History of the Tooele Valley Railroad Shared in New Book

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - Sept. 17, 2013 - PRLog -- The newest addition to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of Rail series is Tooele Valley Railroad by local author Emma Louise Penrod. The book boasts more than 200 vintage images and memories of the Utah railroad.

Shortly after the International Smelter offered economic salvation to Tooele’s struggling desert community, the Tooele Valley Railroad became the town artery. Though originally built in 1908 to connect the smelter to the Union Pacific and Western Pacific lines west of town, the railroad became central to daily life. Hundreds of local workers rode it to and from work each day.

As technology continued to change Tooele, the Tooele Valley Railroad shared Vine Street with the first automobiles—safety precautions required that the caboose, with a horn mounted to warn motorists, lead the oncoming train. However, the smelter’s decades of prosperity proved short-lived and by the 1930s, the town had fallen on difficult times once again. The railroad outlived the smelter, but operations ceased in the early 1980s and the city had the abandoned tracks removed.

Highlights of Tooele Valley Railroad include:
•   The book details the Elton Tunnel, a 4.5 mile, million dollar project undertaken just after the Great Depression. The tunnel connected Tooele to the Salt Lake Valley.
•   Celebrates the railroad’s famous Engine No. 11, the last common carrier steam engine in Utah.  This summer marked the 50th anniversary of Engine No. 11.
•   Highlights several photographs of the blizzards of the 1930s and 40s, which produced snow banks as tall as the railroad’s engines.

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online.  

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town?  Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com/.