Description
M.T. Publishing Company, Inc. has teamed up with authors Thomas D. Harper, Steven D. Johnson and William T. Turner to bring you The Cadiz Railroad: 1901-1989.
The seed was planted for the Cadiz Railroad in the tobacco patches of Trigg County in western Kentucky at the dawn of the 20th century. The short line wove nearly ninety years into the county’s history through its contributions to social and economic life. The railroad, incorporated on March 9, 1901, was a local lifeline, providing freight services for shipping out tobacco and other farm and forest products, and later factory-produced items, while a large variety of manufactured goods, and commodities such as coal, were also hauled into the community. Official passenger service lasted until 1941, with the occasional farmer or railfan riding for free afterward. In later years, the little line’s name became known nationwide, via a leased fleet of bright yellow and blue boxcars displaying “CADIZ RAILROAD” on their sides. The short line ran its last revenue freight on May 26, 1988.
The Cadiz Railroad: 1901 – 1989 will contain roughly 500 pages of text, including hundreds of illustrations — photographs, documents, business correspondence, newspaper articles, stories and maps, with an extensive bibliography. Twenty-one chapters cover area railroads before the Cadiz Railroad (including the Ohio Valley Railway [later Illinois Central RR], the narrow gauge Indiana, Alabama & Texas RR [later taken over by the L&N RR], the proposed Hopkinsville & Cadiz RR and other “paper railroads” not built, construction and early history, steam and diesel locomotives, rolling stock, freight and passenger service, special trains, local lore, officers and employees, accidents and wrecks, the arrival of the Hoover plant, mileage expansion and military hauling, last runs, what’s left of the railroad’s legacy…and much more.
The expected publication date is fall of 2027.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Thomas Harper, a native of Trigg County, Kentucky, now calls the Denver, Colorado, area home. For more than twenty years, he has taught social studies at the middle school level while pursuing a lifelong interest in local and regional history. Inspired by the stories and memories shared by his grandparents, Harper has dedicated himself to preserving the history of Cadiz and Trigg County. His first book, Images of America: Trigg County (2011), documented the people, places and events that shaped his home county. In The Cadiz Railroad: 1901–1989, he continues his efforts to preserve the stories of western Kentucky and ensure that this important chapter of local history remains accessible to future generations.
Steven D. Johnson was born and raised in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and his love of trains and railroading goes back as far as he can remember, with encouragement from his parents, who would often park the family car near railroad crossings to await the train approaching from the distance. Even in college, at Western Kentucky University, a favorite extracurricular activity involved watching and photographs trains running beside the campus. He is a charter member of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Historical Society, in which he serves on the Archives and Modeling Committees, and is a longtime member of the Tennessee Central Railway Museum in Nashville, TN. Steve has had articles and photographs published in L&NHS publications and has contributed photographs to several books. The author of two books, Volumes 1 and 2 of Louisville & Nashville Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment, he is a medical underwriter and resides in the Bellevue suburb of Nashville with his wife Barbara.
William T. Turner is a lifelong railroad enthusiast and a collector of railroad memorabilia. A native of Christian County, Kentucky, his ancestry is deeply rooted in neighboring Trigg County. He is a retired professor emeritus at Hopkinsville Community College and is a member of several historical and patriotic organizations. William has compiled a number of books and publications featuring pictorial and community histories of Hopkinsville, Christian County and other western Kentucky subjects, such as the “Sleeping Prophet,” Edgar Cayce. Since 1975, he has been the official historian for Hopkinsville and Christian County. He and his wife LaVena live in Hopkinsville, in the old Beverly community.
