The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in West Virginia (Images of Rail)

Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2007. Paperback. Fine. 6.5"x9.25" 127 pgs. Spine straight, binding tight, pages clean and bright. Not x-library, unclipped (w/price), & unmarked. Secure ship w/track #. In 1827, a group of Baltimore capitalists feared their city would be left out of the lucrative East Coast-to-Midwest trade that other eastern cities were developing; thus, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was chartered. Political pressure kept the B&O out of Pennsylvania at first, and so track crews headed for what is now West Virginia, building mountainous routes with torturous grades to Wheeling and Parkersburg. Eventually the B&O financed and acquired a spiderweb of branch lines that covered much of the northern and central parts of the Mountain State. This book takes a close look at the line's locomotives, passenger and freight trains, structures, and, most importantly, its people who endeared their company to generations of travelers, shippers, and small Appalachian communities. Source: Publisher.