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Used and Out of Print Books : Railroad History
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In the summer of 2000, David Haward Bain and his family left their home in Vermont and headed west in search of America?s past. From Omaha to San Francisco, Bain and his family retraced the entire route of the first transcontinental railroad. Following abandoned railroad tracks and the traces of old wagon trails, cruising down back roads and main streets, they discovered the deep, restless, uniquely American spirit of adventure that connects our past to our present.
A superb writer and an exacting researcher, Bain conjures up the marvelous sense of coming unstuck in time as he lingers in the ghost towns and battlegrounds, prairies and river ports, train yards, museums, and diners that line the old emigrant routes of the railroad and the Lincoln Highway. As he cruises west to California, Bain encounters a fascinating cast of characters, both historic and contemporary?from Willa Cather to Marlon Brando, from pathfinder John Fre?mont to naturalist Terry Tempest Williams. Here, too, are memories of Bain?s own grandparents and the journeys that shaped his own heritage.
Writing in the tradition of William Least Heat-Moon and Ian Frazier, yet with an engaging warmth and a deep grasp of history all his own, Bain has fashioned a quintessentially American journey.
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Destined to be a cherished favorite of both history buffs and railroad aficionados, this handsome volume explores one of the most exciting periods in the history of the United States. The coming of the railroads to the West forever changed the character of the frontier, marking the end of one era and the beginning of another. Trains of the Old West tells the stories of such pioneering visionaries as Theodore Judah, Mark Hopkins, and Leland Stanford, who faced and overcame tremendous obstacles in their quest to forge a nationwide rail system. Gorgeously illustrated with historical and contemporary photographs, Trains of the Old West is a unique tribute to the adventurous, pioneering spirit in which the United States was built.
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Henry Villard was one of the most remarkable and important figures to shape the tumultuous history of nineteenth -century America. A preeminent Civil War journalist, an industrialist, and a financial maverick, his courage, perseverance, and farsightedness made him the equal of such titans of his day as J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie.
Penniless and not speaking a word of English, Villard emigrated in 1853 from Germany at the age of eighteen, leaving behind the privileges and expectations of his affluent, stifling parentage. Within five years of arriving on American soil, he had mastered the language and was covering the events of the day for the nation's top newspapers. Villard reported firsthand on the Lincoln-Douglas debates and later, from the front lines of the Civil War, filed graphic, hard-hitting reports that earned him the admiration of the newspaper community. His circle of acquaintances included President Lincoln, General Grant, and the famed abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, whose daughter he married.
When the Civil War ended, Villard's penchant for risk-taking and adventure and his uncanny business acumen led him to become a restless innovator, breaking new ground in many areas. In journalism, he launched the first news syndicate in the United States; in the world of finance, he was a pioneer of venture capitalism and one of the first to employ the leveraged buyout. He catapulted himself into presidency of the Northern Pacific Railroad and shared with Thomas Edison the vision of an electrified nation. His investment in Edison's electrical enterprises eventually paved the way for Villard to mastermind the consolidation of what is now known as the General Electric Company. In 1883, triumphantly driving the last spike himself, he completed the nation's second transcontinental railroad. Later that year a financial panic nearly ruined him, but within a few years he made a phenomenal comeback based on his faith in Edison and the future of electricity. Throughout his life, Villard's unfailing ability to impart his convictions to others, his talent for meeting the right people and gaining their confidence, enabled him to conquer adversity.
Drawing on unpublished letters, Henry Villard's German and English memoirs, and many other sources, Alexandra Villard de Borchgrave's and John Cullen's fast-paced, absorbing biography vividly re-creates Villard's times and tells the rags-to-riches story of a German immigrant who made major contributions to his adopted homeland.
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When George Westinghouse Jr. founded the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, his air brakes, railroad equipment, and industrial pneumatic devices revolutionized rail travel, opening a new chapter in American industrial history. Not only were the products of his first company revolutionary, but the small borough he founded in 1890 in southwestern Pennsylvania became a model for residential and industrial development. Wilmerding, precisely planned and built according to Westinghouse's specifications, would house the workers-skilled and unskilled, black and white-who would produce George Westinghouse's air brake. Wilmerding and the Westinghouse Air Brake Company tells the story of a town and company that grew up hand in hand. This collection of historical photographs, drawn from the archive of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, shows how the citizens of Wilmerding lived-from the factories where they worked everyday to the Castle, where they bowled and swam. See the Victorian-style homes where they lived with their families, the park where they strolled, and the company band they heard at concerts and parades. Learn about the industry-changing products they produced and sold globally. Wilmerding and the Westinghouse Air Brake Company is an American story of a man and his vision-how he and the town he founded changed the face of rail travel and industry.
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