A Railroad Atlas of the United States in 1946

Volume 3 shows the details of some of the most complex RR terminals in the USA, such as Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, etc. In recent years, all of those layouts have been greatly reduced, due to mergers and changes in types of traffic. So the 1946 Atlas will be a suitable 'monument to what once was'-at the peak of railroad passenger and local freight activity! -- Richard B. Hasselman, Senior Vice President of Operations, CONRAIL (retired) 2008

Carpenter depicts the major rail centers of Indianapolis, Gary, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, and Chicago, as well as every town and rail junction from Mackinaw City, Michigan, to Tell City, Indiana.A Railroad Atlas of the United States in 1946 recalls an era when steam locomotives were still king and passenger trains stopped at nearly every town in America. Railroad companies employed over a million workers, on the trains and along the tracks. Everything moved by rail: travelers, mail, and freight-whether a massive electric generator or a child's bicycle. Richard C. Carpenter's hand-drawn color maps recapture the precise details: the various trunk and ancillary railroad passenger lines that served thousands of towns; long-since demolished steam locomotive and manual signal tower installations; towns that functioned solely as places where crews changed over; track pans; coaling stations; tunnels; bridges and viaducts; and other rail-specific sites. The third and largest volume in this acclaimed series includes 276 maps and drawings and focuses on Indiana, Lower Michigan, and Ohio. These states could be called the crossroads of the national railroad network, where east-west transcontinental lines crossed north-south inter-regional lines. Carpenter depicts the major rail centers of Indianapolis, Gary, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, and Chicago, as well as every town and rail junction from Mackinaw City, Michigan, to Tell City, Indiana.