Directory of Railroad History Research Locations

California

The Bay Area Electric Railroad Archives is located at the Visitor Center of the Western Railway Museum. This 4000-square-foot temperature and humidity controlled space includes the F.M. (Borax) Smith Library and the Harry Aitken Archives with 8 computer work stations available to the public on most Saturdays from 11:00am to 4:00pm, and other days by appointment. The collection contains mission specific documents, digital images and motion pictures, drawings, books, periodicals, technical manuals, employee and public timetables and ephemera from electric railways of the west and all railroads (main line, short line and industrial) in northern California. Major collections include Sappers, Moreau, Lloyd, Westler, Wurm, Brain, Thickens, Holmes, Stein, Jenevein, Bradas, Rolfe, Laflin, Savage, Dubrutz, Perry, Jenkin, Hanft, Billings and Perles. There are over 40,000 photographs arranged in albums by railroad, route, street or milepost location. There are also corporate records for the Key System and Sacramento Northern as well as many of the smaller electric railway systems in northern California.

The Bancroft Library, which is the research library at Berkeley, has extensive railroad material, usually focused on California. Its Roy D. Graves Pictorial Collection contains about 23,100 photographic prints arranged by Graves into 96 volumes. Graves began collecting photographs about 1902, and continued to develop his collection until his death in 1971.

The California State Railroad Museum Library provides public access to the museum's documentary collections. Library hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., except state holidays. Some materials in the collection are housed off site. Please contact library staff in advance of your visit to be certain the collection you want to see will be available. The focus of the CSRM Library collection is the history of railroads and railroading in California and the adjacent states from the 1850s to the present. Collections also cover selected railroad topics throughout North America, including Canada, Mexico, and Central America. Library staff also provides access to the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society research collection housed at CSRM. Reference sources include a wide range of books, periodicals, railroad association and union publications, ephemera, government documents, and trade catalogs. The library also collects manuscript materials and corporate records, photographs, maps and engineering drawings, including many original Lima Locomotive Works drawings.

Some materials such as the employee timetables are accessible through the California State Railroad Museum library, 111 "I" Street, Sacramento, California 95814, where most of the R&LHS collection is on deposit. Send research requests to R&LHS Archives.

There is a one day delay to see desired materials as they are stored in a warehouse. Has an excellent collection of annual reports obtained from Univ. of Wisconsin and railroad tariffs. Also good on railways of the British Empire, and to a lesser extent on other countries. Foreign material comprises annual reports of pre nationalized countries going back into the 1800s and some timetables plus other archival material. The Library has a detailed listing of railroad names for each country which they have material on. Material on U.S. railroads almost entirely annual reports going back to the l860s with a few tariffs of post l940s which are indicated by an X in the Archives column. The collection of railroad materials obtained from the Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, Il., has apparently been incorporated into the general Center for Research Libraries collection.

The former Hopkins Transportation Library collection, acquired mostly prior to the 1940s for railroad items. Stanford was the only university west of the Mississippi River to have a railroad library in the 1800s. Set up in 1892 by Timothy Hopkins for his collection, it quadrupled in size by l895 when an inventory was published of its holdings. In l936 it was renamed Hopkins Transportation Library. As a result Stanford has one of the four or five greatest collections of railroad books and ephemera in the U.S.--both pertaining to specific railroads and on railroading subjects. In the 1960s the contents of this library were disbursed thruout Stanford's various libraries. Green Library: The library has a large amount of foreign railroad material, particularly on England. Most of the U.S. material is annual reports. The Tillitson collection is mostly common notes on about 15,000 steam and electric railroads taken from magazine articles and Poors with less than a page of information. The Hoover Institute, which is not part of Green Library, has extensive Russian railroad material.

Collections include Phil Middlebrook, who was in train service for the Santa Fe and carried a camera with him while on duty; "Pete" Groome, a large number of Colorado Midland photos; 616 negatives of various railroads that cannot be attributed to any photographer; and Ed Ripley (grandson of E. P. Ripley, president of the Santa Fe), red-boarderd Kodachrome stereo slides of chapter activities, UP and SP steam, and Santa Fe trains.

