There was a thread running on here about favorite railroad books....I did not list two I have, "Ghost Railroads of Kentucky" (and Indiana) by Elmer Sulzer. There is a third Sulzer book, which I think addresses those in Tennessee, which I should have, but don't, as it probably covers the Little River RR. I just wondered if there were similar books or series on other states? Just skimming through these two again I see so many interesting branch line teakettles and critters, and am sure all states had some, if not many, of these ghost railroads.
The Indiana one records an instance similar to the Swedish stolen train, in which somebody stole an engine parked in front of a station and it went backward down a track that deadended in the center of the small town, which end of track did not slow the engine. It continued across a street and into the front of a candy store, coming to rest in the basement. The guy in the apartment upstairs slept through it all.
Illinois had some shortlines that operated only with McKeen cars and others
that served only a grain elevator. I have heard of no books like Sulzer's, with all abandoned lines, that even addressed Pennsylbania, but would be interested in hearing of the existence of any for states from Pa. to the west
coast. Many books, of course, address the several abandoned Class 1's, but
not all the obscure branches and shortlines of a state.
