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Review from Railroad History Review, August 2005
Tracks lost in the West
By:
Frederic H. Abendschein
Having
reviewed the first volume of Joseph Schwieterman’s work on railroad abandonment
and its impact on selected communities in the East and South, I formulated some
expectations for his second volume on railroads in the West. First, it had
to include something on a town on the Milwaukee Road’s Pacific Coast extension,
particularly along the electrified portion. Next, I expected a chapter on a
community along the Rock Island because it was such a prominent abandoned
railroad. Granger towns, there had to be something on a granger town. And
maybe something on a mining town and a logging town. Schwieterman certainly met
my expectations. He covered not one, but two towns on the Milwaukee Road.
Avery, Idaho, was on the west end of the 440-mile Rocky Mountain Division
electrification, while Harlowton, Montana, was at its eastern end. Booneville,
Ark., filled the bill for the Rock Island town, being on the railroad’s Choctaw
Route between Memphis and Amarillo, Texas.
Some of the
granger communities were Currie, Minn., West Branch, Iowa, and Watford City,
N.D. Virginia City, Nev., and Nome, Alaska, were two of the mining towns covered
in the book. Placerville, Calif., was a logging community with several
narrow-gauge lines and an aerial tramway feeding a South Pacific branch.
Then there are the pleasant surprises, places you just either would never have
expected in the book or never heard about before. Among the former are Beverly
Hills, Calif., and Honolulu, Hawaii. The great Pacific Electric interurban
system served Beverly Hills and helped it grow into a “premier streetcar
suburb.” Ultimately, PE’s owner, Southern Pacific Railroad, absorbed the line
and ran freight service to the famous movie-star community until abandoning it
in 1983. The narrow-gauge Oahu Railway served not only the Navy docks and sugar
plantations, but also Honolulu. At the height of World War II, trains left
Honolulu regularly on intervals as short as five minutes, bound for Pearl
Harbor.
As in his
previous volume, Schwieterman uses a standard format – as historical
perspective, followed by sections titled Changing Times, Abandonment’s Legacy,
Epilogue and For Further Study. This format stays fresh throughout both volumes
and is quite flexible at handling a range of large cities (Honolulu, population
876,146) to small towns (Long Pine, Neb., population 350) and a range of
railroad sizes, from Class 1s (Union Pacific) to short lines (Virginian &
Truckee) with equal ease. Some communities such as Beverly Hills prospered after
losing rail service. Others, especially those that were always extremely
dependant on the railroad, are taking longer to recover.
The Book will
appeal to many audiences: those who enjoyed Volume 1; railfans who want to
follow up on their favorite abandoned railroads and routes; municipal planner
who want to learn how communities deal with losing a transportation mode; and
those citizens whose towns have just lost, or are about to lose, railroad
service. I recommend it to all of those audiences.
Review from Choice (June 2005)
Once the lifeline of western communities, the railroad's
departure heralded decline. Communities sought to attract railroads and lobbied
to keep them, to no avail. Since 1916, 125,000 miles of rail lines have been
abandoned, nearly half the existing routes.
A complement to Schwieterman's 2001 volume on the eastern US,
this examination of rail line abandonment in the western states reveals that the
presence of the railroad in a community outlasts the final train. Besides the
impact on the physical, social, and economic fabric of a community, abandoning
rail lines leaves emotional scars that can catalyze interest in local history
and in creation of railroad museums or tourist lines.
Of the more than 25,000 communities that lost rail service,
Schwieterman selects 1 to 4 per state (except California with 12). The treatment
given each community follows a similar pattern: sections on "historical
perspective," "changing times," "abandonment's legacy," brief bibliography, map,
and black-and-white photographs. Interdisciplinary in approach, this study takes
into account urban planning and local, economic, political, and transportation
history. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Transportation, historical, and
comprehensive collections.
-- M. Nilsen, Indiana University South Bend
Review from True West
Magazine, July 2005
Save another book for your rainy afternoons because this big book demands some
of your time. Scholastic in nature and lengthy, this book by Schwieterman
nevertheless will jolt you awake with its innovative approach to defining the
history of many notable Western towns. From Tombstone, Arizona, to Wallace,
Idaho, and from Booneville, Arkansas, to Honolulu, Hawaii, the reader witnesses
the arrival of prominent railroads to these locations, as well as their demise
when they are abandoned by the same rail lines. Some of the towns recovered;
some did not. For history nitpickers and movie critics, this book provides an
unexpected perspective in understanding the commerce and economics of the West.
Get this one for your library.
--Chuck Lewis
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