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In 1948, Chicago was the gathering place of 22 railroads, seven belt and switching roads, eight industrial railroads and three electric lines. Track was everywhere as passenger trains and commuter trains crowded the approaches to the terminals near the Loop that is Chicago, undisputed railroad capital of the world. Chicago Passenger Trains & Commuter Trains captures the spirit and challenges of the post-World War II era, as streamlined passenger trains arrived and departed from Chicago’s six celebrated stations during the pinnacle years of intercity train service. Welcome aboard as we ride those grand trains of the 1950s and 1960s into their twilight years and transition into Amtrak’s “Rainbow era.” Vintage and color photography, terminal and commuter maps, train brochures, postcards and tickets are featured. Nice color and vintage scenes for modelers.
Commuter, or Suburban Rail Passenger Train Services have been an important part of the Chicago Metro area for well over 100 years. Since the city and its suburbs are economically interdependent upon one another, passenger service could not be discontinued without severe economic impacts on the entire Chicago area. The Metra Commuter Rail Service and the Indiana Commuter Transportation District (South Shore) services have realized this and are providing a crucial life line for the many Chicago-Suburban corridors, and have made substantial gains and many expansions since the 1980s. This book reviews the commuter services offered in the Chicago area on the Chicago & North Western, The Milwaukee Road, the South Shore, the Illinois Central, the Rock Island, the Burlington, the Wabash, the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, the South Shore, the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroads before the development of the RTA, Metra and NICTD.
Offers the collective history of 230 neighborhoods and communities which formed the bustling network of greater Chicagoland--many connected to the city by the railroad. Profiles the people who built these neighborhoods, and the structures they left behind that still stand today.
“An astute account of [Tokyo’s] commuter train network . . . and an intellectually stimulating invitation to rethink the interaction between humans and machines.” —Japan Forum With its infamously packed cars and disciplined commuters, Tokyo’s commuter train network is one of the most complex technical infrastructures on Earth. In An Anthropology of the Machine, Michael Fisch provides a nuanced perspective on how Tokyo’s commuter train network embodies the lived realities of technology in our modern world. Drawing on his fine-grained knowledge of transportation, work, and everyday life in Tokyo, Fisch shows how fitting into a system that operates on the extreme edge of sustainability can take a physical and emotional toll on a community while also creating a collective way of life—one with unique limitations and possibilities. An Anthropology of the Machine is a creative ethnographic study of the culture, history, and experience of commuting in Tokyo. At the same time, it is a theoretically ambitious attempt to think through our very relationship with technology and our possible ecological futures. Fisch provides an unblinking glimpse into what it might be like to inhabit a future in which more and more of our infrastructure—and the planet itself—will have to operate beyond capacity to accommodate our ever-growing population. “Not a ‘rage against the machine’ but an urge to find new ways of coexisting with technology.” —Contemporary Japan “An extraordinary study.” —Ethnos “A fascinating in-depth account of the innovations, inventions, sacrifices, and creativity required to ensure Tokyo’s millions of commuters keep rolling. It also provides much food for thought as our transportation systems become increasingly reliant on automated technology.” —Pacific Affairs
Chicago's South Shore Line is a photographic essay of the last interurban electric railroad operating in the United States. Completed as the Chicago, Lake Shore & South Bend Railway (CLS&SBR) connecting South Bend, Indiana, with Pullman, Illinois, in 1909, the line went into receivership in 1925. It reorganized as the Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad (CSS&SBR) which rebuilt the railroad and provided direct passenger service from South Bend to downtown Chicago. The Great Depression forced the railroad into bankruptcy in 1933 but reorganized in 1938 and handled record ridership during World War II. After the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad acquired the railroad in 1970, the electric freight service was dieselized. Soaring passenger deficits resulted in the formation of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICDT). Beginning in 1984, the Venango River Corporation operated the line until it went bankrupt in 1988. The Anacostia & Pacific Company began operating the freight service in 1990, and NICDT handles passenger service. Chicago's South Shore Line documents the history of this railway that has survived obstacles to maintain passenger service over its original route.
By the time it was merged into the Union Pacific in 1995, the Chicago & North Western was one of the nations oldest surviving railroads, a testament to the Midwestern stoicism with which it had gone about its business since 1859. This illustrated history chronicles how C&NW emerged from a collection of regional carriers to become a strategic link between eastern railroads and the West. Author Tom Murray traces the railroads expansion as it extended secondary lines throughout the Midwest. He also explores C&NWs joint ownership of UP passenger trains and describes how the railroad answered challenges from regional rivals with the "400" series of passenger trains. As fascinating as the story are the hundreds of accompanying illustrations--historical photographs, archival images, route maps, and period print ads. The result is an entertaining and informative history of an iconic Midwestern railroad--a narrative that spans the decades from the 1850s to the 1990s and takes in steam and diesel motive power, freight and passenger operations, and all the key characters, events, and deals that figured in the Chicago & North Westerns rise and eventual demise.
Offers a history of the world famous Chicago "L," the elevated railroad that has operated since 1892 and has been ridden by more than ten billion people.
Subtitled: A Guide to the Metra System. Illinois Central cummuter trains have connected Hyde Part with downtown Chicago since 1856. This exceptional work chronicles the development history of Chicagos enviable commuter rail network - the Metra System, an umbrella organization coordinating the many railroads that operate trains in the greater Chicago area. Sftbd., 8 1/2x 11, 64 pgs., 50 b&w ill., 56 color.
During the tumultuous year of 2008--when gas prices reached $4 a gallon, Amtrak set ridership records, and a commuter train collided with a freight train in California--journalist James McCommons spent a year on America's trains, talking to the people who ride and work the rails throughout much of the Amtrak system. Organized around these rail journeys, Waiting on a Train is equal parts travel narrative, personal memoir, and investigative journalism. Readers meet the historians, railroad executives, transportation officials, politicians, government regulators, railroad lobbyists, and passenger-rail advocates who are rallying around a simple question: Why has the greatest railroad nation in the world turned its back on the very form of transportation that made modern life and mobility possible? Distrust of railroads in the nineteenth century, overregulation in the twentieth, and heavy government subsidies for airports and roads have left the country with a skeletal intercity passenger-rail system. Amtrak has endured for decades, and yet failed to prosper owing to a lack of political and financial support and an uneasy relationship with the big, remaining railroads. While riding the rails, McCommons explores how the country may move passenger rail forward in America--and what role government should play in creating and funding mass-transportation systems. Against the backdrop of the nation's stimulus program, he explores what it will take to build high-speed trains and transportation networks, and when the promise of rail will be realized in America.