Kansas City Street Scenes: Featuring Kansas City Public Service PCC Cars

Here is a nice picture book about the Kansas City Public Service streetcars used during the 1940s and 50s. Extensive captions make this more than a picture book.

Of the 64 pages in this book, 39 pages are in color. Most color photographs are of the PCC cars operated by KCPS, but also 2 pages show the freight motors including a large one page color photograph of Motor #1. Four 4 pages of KCPS work cars are in color. Two pages of older cars are in color but the early efforts of color photography and film preservation make for some less than sharp images. Included is a roster of KSPS PCC cars operated in Philadelphia on PTC and SEPTA.

Outer Station Project, soft cover, 64 pages, 11 x 8.5 x .5 in., b&w and color photographs. OSP289
Price: 16.95 USD

INCLUDES DELORME PUBLISHING'S JACKET-STYLE VINYL COVER.

Ships in a non-bending mailer, not an envelope, plus sealed in plastic.

The DeLorme Publishing Atlas and Gazetteer provides a wealth of information for trip planning and back country access. Each volume contains topographic maps with unbeatable detail plus gazetteer information on great places to go and things to do. Detail includes railroads, back roads, dirt roads, elevation contours, remote lakes & streams, boat ramps, public lands for recreation, land use (forests, wetlands, agriculture), trailheads, campgrounds, and hunting and fishing spots.

Gazetteer information includes information on hiking, bicycling, museums and historic sites, campgrounds, scenic drives, unique natural features and state and national parks.

DeLorme Publishing, soft cover, 72 pages, 11 x 15.5 x .25 in., color maps. DLMOC
Price: 16.95 USD

Quincy Route: A History of the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City Railroad and the Iowa & St. Louis Railway.

The Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City Railroad and the Iowa & St. Louis Railway have both been long neglected by railroad historians. These two roads served the region of southern Iowa and northern Missouri.

The QO&KC operated between Quincy, Illinois, and Kansas City, Missouri, with trackage rights at one time to Omaha, Nebraska. At various times the Quincy Route was affiliated with the Wabash, the Kansas City, Pittsburgh & Gulf (a Kansas City Southern predecessor), and finally the Burlington Route.

The Iowa &St. Louis was a feeder line that served coal mining interests in the area. Quincy Route examines the promise and struggle of the two roads through a study of regional development, the decline of strategic industries, bad public policies, and dreams never realized.

Contents:
Introduction, pp. 8-9;
Ch. 1: The Early Years, pp. 10-15;
Ch. 2: The Schemes of Jay Gould, pp. 16-21;
Ch. 3: The Wabash Years, pp. 22-26;
Ch. 4: The Gilman Syndicate and the QOKC Railway Co., pp. 27-31;
Ch. 5: The Kansas City Interests, pp. 32-42;
Ch. 6: The New Century, pp. 43-46;
Ch. 7: When Coal Was King, pp. 47-56;
Ch. 8: Reaching Their Zenith, pp. 57-75;
Ch. 9: The Roaring Twenties, pp. 76-86;
Ch. 10: Years of Decline, pp. 87-92;
Ch. 11: End of the Line, pp. 93-100;
Appendix 1, pp. 106-108;
Appendix 2, pp. 109-110;
Bibliography and Index, pp. 111-116.

Distributed by South Platte Press, soft cover, 116 pages, 8.5 x 11 x .5 in., 82 illustrations, including numerous maps. SPP149
Price: 25.95 USD

This busy switching road serviced St. Louis Union Station and numerous yards and trackage in the St. Louis area. Many trunk lines (PRR, NYC, MP, MKT, Wabash, etc.) utilized the TRRA and their trains are also illustrated in vintage color dating back to the early 1950 ’s.

Morning Sun Books, hard cover with jacket, 128 pages, 8.5 x 11 x .5 in., all color photographs with captions. MSB1292
Price: 46.95 USD

Tri-State Traction: The Interurban Trolleys of Southwest Missouri, Southeast Kansas and Northeast Oklahoma.

Tri-State Traction, a book by Edward A. Conrad, compiles the history of the Joplin & Pittsburgh Railway, along with the Southwest Missouri Railroad and the Northeast Oklahoma Railroad. In the 1890s and the early 20th century, this web of trolley lines connected the communities and mining camps of southeast Kansas, southwest Missouri and northeast Oklahoma. I've always been interested in this field, Conrad said. I grew up in Milwaukee, and have childhood memories of riding the street cars in the 1940s. I've had a lifelong ambition about some of these lines that hadn't been covered. I heard about these rail lines, and found that they hadn't been written about in the last 40 years.

Conrad did extensive research on all three lines. He said that he obtained a great deal of information from Randy Roberts, curator of Special Collections at Axe Library, Pittsburgh State University, and also from area newspapers. He also came to the area and drove over some of the old railroad right of ways. He discovered fascinating things about all three lines, including the J&P, which provided electric rail passenger and freight service in southeast Kansas from 1890 to 1954.

Conrad said that the Pittsburgh Electric Railway Company received a charter on Feb. 8, 1890, to build two miles of track running north and south on Broadway. The first cars began running on Oct. 20 of that year. The cars were stored in a newly built car barn and light repair shop on the southwest corner of 20th and Broadway.

The second electric railway in Pittsburgh was the Forest Park Line, organized on Jan. 25, 1891, with track going along Fourth Street east and west of Broadway. The Forest Park Line was built to minimal standards, with a single line of trolley poles running down the middle of the street about a foot from the south side of the cars, Conrad said. Passengers were told not to put their heads out the windows on the pole side, but people did keep looking out to see what made the trolley go. There were several injuries and at least two fatalities. He said that, at its peak in 1910, the J&P employed about 375 people, most of them living in Pittsburgh, and was the only means of transit for riders and shippers of freight in an area bounded by Girard, Mulberry, Joplin, Mo., Columbus and West Mineral.

Gradually, the train line dwindled. By June 1934, the J&P was a freight-only short line extending from Pittsburgh southeast to the Chitwood district of Joplin, north and east to Mulberry, and southwest to Cherokee. And, on Jan. 27, 1954, the train made its final trip into Pittsburgh. In March, it was sold to a metal recycling business in Chicago and the S.A. Rose Iron and Metal Company, Pittsburgh. Some trolley brackets were sold to local farmers, who used them as fence posts. There are a few traces left of the old rail lines. An old J&P car barn at the end of West Fourth has been converted into a house. A J&P Buda handcar is among the exhibits at the Heart of the Heartlands Railroad Museum at Carona. And a J&P locomotive is on display at the St. Louis Museum of Transportation. As far as I know, that's the only remaining J&P locomotive, Conrad said.

Contents:
1. Before the Interurbans;
2. Southwest Missouri Railroad-The Rogers Line;
3. Joplin & Pittsburgh Railway-The Heim Line;
4. Northeast Oklahoma Railroad-The Fishhook Line;
5. Retrospect;
6. Rolling Stock;
7. Remnants From a Bygone Era;
8. Bibliography;
Appendix;
Operating Data;
Index.

Heartland Rails Publishing, soft cover, 240 pages., 8.5 x 11 x .5 in., maps and b&w photographs. HR706
Price: 25.95 USD