Mark Klingel 96 pages softcover
Named after a group of inland lakes that populate the region in New York
State, the Finger Lakes is home to a wide variety of agricultural,
commercial, and industrial businesses. Serving those businesses are a
group of short line railroads utilizing the tracks built by their fallen
flag predecessors who helped make the Finger Lakes what it is today.
For decades, railroads like the New York Central and Lehigh Valley
hustled passengers and freight to and from the region, dominating the
Finger Lakes railroad scene. However, this would all change in the
1970s. Between the formation of Amtrak, the increasing popularity of
transportation through airplanes, automobiles, buses, and trucks,
increasing labor costs, declining industrial business, and the resulting
formation of Conrail, the golden age of the railroads ended. At the
same time, however, a new era was ushered in with today's modern short
line railroads leading the way. These are the stories of the railroads
that built the Finger Lakes.
