We’ve previously seen a 1958 edition of this booklet; today’s is from 1950. The Association of American Railroads apparently put out an updated version every year, or almost every year, between 1950 and 1960 or so.

Click image to download a 7.6-MB PDF of this 36-page booklet.

The text in the booklets remained about the same. The booklets also contained a series of maps showing the extent of railway lines by decade from 1830 to 1890 plus the year of (or the year before) the booklet.

Though a few key lines were missing, U.S. railroads were almost fully built out by 1890. This was followed by a period of consolidation as railroads extended their reach by merging with others rather than by building new track.

Many of the photos in this series of booklets varied from year to year. Despite this, some of them were surprisingly out of date. For example, this 1950 edition contains a collage of 33 photos “streamlined engines of today.” In fact, while a few E and F units are shown, many of the engines in the photos were from the 1930s and many of those had been scrapped or at least withdrawn from service well before 1950.