Product Description: In the sprawling Northwest, from the upper Mississippi River valley to Puget Sound, no railroad shaped the landscape and society like the Great Northern Railway Company. This is the complete history of that enterprise, from 1856, when the first charter was granted, through the era of James J...read more

Product Description: The Detroit, Michigan-based Grand Trunk Corporation was established more than two decades ago by Canadian National to oversee and maximize the potential of its railroad holdings in the United States. By making use of corporate records, oral histories, and archival material, Hofsommer uncovers the interesting and complex history of Grand Trunk from its inception in 1971 through 1992...read more

Product Description: The Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway (M&StL), affectionately known as the Tootin' Louie, was founded in 1870 to serve a Minneapolis business community threatened by powerful railway interests emerging from both Chicago and Milwaukee...read more

Product Description: In the time of jet airplanes and interstate highways, the Internet and e-commerce, it is difficult to comprehend and appreciate the impact that railroads had on Iowa’s landscape—in terms not just of transportation service and economic development, but of political, social, and cultural linkage as well...read more

Traces the colorful history of the Iowa Central Railway and its valuable contributions to the development of the upper Midwest, chronicling the origins, growth, and eventual dismantling of the railroad and assessing its relationship with its customers, its influence on the state's agricultural and industrial commerce, and more.

Product Description: “Railroads were the country’s first big business providing the nation’s vital cardiovascular system, setting the tempo of life everywhere. All of it was reflected locally. . . . Rails to the North Star is a masterful catalog of data, a treasure-house of useful information, offering ‘one-stop shopping’ in a field central to Minnesota’s history...read more

Book Description: In this photographic history of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway (M&StL), railroad historian Don L. Hofsommer revives the memory of a storied regional railroad. The Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway was created on May 26, 1870, by a group of Minnesota investors interested in establishing a railroad connection between Minneapolis and the agricultural regions to the south...read more

Product Description: Don Hofsommer chronicles the twentieth-century history of a transportation giant. Here is a story of divestiture and merger, Sunset Route, and Prosperity Special. " . . . a treasure house of information about the Southern Pacific Company ...read more

Illustrated with more than two hundred period photographs and maps, a history of Minneapolis takes a close-up look at the era between the 1860s and 1950s, when railroads played a key role in linking rural communities with neighboring urban centers, detailing the role of the railroads in the local economy and social institutions.