This 345-page tome, known as “Conquest II: Crestline-Ft. Wayne, GR&I, Toledo, Sandusky & Akron Branches” in long form, documents the trackage, plant, and trains of the Pennsylvania Railroad‘s speedway between Crestline, Ohio, and Fort Wayne, Ind., along with the Grand Rapids & Indiana line from Fort Wayne to Mackinaw City, Mich.; the Toledo Branch to Detroit; and the Sandusky and Akron branches in Ohio.
In doing so, it contains an amazing 750 illustrations, some in color, and an additional 20 pages of fold-out maps in a separate packet included with the book.
Author Messer (who died in 2020) does an outstanding job documenting PRR’s conquest of rail lines west of Pittsburgh and extending to Columbus, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago. Messer calls the young Pennsy’s extensions a “great leap westward” and by doing so, capturing traffic from several major cities. Numerous rail and city maps, track charts, rail yard configurations, rail facilities maps, photographs of numerous steam and diesel locomotives, freight and passenger trains, stations, and service buildings, document the railroad’s outreach in these sections of the country.
Looking in “Conquest II”
As an example of prime photographs in “Conquest II,” page 30 shows a clear half page 1922 overview of the Crestline roundhouse and service facilities with the stalls filled with T1 Duplexes; other nearby tracks holding J1s, K4s, and M1As. And a few pages further in the book, 1945 photos depict the Crestline Servicemen’s Canteen during World War II. Many other photos show a host of exterior and interior views of railroad interlocking towers along the line, with interlocking schematics, along with pictures of freight and passenger trains, layouts of stations, and track layouts within on-line towns.
There’s also a great photograph of the Toledo double-track line at the Maumee River featuring extensive coal transloading facilities. Another half page from 1953 shows the Red Arrow passenger train skirting the cluster of rail yards that served the downtown Detroit area, arrayed along the riverfront.
In all, an outstanding 3½-pound work that pulls together numerous original sources. Pennsy fans especially will crave a copy of this handsome book.
By David W. Messer. Pennsylvania RR Technical & Historical Society, Bryn Mawr, Pa. 345 pages. $90.
