Mount Lowe: The Railway in the Clouds

Golden West Books, hardcover with jacket, 234 pages, 8.5 x 11 x 1 in., 425 illustrations, maps, bibliography and index.

Southern California's Mount Lowe Railway lived up to its title, The Most Scenic Mountain Railway in the World. In its short trackage from Altadena to Alpine Tavern, its rails climbed 3,130 feet in 5.84 miles, thus constituting an engineering marvel.

This book chronicles in word and picture the building of the electric railway into Rubio Canyon, the construction of the great incline on a 62 percent grade, and the narrow gauge trolley from Echo Mountain to Alpine Tavern.

The Alpine Divisions tracks followed the natural contour of the mountainside, over 18 trestles and around 127 curves.

Contents:

• Pioneers of the San Gabriel's, pp. 7–16
• The Land Boom and Afterwards, pp. 17–24
• Professor Lowe Takes Hold, pp. 25–50
• Opening Day, pp. 51–68
• White City, pp. 69–88
• Building the Alpine Division, pp. 89–104
• Hard Times, pp. 105–120
• Disasters-Coming of the Pacific Electric, pp. 121–178
• The Burning of Alpine Tavern, pp. 179–220
• Appendix, pp. 221–222
• Bibliography, pp. 223–231
• Index, 232-234.