When the first electric trolley car entered service in Erie in 1889, it revolutionized public transportation in the region. Within a few years, Erie became a major trolley hub linking the eastern and central United States. With the exception of a 15-mile gap at Little Falls, one could travel from New York City to Chicago via Erie. Greater Erie Trolleys covers the network of trolley lines that operated between Erie, Conneaut, Buffalo, and Meadville. Greater Erie Trolleys illustrates the vit...

The Johnstown flood on May 31, 1889, virtually demolished the horsecar lines of the Johnstown Passenger Railway Company, resulting in the system being rebuilt with electric trolley cars. Johnstown Trolleys and Incline covers the history of the trolley car system, trackless trolleys, and the Johnstown Inclined Plane. Johnstown was the last small city in the United States to operate a variety of vintage and modern trolley cars along with trackless trolleys. The Johnstown incline played a key...

Chartered in 1856, the East Broad Top Railroad began operating in 1873 through scenic Huntingdon County in south-central Pennsylvania. This well-managed narrow-gauge railroad connected the isolated Broad Top Mountain coal field with the Pennsylvania Railroad at Mount Union. With a decline in the hauling of coal, service ended in 1956. Nick Kovalchick, president of the Kovalchick Salvage Company of Indiana, Pennsylvania, purchased the railroad and reopened a portion of it as a tourist line ...

An extensive number of trolley car lines linked the city of Philadelphia to the rich farmland and picturesque towns of southeastern Pennsylvania. These trolley lines traversed miles of narrow streets lined with row houses whose residents were proud working-class Americans. These historic photographs trace the trolley cars� routes, including Route 23, the region�s longest urban trolley route, from the expanses of Northwest Philadelphia�s Chestnut Hill through the crowded commercial Center C...

Pittsburgh Streamlined Trolleys covers the history of the trolley car system that once had the third largest fleet of Presidents' Conference Committee trolley cars in North America. Pittsburgh Railways Company was very innovative and constantly made design improvements in its trolley cars. This led to increased ridership, as these streamlined trolleys were quiet, fast, and had comfortable seating. With the increased use of automobiles, ridership declined. After the Port Authority of Allegh...

The Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company prospered through the hard times of the 1930s and was the last privately-owned trolley system in the United States. Aerodynamically designed Bullet cars of the Philadelphia and Western Railway dramatically reduced travel time on the Sixty-ninth Street toNorristown line. The Presidents� Conference Committee trolley cars of the Philadelphia Transportation Company linked the boroughs of Darby, Colwyn, and Yeadon with Philadelphia. Photographs o...

Andrew Carnegie�s vision of transporting iron ore from his boats on Lake Erie to his Pittsburgh steel mills was realized when he obtained ownership of a series of railroad companies in the region. In 1900, these companies became the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad, which connected the Lake Erie ports of Erie, Pennsylvania, and Conneaut, Ohio, south to North Bessemer near Pittsburgh. Through vintage photographs, Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad highlights the railroad passenger excursions to...

Erie�s rail link to Philadelphia was achieved in 1864 with the completion of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, which later became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. By 1869, railroad lines from Buffalo through Erie to Chicago were consolidated into the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, which later became part of the New York Central Railroad. Completed in 500 days, the parallel New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, commonly known as the �Nickel Plate Road,� was a 513-mile, we...

In 1881, a narrow-gauge railroad was built in southwestern New York, from Attica to Arcade. It was later rebuilt to standard gauge to connect with what became the Pennsylvania Railroad. Concerned that the line would be abandoned, local farmers, merchants, and others raised money to purchase the railroad and formed the Arcade and Attica Railroad. Through vintage photographs, Arcade and Attica Railroad highlights the history of a railroad that, faced with declining revenues, launched steam-p...

The first street railway opened in New Orleans in 1835. Over the years various methods of powering the streetcars including horses, stream locomotives, overhead cable system, and fireless locomotives were tried. In 1893, electric streetcar operation began. At its peak in 1922, New Orleans had 225 miles of electric streetcar lines in operation. Ridership and streetcar lines declined with increased use of automobiles and the hard economic times of the Great Depression. While ridership surged...

In the late 1860s, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) pushed its first tracks westward from Virginia's Tidewater region across the mountains into what was then the new state of West Virginia. Ultimately its tracks stretched across a half-dozen states and even into Canada. Appalachian coal was the C&O's primary cargo, but its fast freights carried shipments of all kinds, and its crack passenger trains were marvels of their day. In 1963, the C&O merged with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad...

The Pennsylvania Railroad's Horseshoe Curve is known worldwide as an engineering wonder. This landmark, located just west of Altoona, opened to traffic on February 15, 1854, and it enabled the Pennsylvania railroad line to climb the Allegheny Mountains and the eastern continental divide. The Horseshoe Curve's construction impacted railroad design and development for mountainous terrain everywhere, enabling access to coal and other raw materials essential for the industrial age. J. Edgar Th...