Colorado

The state of Colorado appointed Herbert O. Brayer, archivist for the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, as Colorado State Archivist in January 1944. Brayer and railroad receiver (and CHS Board member) Henry Swan subsequently arranged for the company to donate its archives to the Colorado Historical Society. Additions to the collection continued over many years, as the D&RGW found old records in various places, including depots along the line. The photographic portion of the archives, which contains prints, glass and film negatives, slides and color transparencies, is maintained as a separate collection in the Photography Department.

William Henry Jackson glass plates and Otto Perry negatives. They have a large amount of railroad material in six different basic files: (1) 3x5 index catalog cards of certain materials in the library and references to articles in the Rocky Mountain News (mostly), and magazines and so forth. None of these card references index the other basic files, (2) Photo collection in file folders by railroad name, (3) Pass collection mounted in albums and loose in box(es), (4) Vertical file collection of archives, timetables, annual reports, and miscellaneous materials, (5) Clipping file in file folders by railroad name, (6) Joseph Schick collection of prints of Colorado railroads.

Records of the Rio Grande Southern are included in its collection. The RGS content has letters from railway pioneer/company president Otto Mears, inventories of equipment, lists of salaries, blueprints of track road­ways, and scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and memorabilia about some of the old private cars.

Built in 1997, the Robert W. Richardson Railroad Library’s collection focuses on railroads in the Rocky Mountain region and American West, but in some cases the scope is national or even international. From timetables to employee records, photographs to engineering documents, maps to books, it offers a wealth of information on railroads. No on-line catalog.

Connecticut

The Railroad History Collection consists of more than 50 individual sets of papers, records, and collections of a variety of archival materials related to southern New England's railroads, dating from the 1830s and the birth of railroad transportation in the United States to the 1980s. The materials are particularly strong in representing the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, better known as the New Haven Railroad, which was the predominant railroad in the region from 1872 to 1969. Coverage is strong for the New Haven Railroad's predecessor lines, particularly the Central New England Railway, the New York & New England Railroad, and the Old Colony Railroad. The largest and most significant railroad collection is the corporate records of the New Haven Railroad, which consist of administrative, real estate, lega,l and financial files as well as an extensive array of financial ledgers and board of director's minutes for virtually every predecessor railroad, including street railways, that merged with or were leased by the New Haven Railroad. The collection holds an almost complete collection of right-of-way track maps of the NHRR system and other maps and railroad station drawings of properties and land owned by the railroad. Also included are many thousands of photographs of locomotives, railroad stations, crossings, equipment and personnel. There are several collections of research files compiled by railroad fans and historians as well as timetables and annual reports.

Delaware

Hagley is an independent research library devoted to the history of American business and technology and is located at Buck Road East, about five miles from downtown Wilmington, Del. Extensive documentation of railroad history from the beginning down to the 1970s. Substantial collections include major portions of the archives of the Pennsylvania RR (2,200 linear ft.) and Reading Company (1,200 linear ft.) and smaller amounts from the Lehigh Valley, Jersey Central, Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and Interstate RR, plus records of the Northeast Corridor High Speed Demonstration Project, SEPTA, the Philadelphia area transit system, a small collection of Jervis Langdon’s papers, and the builder’s photos of the Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Printed materials include a wide range of railroad company annual and special reports, Poor’s and Moody’s manuals, reports of governmental hearings and 19th century state railroad commissions, employee magazines, and most standard monographs. Hagley also covers many industries and professions that intersect with railroad history, including the railroad equipment industry, industrial design (Raymond Loewy), iron & steel, coal, petroleum and chemicals, automotive, electrical industries, shipbuilding, engineering, finance and management. Hagley is particularly noted for its large holdings of manufacturers’ trade catalogs. Most holdings are described in an online catalog. Some items are in remote storage and must be requested in advance. Research grants and on-site housing are available to scholars meeting certain qualifications. Mail requests and inquires are welcome and can be made through the web site. QNL, Fall 2011, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp 11-15.

District of Columbia

The Library of Congress has a huge collection of railroadiana, but has seldom been used by most railroad historians due to lack of understanding of its holdings or the slowness of getting anything done. The library has various major departments. One is the prints and photographs department, with a railroad images section. Another is the map dept. which has all of the library's maps. The library publishes a large three volume book titled Subject Headings. It gives a researcher an idea on how the Library is organized and what may be found there. Prior to going to the library, this book should be seen to help organize your thinking. Large city libraries and the better university libraries will have copies. Surprisingly, locomotives are not included in the railroad section although just about every other railroad subject seems to be.

