IRONTON RAILROAD history photo BOOK Lehigh Valley RR Reading RDG LV L&NE CNJ

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You are purchasing a copy of the NEW publication entitled MAKING CONNECTIONS ~ History of the IRONTON RAILROAD by Richard Bach 248 Pages Printed Hard Cover 385+ Illustrations including numerous maps and over 100 full color photos Large 11x24" fold out system map This is not just a typical color book. There are scores of black & white photographs that tell the entire history of the Ironton Railroad from its creation to its demise. This is a scholarly work with illustration supporting the text. From "Dirt to Dirt." Outer Station Project publishers Once upon a time, the Ironton Railroad hauled iron ore from the most important ore bed in the Lehigh Valley, which was also one of the most abundant U.S. ore regions in pre-Civil War America. The railroad influenced the educational and religious development of a “company town” and controlled several mines of its own, including one which opened in 1826. The railroad remained in the iron mining business until 1882, when it was purchased by its main customer: a nearby iron works. As the railroad’s mines were transferred to the ownership of that iron works, the railroad became a nearly-forgotten wholly-owned subsidiary. By the early 1900’s, the Ironton’s original iron mine was “played out,” and many of the other on-line mines were likewise nearing depletion. A potential lack of business, new stifling federal railroad regulations, combined with the railroad’s ownership by the financially strapped iron manufacturer, should have meant the end of the tiny Ironton Railroad. Remarkably, relatives of those very men that had built the Ironton and its mines discovered that adjacent to the mines were geological formations which produced raw material for a new product; Portland cement. The rising cement industry gave the Ironton Railroad revived opportunities. Not many businesses are afforded reprieves like this and the second boom was bigger than the first. The Ironton Railroad flourished. After 1900, the railroad provided service to no less than a half dozen remaining iron mines and limestone quarries, 12 Portland cement works, a brickyard, a grain magnesite facility, a slaughterhouse, an iron works with 6-furnaces and a slag dump with crusher, along with small coal and lumber yards. The railroad offered both “through” and local freight service and two daily round trip passenger trains. It used 11 locomotives along a mere 10 miles of main line track, but in that 10-miles carried a net lading of over a million tons of cargo annually. In 1905 alone, the railroad hauled 35-thousand cars to its sole interchange, and within 10 years it had interchanges with three additional railroads. One hopes this history will fill a long-held desire to know about this little rail line. This text contains elements of the traditional “railroad history” with mention of national events and technological changes interwoven with genealogical information about persons involved with the company. In a history about larger railroad systems such details are difficult to include, but that is not the case here where one can reflect on minutia and juxtapose it against events on the national stage. The Ironton Railroad’s history offers no stunning passages about colossal transcontinental rail routes, but neither is it a story of a quaint bucolic short line. What is uniquely Ironton is that it is a tad bit of both. This is the best possible effort to combine the available corporate-legal, genealogical, technical and economic-financial-regulatory information to tell the story of this important, but almost forgotten American industrial railroad. It is about time that this this little ( but big ) shortline which served industries in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania receives its due credit. This book would make a wonderful addition to anyone's book collection. Great for the rail fan and great for any one interested in the history or railroads . So please take a look at my other auctions. Don't see a book you are lo... read more

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