Wabash Railroad Book Railroading on the Wabash Fourth District Victor Baird

Description

If you wish to have your copy autographed by the author, Victor Baird, please contact us immediately.
Note that the book is shipped in the U.S. USPS Media Mail.
DIRECT FROM THE PUBLISHER
ISBN 978-0-615-52148-0
Library of Congress Catalog Number 2013948259
Railroading on the Wabash Fourth District,
published by Erstwhile Publications, was one of only a few railroad books nominated for the prestigious George M. and Constance W. Hilton Book Award in 2015, administered by the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. With this purchase you will be getting one of a limited edition,
direct from the publisher
, as no more books will be printed.
Out of the 1,200 books printed, less than 30 are left.
All the books are numbered***
. It is a hardcover, 314 page book with 11 chapters, four appendices, glossy paper, and a quality Smyth-Sewn binding printed and published in the USA. Most of the hundreds of photographs are black & white, but there is a color section in the back.
The book tells the story of a Wabash Railroad line that ran from Northwest Ohio to Chicago, across Northern Indiana. Officially completed in 1893 as the "Chicago Extension", the Fourth District (the Gary District under N&W) was an integral part of the shortest railroad between Detroit and Chicago, the first Wabash district dieselized (1950), and had the distinction of operating the last mixed train in Indiana (1962).  It was certainly a colorful railroad that forwarded perishables, automobile parts, automobiles and merchandise, and livestock, either on the hoof or slaughtered. In addition to passenger trains, Orient silk from the Pacific Northwest to New York also traversed the line in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Many travelers utilized the railroad to visit the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.
Though a scholarly history with hundreds of endnotes, a large bibliography and large index, there are hundreds of photographs, maps, timetables, etc. And much of the story is told in the words of railroaders who worked the line back to the very early days. But the book also includes a postscript after the lease of the
Wabash
to
Norfolk & Western
in 1964 and describes and illustrates what remains of the line in the
Norfolk Southern
era. Photos and information on successor operators include
South Shore
,
Hillsdale County
and
Indiana Northeastern
.
This book includes the most comprehensive history of the obscure
Wabash Railroad Stroh (Indiana) Branch
and associated
Wabash Portland Cement Company,
complete with photos, maps, track and a plant layout. Chapter 8 is an exhaustive, illustrated chapter on the
last mixed train
in Indiana as told in the words of a conductor who officiated on the train for many years.
***If you find a book on the open market that is NOT numbered with a green number in the inside front cover, please contact us.