The many resources include the Charles B. Cheney Jr. Railroad Photo Collection. About 20,000 negatives of railroad related subjects, with the vast majority of the images being views of locomotives. Some of the photographs were taken by Chaney, although a large number are copy negatives made from existing photographs. Many are copies of builders' photographs. The emphasis is on the eastern lines, especially the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Florida

Private collection, visitors welcome. Prof. Bramson maintains the Florida East Coast Railway Company historic Archives, plus his collection of US railroad and traction memorabilia numbering more than 1 million individual items featuring the history of the FEC. Bramson is the Company Historian of the FEC, currently the only person in the US who bears that official title with an American railroad. The FEC and Florida transportation collection includes FEC history and records, letters signed by Henry Flagler, the bulk of the company's extant official negatives, hardware, Key West Extension maps and records and much material of both the FEC's predecessors and the predecessor companies of the ACL and SAL in Florida. Visits are by appointment. Please call (305) 757-1016, 9:30 a.m.—9:30 p.m. to arrange.

Georgia

The National Archives at Atlanta has received about 54,000 cubic feet of Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) Inactive Claims Folders from the National Archives Great Lakes Region. The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board administers a Federal retirement benefit program covering the nation's railroad workers. The folders deal primarily with the administration and payment of these benefits. It will provide information on deceased persons for genealogical or historical research.

Illinois

There is a one day delay to see desired materials as they are stored in a warehouse. Has an excellent collection of annual reports obtained from University of Wisconsin and railroad tariffs. Also good on railways of the British Empire, and to a lesser extent on other countries. Foreign material comprises annual reports of pre nationalized countries going back into the 1800s and some timetables plus other archival material. The Library has a detailed listing of railroad names for each country which they have material on. Material on U.S. railroads almost entirely annual reports going back to the l860s with a few tariffs of post 1940s which are indicated by an X in the Archives column. The collection of railroad materials obtained from the Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, Il., has apparently been incorporated into the general Center for Research Libraries collection.

The Donnelley Library’s railroad-related holdings include about 2,500 cataloged books and more than 1,000 volumes and issues of periodicals, some nineteenth century. single issues with advertisements being unique. There are also over 3,000 timetables and hundreds of railroad brochures, only a few of which are cataloged. The photographs exceed 10,000 in number, including some rare 1860s and 1870s glass plate negatives and many builders’ photos of locomotives and cars. A premier holding is Arthur D. Dubin’s collection of 7,500 photographs about North American passenger trains and cars from the nineteenth century to the 1960s, many of them having been discarded by the railroads themselves; other Dubin historic images relate to Latin America, Europe, etc., often Pullman built cars and related trains.

CB&Q: Building an Empire was created during a two-and-one-half year (2011-2014) project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to reappraise, preserve, arrange, and describe the library’s CB&Q records. This Internet gallery features images from the CB&Q Archives--letters, reports, photographs, maps, drawings, posters, etc.--about these and other subject areas and topics. It is intended to introduce researchers to the collection’s diverse content and to direct them to relevant materials via links to the online inventory. Essentially, the gallery serves as a visual subject index to the records. The library's railroad archives also include Illinois Central, Pullman Company, and other company records. QNL, Winter 2015, Vol. 35, No. 4.

The University of Chicago has two libraries. Regenstein Library has all the railroad materials the University acquired prior to the 1980s. Largely annual reports. Regenstein Library's Manuscripts Dept and in its main card catalog are extensive materials on foreign railroads. John Crerar Library:- The original John Crerar Library shut down about 1984 due to finances, and its contents were transferred to the Univ. of Chicago in a new building which was named the John Crerar Library. In the late 1950s the Crerar Library sold off much material. The railroad annual reports and many railroad books were acquired by Northwestern University's Transportation Library.

The NU Transportation library has an extensive collection of US and international historical and current railroad-related books, serials, electronic resources, and archival materials. All are welcomed to search our collections through our discovery tool. Our Digital Collections can be found here (of note: the Thomas Taber III Railroad Digital Collection) while our Finding Aids can be found here (of special note the Silverman and the Gelzer collections.) For additional information contact the library at 847-491-5273 or at trans@northwestern.edu

Indiana

Materials in the collections, other than the manuscript and visual materials referenced in a Guide to Railroad History materials, include digital images and printed items. The Bass Photo Co. Collection has a group of Indiana Rail Transportation Images, a full description of this collection can be found on the website. Other railroad related images exist in other collections within the digital archive, so searching this collection, as well as across all collections can yield different results.

