Track Map Offering #29

July 2008

Once again, the ERA is making excess inventory in the Sprague Library available for sale to members. These rare items were filed away years, forgotten, until now. Enhance your personal collection by purchasing them for your own use.

No transportation enthusiast will want to be without these unusual items in their own libraries. We are proud to offer this package for only $30 including shipping to anywhere in the U.S., or $37 for Canada and all other countries. Don’t be disappointed; fill out the Special Offering Order Form (link below) and send it to us with a check or money order. No cash, please. The following list is a description of the materials being offered:

  1. A February 1957 track plan of the then-proposed NYCTA Christie Street Connection. It was built ten years later with a very different track configuration. This 8.5 x 11-inch plan shows the 1957 version. Very rare.
  2. A 1920-1930 track diagram of the Tri-City Railway Co., operator of the trolley network in Rock Island, Moline, Davenport, East Moline and Silvis until March 1940. This 8.5 x 11-inch plan shows car lines in relation to steam railroads as well as interurban routes. Well worth having!
  3. 8.5 x 11-inch route map from July 1957 of the New York Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission’s proposed circular rapid transit line showing both a 57 St. and Battery Park Trans-Hudson tunnel and connections to the Broadway BMT subway. A must in everyone’s collection.
  4. Complete 8.5 x 11-inch track map from November 1957 of the Hershey, Cuban Railway, including the Casablanca-Matanzas mainline, the Santa Cruz del Norte, Bainoa, Jaruco and Cojimar branches. The Regla diesel-operated branch and the Deposito Hershey area are mentioned without details. Shortly after the map was published, the Cojimar branch was abandoned when a highway tunnel opened under the Havana Harbor.
  5. A November 1957 route diagram of the six commuter rail lines operated by the Central Railway of Brazil (later nationalized as the RFFSA). All lines operate from Estacion Praca Dom Pedro II, as they do today.
  6. Souvenir Brochure of the ERA’s Bicentennial event on July 4, 1976. This fantrip used brand-new R46s in Bicentennial colors and trains of D Types and R1/9’s. The brochure contains a two-page General Order, a seven-page long “fact sheet” and a four-page BMT track diagram by Jeff Erlitz. Fascinating!

WWW ERA ONLINE