Does anyone know what the best (if any) reference material would be to find out what RR serviced particular towns during specific years?
Specifically Staten Island 52-57
Ahoskie NC 65 - 67
Sarasota Fla 67-68
Laurel Miss 68 - 69
Franklin Ind 65 - 69
Official Guides from those years…many good business schools and other college libraries might have them as well as many railfans. Also specific railroad timetables, Rand McNalley historical maps. The maps, in fact, are probably the best…see Trains and Classic Trains magazine ads for Rand McNalley and a few others which are both current and historical; old highway maps showed railroads and you might check local historcal societies Check fellow railfans for their collections and input, railroad shows, hobby shops, and NRHS and R&LHS chapters near you. I don’t know where you are or how old you are, but I suggest starting with local librarians and historical societies, then hobby shops, and rail groups. Depending on what you want to know, maps may be the best and easiest to find, but Official Guides would have schedule and service information maps wouldn’t have.
I can tell you Staten Island was served by the Baltimore and Ohio (SIRR) and Staten Island Rapid Transit (not sure if it was in the MTA fold as yet).
Your best bet would probably be to contact somebody with a good collection of Official Guides, and consult the city index in the back.
Your anachronism is the request for Staten Island, which would have been served by the Staten Island Rapid Transit Company, which was then a subsidiary of the B&O.
So, with that out of the way, I’ll visit my dungeon and bring up the June 1965 and June 1969 issues of The Official Guide:
Ahoskie, NC: 1965, Atlantic Coast Line (would have been Seaboard Coast Line by 1967).
Sarasota, FL: 1965: Both Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line. In 1967 and beyond, this would have become the Seaboard Coast Line.
Laurel, MS: 1965, Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, Illinois Central and Southern Railway System all served here. All three railroads still served Laurel in 1969.
Franklin, IN: 1965, both the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads operated here. In 1968, those companies merged to form the Penn Central.
Wow ! That comprehensive, and that quickly !
[bow] to Carl ! - PDN.
Ditto’s to what Paul said! [tup][tup]
I’d still be fumbling with index’s and references, not to mention Internet.…[:'(]
If you can’t find that Official Guide, a strong second would be Poor’s Manual.
Offhand guess: Poor’s lists railroad lines, from so-and-so to so-and-so, but doesn’t list the stations in between. If it does, it doesn’t have an all-RR station index like the Guide does?