Library is strong on railroad engineering, but little pertains to specific railroads.

Iowa

A large corporation library. Also contains the Rastrick Library Collection which is primarily on British railway and locomotive circa 1820-1850. It has corporate records of U.P. and recently acquired railroads such as the Western Pacific and Missouri Pacific.

Kansas

The society has major railroad collections especially for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. Also included are the Kansas Pacific, Rock Island in Kansas, and other lines.

The libary has an extensive listing of railroad-related databases, web resources, and a lecture series.

Kentucky

The Louisville & National collection documents the relationship between the railroad and the city of Louisville, and industrialization of the New South, including north Alabama steel manufacture and eastern Kentucky coal mining. Includes minutes, annual reports, and legal documents from nearly 100 early Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and other southern railroads. Topics include real estate transactions in southern and midwestern states, construction and maintenance of track, bridges, and terminals, relations with shippers, suppliers, and financiers, manufacture of locomotives and rolling stock, state and national regulation, wartime nationalization, transition from steam to diesel power, decline of passenger service.

Maryland

Has company records of B&O Railroad and non railroad predecessor companies and subsidiaries.

Joint operation of Baltimore Streetcar Museum and Baltimore Chapter NRHS; large collection of rail and traction periodicals, books, photos, timetables, etc. focusing on Maryland and surrounding states but worldwide in scope.

See description on main website.

Massachusetts

Open 7 days a week, early morning to late evening except summer when open only weekdays in the daytime. Baker Library is intended for student use and financial sponsors. Use by others severely restricted, and permission must be obtained ahead. Most material not stored at the library creating a one day delay to see. Four separate sections each cataloged separately: general library, manuscript and archive collections, annual reports and company archives (Cole Room), and Kress Library. Kress Library limited to only pre 1850 with much foreign material. All materials at the manuscript and archives collections described and well indexed in "Manuscripts in Baker Library" published 1978.

Second only to New York Public Library for miscellaneous railroad reference materials. The huge J.O.Brew street car collection not yet inventoried. Has a huge general collection of railroad books. There is no cross reference of railroad names under the subject of railroad.

Because New Englanders helped finance most middle-west and western railroads and the society is full of papers of such people, there is much investment information on railroads.

Open Monday-Friday. Contact ahead of visit is desirable, and all first time users will be interviewed before granted permission to research. Has the Thomas W. Streeter collection of pre 1841 railroad archives, the largest such collection in existence. It is necessary to check a main card index for items of a railroad which may be in both the main collections and Streeter. The Society limits its collection mostly to pre 1875 although its passes are 1870s-19l0. Passes contained in two scrapbooks in Archives Dept. and envelops in Graphics Dept. Most material is in archive boxes, but oversize is stored separately as are maps and broadsides (single sheet documents). Some timetables in the archive boxes and others in Graphics Dept. Has many stock certificates and some old tickets (kept with passes).

Michigan

The collection includes Detroit Publishing Company, one of the major image publishers in the world for nearly 30 years from 1895 to 1924. The company produced prints of landscapes and railroad and city scenes across the United States and around the world. Incorporated in 1895 as the Photochrom Company in Detroit, Michigan, it was known until 1905 as the Detroit Photographic Company, and then the Detroit Publishing Company. The collection consists of photographic prints, postcards, and color prints with subjects dating from the 1880s through the 1910s.

A large railroad collection. The Bentley Library, located on North Campus, specializes in Michigan history. It also has all the special collections and some printed matter which is indexed by railroad name in their card catalog. The Special Collection Library, located adjacent to the Undergraduate Library on the central city campus, all historical (i.e. non current) material pertaining to railroads. Pennsylvania RR Collection of minute books, finance records, some annual reports, etc. Records of the Grand Rapids & Indiana, the Ann Arbor, the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton, and the minutes of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern and Michigan Central and their associated companies. Library has inventory listing.

Minnesota

Railroad collections include corporate records of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Soo Line companies, plus the James. J. Hill Family Collection (acquired in 2008).

Missouri

Named for the twentieth century railroad executive, John W. Barriger III (1899-1976), whose collection forms its heart, the library has grown to become a major resource for the history of railroad business and technology as well as for the study of railroading’s multidimensional influence on the American economy, society, and culture.

