The Most Competitive Passenger Corridor: Chicago-Twin Cities Dispatch 14 is about the passenger rail competition in the Chicago-Twin Cities Corridor. The competition was fierce! The railroads that competed were the Chicago and North Western Railway, the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway, the Chicago Great Western Railroad Co., Soo Line and Rock Island freights, and more.

Shore Line Interurban Historical Society continues its series of themed publications with a look at America’s most contested market for passenger trains. Previous single- railroad books have covered Chicago-Twin Cities — notably Jim Scribbins’ landmark The Hiawatha Story and The 400 Story — but this must be the first comprehensive look at all the players in one place. Profusely illustrated and supported by author Aaron Isaacs’ excellent text and a host of other contributors, the book devotes plenty of real estate to the Milwaukee Road, Chicago & North Western, and Burlington. Fans of the Hiawathas, 400s, and Zephyrs will find plenty to enjoy. But the book also covers the other players, from Minneapolis & St. Louis to Soo Line to Rock Island. Photo coverage — color and black-and-white, steam and diesel — is terrific, including gems from John Gruber and the great A. W. Johnson. A real strength of the book is its coverage from the late 19th century into the 1930s.

The Shore Line Interurban Historical Society, which published the book Dispatch 14, is a non-profit organization that publishes a quarterly magazine and dispatches about urban, suburban, and interurban passenger rail service in the Chicago Hub region. For more information on this organization or to join visit their website. The mission of the Shore Line Interurban Historical Society is to preserve the history of urban, suburban, and interurban passenger railroads in the upper Midwest.  

The Most Competitive Passenger Corridor: Chicago-Twin Cities Dispatch 14 includes more than 180 modern color and historic black and white photos, images, and maps. Historians, rail enthusiasts and the public alike will delight in the pictures and information in this book. Be sure to check out the other 13 dispatches by Shoreline.