Customer Reviews

When the Railroad Leaves Town: American Communities in the Age of Rail Line Abandonment

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The first time I cracked open the cover and read a few lines, I knew this book was a winner.

While there are literally thousands of books out there showing fantastic photos of trains present and past. And many railroads have had their histories chronicled, this book focuses on the towns the railroads touched. This angle is unique, refreshing and most of all mesmerizing.

The author obviously spent a great deal of time researching the topic. The background information he supplies is immense, this was NOT a topic that was superficially researched. The various photos showing abandon railroad grades and shots of once busy steel-rails covered over in asphalt are especially telling.

And while the folks looking for photos of coal-drags over tall mountains may be disappointed, anyone that wants to understand how the railroads REALLY affected towns across the eastern United States, then you need this book.

A good book that combines railroading with American history. It will cause the reader to think twice as they pass that abandon railroad grade or drive by that run-down station.

The two volume history, "When The Railroad leaves Town: American Communities In The Age Of Rail Line Abandonment" by Joseph P. Schwieterman (Associate Professor of Public Services management an Director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at De Paul University) is the history what happened in towns and villages across America when the nation's railroad systems began collectively eliminating more than 120,000 miles of routes (about half of their total mileage) beginning in 1916 and continuing down to the present day. Volume 1 covers the 'Eastern United States", with volume 2 covering the 'Western United States'. A work of impressive and seminal scholarship, Professor Schwieterman's informed and informative text is enhanced with the inclusion of maps and illustrations. "When The Railroad leaves Town: Volumes 1 & 2" is especially recommended for academic library American History, Social Issues, American Transportation Studies, and Urban-Planning reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

This is a collection of individual vignettes of the end of rail service to a group of Eastern US cities. The towns range from very small hamlets to medium to large metropolises, from rural to urban. In every case Mr Schwieterman outlines how the local railroad came to be, how it prospered for a time but eventually went away, and what happened when it left with emphasis on the surrounding citizens and infrastructure. These vignettes have a air of sadness and poignancy about them, as they describe in some cases how the community around the railroad more or less died as a result of the closing of rail service. This is a book like other reviewers have said, that can be put down and picked up from time to time without losing any continuity due to its unique layout. I have had this book for some time now, and feel compelled to review it now that I am awaiting the authors newest book about rail abandonments in the Western US. This is one of the best books I have ever read on railroads, but in my opinion just about anyone with a interest in modern US history and how cities in the Eastern US came to be would enjoy it equally as I do. Very well done.

The author of this book clearly loves railroad history and social history. This isn't a book for rail nuts that want to know exactly what engine pulled what cars. It is for the amateur sociologist/community historian that wants a description of how the railroad came to town, how it affected the area, and what happened when the railroad left. Some towns moved on and prospered, others withered and died without the train. The author must have spent months if not years researching local references, visiting local history museums, and collecting photographs.

My only regret is that he had to stick to a representative sample of towns in each state. For each town he describes, there are a dozen others that met a similar fate. The towns he described left me hungry for more info about other towns in my area or in areas I've spent time in. For example, in northern Westchester County, property values are directly affected by access (and parking) for Metro North. My town has great train access, while nearby Yorktown Heights couldn't wait to get rid of their train to New York City, and have only a lonely depot and micro-museum to show what they lost.

This book will never be a best seller, but it shows how an author can summarize almost-lost facts into a story of the birth, youth and sometimes death of a community, based on access to transportation, commerce and the overall connection to the outside world provided by the railroad. The reader will not read every story, but for a town of interest, you'll be much richer for reading this book.