The museum is in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, MO. The library contains a wide variety of general locomotive books with an emphasis on Missouri railroads. Additionally, the archives has a large collection of drawings and photographs from several local area builders. Appointments to use the Library and Archives must be made by advance appointment with the curator.

Nebraska

See Iowa

Nevada

The library includes a small collection of documents relating to the museum’s rolling stock, to the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, and engineering material and land records relating to the Southern Pacific in Nevada. Photographs include some of David Myrick’s collection, and many images taken by Stanley Palmer.

Records of many Nevada railroads including the Virginia and Truckee from 1860 to 1960. The bulk of the V&T material was given to the Special Collections Department in 1952 by V&T vice president and general manager, Gordon A. Sampson.

New Jersey

Extensive railroad holdings in general collection. No specific railroad collections. Good online catalog.

New York

The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives is a unit within the Cornell University Library that collects, preserves, and makes accessible special collections pertaining to the history of the workplace and labor relations. The center is a major repository for railroad industrial relations records. Holdings include the records of the United Transportation Union and its predecessors, the Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and the Switchmen's Union of North America. Also held are the records of the Brotherhood of Railway, Airline, and Steamship Clerks, the Railway Labor Executives' Association, the AFL's Railway Employees Department, and several US Emergency Boards. For research assistance and more information, please contact us or visit the Kheel Center’s website.

This library is second only to the Library of Congress in size. It has about 50,000 railroad items. Large pre-1841 collection. The library's card catalog is published in a 788 volume series, Dictionary Catalog of the Research Library, (1979) plus several other series of 3 to 30 volumes. Manuscripts Department holds the minute books of the New York Central and its predecessors east of Buffalo and of the Long Island RR. The library has a great deal on foreign railroads. It also has much on railroad signalling. Much railroad material is at a distant annex and is accessible only on one day's advance request. Periodicals are at the Science, Industry and Business Library, 188 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, 212-592-7000.

Oregon

A huge amount of material in numerous collections and several different photo files. There are two basic photo groups--loose in file folders and mounted and inventoried in a computer. Some photos are also in the special collections such as the David Stearns albums. The historical society also has the 17,000 negatives/pictures of the former Timberman Magazine, some of which show logging railroads.

Pennsylvania

Administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the PA State Archives has over 6,000 cubic feet of business and engineering records on a variety of railroad companies and equipment manufacturers in Pennsylvania. Highlights include the Penn Central Railroad Collection of Pennsylvania Railroad Company Records (4,900 cu. ft.) (MG-286); the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company Records, 1849-1962 & undated (MG-274); Delaware and Hudson Railway Company Collection, 1887-1959 (MG-401); Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company Records, 1792-1968 (including major subseries of records from the Lehigh and New England RR) (MG-311); Erie-Lackawanna Railroad Deposit, 1832-1968 (MG-300); Baldwin-Hamilton Company Records, [1834-1962] (including mechanical engineering drawings of mostly diesel and some steam locomotives, 1941-1956, from the Baldwin Locomotive Works) (MG-427); Delaware and Hudson Railway Company Collection, 1887-1959 (MG-393); Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Collections, [ca. 1830-1974] (MG-199); selected Allegheny Portage and Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad Records sub-groups in Records of the Land Office (RG-17); Reading Company Mechanical Engineering Drawings (sub-group in MG-199); Fall Brook Railroad and Coal Company Records, 1768-1938 (MG-48); Buffalo & Susquehanna RR Corporation Records, 1883-1930 (MG-457); also includes records of state government agency documents on railroad regulation, Annual Reports to the Department of Internal Affairs for Passenger, Railroad and Street Railway Companies (RG-14), as well as mechanical engineering drawings, microfilm, photographs, postcards and maps. Pre-paid mail requests and inquiries are welcome and can be made through the web site. Public Reading Room Hours (Free): Wed-Fri., 9 am-4 pm. Microfilm only on Saturdays, 9 am-noon; 1 pm-4 pm.

Open daily and weekends 9-4. Library and Archives accessible by advance appointment only. A very large general collection. Website has summary description of holdings, plus helpful links to other locations with related holdings.

The library has research guides for Railroad Research and Railroads of Pennsylvania, also a large block of Pennsylvania Railroad archival materials and the records of the Beech Creek Railroad.

