Union Pacific West From Leavenworth

South Platte Press, softcover, 88 pages, 8.5 x 11 in., B&W photographs, maps and illustrations.

Union Pacific West From Leavenworth: A History of the Leavenworth, Kansas & Western Railway by I. E. Quastler This book picks up where Kansas Central Narrow Gauge leaves off in telling the history of the rail line that ran from Leavenworth to Miltonvale, Kansas.

A few years after converting from narrow gauge to standard gauge, the Union Pacific-controlled Kansas Central was purchased at a foreclosure auction for $200,000 and rechristened the Leavenworth, Kansas & Western, with plans to expand the line to the western border of Kansas and northward into Nebraska.

But financial woes dogged the line and in 1908 it was sold to the Union Pacific. Improved highway transportation and losses spurred by the Great Depression caused the UP to abandon nearly all of the LK&W line in 1935.

Contents:

• Preface and acknowledgments pp. 5–6
• Background to the LK&W: The Narrow Gauge Years pp. 7–10
• Kansas Central: The Standard Gauge Years pp. 11–22
• Leavenworth, Kansas & Western pp. 23–44
• Leavenworth Western Branch, Union Pacific Railroad pp. 45–72
• LK&W Remnants: A Pictorial pp. 73–76
• LK&W Locomotive Roster, 1908 p. 77
• Appendix: Data on Operations, 1890-1907 p. 78
• Timetable Appendix p. 79
• Bibliography pp. 85–86
• Index p. 87.