Railroads of Western Texas: San Antonio to El Paso (Images of America) - Tapa blanda

The Southern Pacific Railroad was the second transcontinental line built in America, and the first that was open year-round. Railroads of Western Texas brings to life the days of frontier towns, the open range, and the building of the state of Texas. This part of the state's railroad history includes politicians and movie stars, train wrecks and robberies, shoot-outs and gun-running. Railroads of Western Texas reveals engaging stories of San Antonio and El Paso during their boomtown years. It tells of the creation of communities out of whole cloth including Hondo, Sanderson, Marfa, and Sierra Blanca. Other towns-villages really-blossomed when the iron rails came through: Uvalde, Del Rio, Alpine, Valentine, and Judge Roy Bean's town Langtry (the man known as "The Law West of the Pecos"). The railroad featured the third highest bridge in the world (the High Bridge over the Pecos River), and the fourth largest man-made lake in the United States (Medina Lake). These rails carried men and munitions during the Spanish American War and the Punitive Expedition, and many more\ during the First and Second World Wars.

Douglas Lee Braudaway. A resident of Del Rio, an instructor at Southwest Texas Junior College, and author of Arcadia's Val Verde County, is a member of the Val Verde County Historical Commission and the Texas State Historical Association. Featuring nearly 200 fascinating photographs, Railroads of Western Texas tells the unforgettable story of the old Southern Pacific Railroad and those towns that lined the iron road that stretches across Texas, holding the state together and making Texas a center of transportation and trade.