Among the many types of materials in this collection are railroad history books, magazines, journals, pamphlets, brochures, and promotional novelties. There are also hundreds of timetables, railroad publications, maps, postcards, slides, posters, even a selection of dining car placemats. Fairbanks (1930-2005), a trustee of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, was a mechanical engineer and president of Horix Manufacturing Company of Pittsburgh. The collection includes hundreds of index cards featuring his hand-drawn observations of track layouts found along his travel routes.

Texas

A finding aid for the Baldwin Locomotive Works records, detail part drawings, and erecting card drawings is available online. The Everett Lee DeGolyer, Jr., collection of United States railroad photographs consists of 15,000 photographs and thousands of negatives of U.S. railroads. The collection is arranged alphabetically by railroad line, locomotive number, cars, and locations.

Utah

Documents and photographs relating to the Union Pacific, Denver & Rio Grande Western, Southern Pacific, and Utah short lines. Includes portions of the Ogden, Utah, Union Pacific Roundhouse employee register, the Floyd Jarvis Collection of D&RGW slides and documents, and Ogden Union Railway & Depot Company Timebook collection. No catalog available online, but requests can be made by emailing the librarian.

Photographs and Documents regarding the Denver & Rio Grande Western, the Utah Railway and coal mining between Soldier Summitt and Price, Utah. Catalog available online.

Photograph collection of the Utah-Idaho Central Railway interurban. No catalog available; inquire with the museum curators for more information.

Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Ogden Union Railway & Depot Company, Bamberger Railroad, and Ogden Union Station collections, both documents and photographs. Catalog available online for most collections.

The Library and Collections section of the Utah Division of State History (often referred to as the Utah State Historical Society) holds many records related to Utah's railroad history, including the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. These records include photographs, books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and maps. The Denver & Rio Grande Western Payroll Ledgers, 1889-1919 are part of our online Digital Collections. Please visit our website, which includes the Library Catalog, the Digital Collections, and the Maps Database.

Virginia

Has a huge C&O collection including 50,000 negs, 10,000 35 mm slide, 500 films,30,000 civil engr'g drwgs. of C&O, HV, PM, complete run employee timetables. Almost anything dealing with the operating department except equipment. Open Tuesday-Saturday 9-5.

Washington

Operated by the Historical Society of Seattle & King County. Collection accessible by advance appointment only. Probably the best railroad collection west of Minneapolis in the north west quarter of the U.S. Huge collection of employee timetables and maps.

Wisconsin

The Center’s Internet archive, railroadheritage.org®, complements other Center undertakings with well-described photographs and works of art. The images date from the days of the daguerreotype in the first half of the nineteenth century to the present. The Center partners with the Donnelley and Lee Library Special Collections of Lake Forest College (see Illinois) in maintaining its collections, which include currently several thousand images from the collections of Ted Rose, Walley Abbey, Fred Springer, Samuel Breck, and John Bjorklund, in process but partially accessible.

A principal focus of the documentary, graphic, bibliographic, and other artifact collections is the Western Great Lakes Region of the US during the 1880 to 1916 era.

The core of UW-Madison’s transportation collection that was provided by James J. Hill, president of the Great Northern, in 1905 and 1908, has been folded into the general library collections at Memorial Library, graduate research library for humanities and social sciences, and Wendt Engineering Library, some periodicals and monographs. Some materials have been microfilmed. University Archives holds information about relevant engineering programs and professors as well as railroad images.

The society has an extensive collection of railroad materials in its library, archives, and photographic collections. “Development of the Railroads” is a starting point. See also "The Railroads of Wisconsin, 1827-1937" (R&LHS, 1937) [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=63]

The collection includes indexes to some employee records and corporate records that are part of the archives of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, which designated Milwalukee Public Library as its official archives in 1981. Other material housed in the Milwaukee Road Archives includes time tables, photographs, and drawings.

Wyoming

The Center houses more than 200 collections relating to railroads in the United States, and is actively collecting still more. Among its holdings are the personal papers of John S. “Jack” Casement (construction foreman for the Union Pacific portion of the transcontinental railroad), and railroad memorabilia collected by enthusiasts such as Howard F. Greene, Rogers E. M. Whitaker, and James L. Ehernberger, as well as organizations like the Union Pacific Historical Society. The American Heritage Center is open to the public; more information can be found on its website.