ambitious local leaders zealously advocated for rail transit and ultimately persuaded an ambivalent electorate and federal leaders to support their vision. Although Metro Rail is growing in ridership and political importance, with expansions in the pipeline, Elkind argues that local leaders will need to reform the rail planning and implementation process to avoid repeating past mistakes and to ensure that Metro Rail supports a burgeoning demand for transit-oriented neighborhoods in Los Angeles. This engaging history of Metro Rail provides lessons for how the American car-dominated cities of today can reinvent themselves as thriving railtowns of tomorrow.

The company town, source of so much of Canada's wealth, was-and is-a place with nowhere to hide. First published in 1971, Rex Lucas's Minetown, Milltown, Railtown is a groundbreaking study of what it's like to live in such communities. Today, with the oil-sands boom and rising commodity prices affecting everything from the value of the Canadian dollar to the balance of power within Confederation, single-industry towns remain as central as ever to the country's economic and social life. Minetown is a compelling portrait not just of Canada's past, but of its present and future, too. Minetown, Milltown, Railtown: Life in Canadian Communities of Single Industry is a Wynford Book-one of a series of titles representing significant milestones in Canadian literature, thought, and scholarship. New introductions place each book in a modern context and show its continuing relevance.

"A collection of digitally enhanced photographs of trains from the early 1800s to the present day by author and photographer Ken Boyd"-Provided by publisher.

Explorer's Great Destinations puts the guide back into guidebook. Also covering California Gold Country and the Northern Sierra Nevada, this savvy guide for upscale travels covers world-class ski resorts, casinos, and sought-after destinations and adventurous activities.

California offers travellers a gold mine of railroad points of interest. California has it all: narrow gauge, logging railroads, cable cars, trolleys, interurbans, light rail, main line limiteds, model railroads, historic depots, museums, tourist railroads, and mountain passes. California railroads began in the dark days of the Civil War. Californians have developed numerous railroad museums and tourist railroads that recall the state's wonderful railroad history, making this a true rail fans paradise.

Itinerary-Activities-Accommodations-Campgrounds-Restaurants-Maps-Readings-Web sites-Also, Four-Day Tours-Everything you'll need!

Published for devotees of the cowboy and the West, American Cowboy covers all aspects of the Western lifestyle, delivering the best in entertainment, personalities, travel, rodeo action, human interest, art, poetry, fashion, food, horsemanship, history, and every other facet of Western culture. With stunning photography and you-are-there reportage, American Cowboy immerses readers in the cowboy life and the magic that is the great American West.