.: About the Book :.
.:Message From the Author:.
.: Ordering :.

Rails of Dreams

Ghost Rails III
Electrics
Upper Ohio Valley
Youngstown and
Ohio River Railroad

Ghost Rails V:
Butler Branch
and Winfield Railroad

Ghost Rails VI:
Harmony Route Pittsburgh Harmony Butler
and New Castle Railwa

Where Earth
Dissolves like Snow
The Keystone
Driller Story

Summary:

If you have traveled in Western Pennsylvania you have crossed the Harmony Route dozens of times.  Ghost Rails VI is a first time long awaited Western Pennsylvania history.  For those who live Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Lawrence, and in the surrounding counties, the Harmony Route has long been a magnetic history.  The name Harmony itself is compelling rooted in the Harmonist’s village  and history of 1815: Eidenau, a place of Eden, along the Connoquenessing Creek and what would be a future right of way, powerhouse and carbarn. 

And for those of us who grew up along the Harmony Route, we share a common history of stories, streetcar lore, electric cement posts, and bridge piers that were left behind.  (For readers of the abandon railroads and streetcar lines of the Ohio and Pa. line, one should note this is the counterpart of Ghost Rails III Electrics Upper Ohio Valley; the 2 books give the “big picture” of traction along “the line.”

Ghost Rails VI is the incredible history, much of which was supplied by Harmony historian John Makar.  70 miles of right of way, 2.5 miles of massive steel bridges, are covered almost mile by mile. Maps, drawings, early sketches by those who visualized or saw the last of the line, and tons of then and now photos tell the Harmony Route history.

The hardback book traverses: the Harmony Route in the city of Pittsburgh, North Side and Boggs and Buhl, Pittsburgh Evans City Division, the Butler Division, Ellwood City New Castle Division, and the Beaver Falls Extension.  Plus separate sections: the golden years of Harmony service, the builders, the construction of the line, roster, Harmony Freight service, coal mines and dams, carbarn and powerhouse sections.

 

Finally Ghost Rails details the history of Beaver Valley Traction that interchanged with the Harmony Route thru Ohio Valley towns to Sewickley, the home of Russell Boggs, who owned the Harmony Route.  And sandwiched in-between the Harmony pages one finds the ghost connection to the Slippery Rock and Grove City Railway, a planned railway partially built and caught up in the Harmony building craze of 1908.
         

Message from the Author:

Ghost Rails VI harmony Route is my 10th book.  It is in many ways my first book as I grew up alongside the Harmony right of way in Ellwood City near Ewing Park.  As a kid in the late 1940s and early 1950s, I came from childhood exploring the right of way and hearing streetcar stories: 70 mph cars, streetcars pulling coal cars, my relatives riding the streetcar car to church and school.  By the time I was 10, I was walking the line for nearly ten miles on my trap line.  Little did I know my past was the map for my future.

As I write, I try to plan somewhat these books of abandon railroads and their industries along the Ohio Pa. state line, but it is difficult to plot an exact course or history line. I have enough material to write four to five more books to preserve our state line heritage.  Time, health, energy, the economy, and of course the Lord determines the next book.

My books (first Rails of Dreams in 2003) simply seem to fall together like frames of a larger documentary film or chapters of an epic novel.  For years this has been a great interest, and I have been fortunate to meet so many great people who have contributed.  The book begins with an abandon line and ties, trestles, rails or no rails; history then simply unfolds like an accordion, the frames and words fall in place, almost quite naturally. I am very fortunate and blessed to be able to preserve our heritage. 

 

Copyright 2009 Wayne A. Cole
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book including web elements and images may be reproduced by any means or appear in any media without permission from the author and publisher, Wayne A. Cole, except for reviews or excerpts.