The Utah State Library Division works to develop, advance, and promote library services and equal access to information and library resources to all Utah residents.  As part of the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, the Utah State Library Division developed a library reading list and toolkit with books, banners, bookmarks, and pencils.  Find these resources at a participating library below.

Children’s Book List

Barton, Byron. Trains. 1986. ISBN: 978-0690045345
Behnke, Alison. Timeline History of the Transcontinental Railroad (Timeline Trackers: Westward Expansion). 2015. ISBN: 978-1467785815
Caravantes, Peggy. Building of the Transcontinental Railroad (Engineering That Made America). 2017. ISBN: 978-1503816350
Floca, Brian. Locomotive. 2013. ISBN: 978-1416994152
Fraser, Mary Ann. Ten Mile Day: And the Building of the Transcontinental Railroad. 1996. ISBN: 978-0805047035
Gibson, Karen. Oregon Trail: The Journey Across the Country from Lewis and Clark to the Transcontinental Railroad. 2017. ISBN: 978-1619305724
Lewis, Norma. Connecting the Coasts: The Race to Build the Transcontinental Railroad (Adventures on the American Frontier). 2014. ISBN: 978-1491401866
Nardo, Don. Golden Spike: How a Photograph Celebrated the Transcontinental Railroad (Captured History). 2015. ISBN: 978-0756549916
O’Brien, Patrick. Steam, Smoke and Steel: Back in Time with Trains. 2000. ISBN: 978-0881069723
Rinker, Sherri. Steam Train, Dream Train. 2013. ISBN: 78-1452109206
Sandler, Martin W. Iron Rails, Iron Men, and the Race to Link the Nation: The Story of the Transcontinental Railroad. 2015. ISBN: 978-0763665272
Sheinkin, Steve. Which Way to the Wild West? Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn’t Tell You about Westward Expansion. 2015. ISBN: 978-0606375894
Shields, Amy. Trains. 2011. ISBN: 978-1426307782
The Big Book of Trains. 2016. DK. ISBN: 978-1465453617
Yin, and Chris Soentpiet. Coolies. 2003. ISBN: 78-1442018341

Adult Book List

After Promontory: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Transcontinental Railroading. Center for Railroad Photography. 2019. ISBN: 978-0253039606
Ambrose, Stephen. Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad. 2001. ISBN: 978-0743203173
Bain, David H. Old Iron Road. 2004. ISBN: 978-0670033089
Borneman, Walter R. Iron Horses: The Race to Bring The Railroads West. 2014. ISBN: 978-0316371773
Davis, Daniel. Across the Continent: The Union Pacific Photographs of Andrew Joseph Russell. 2018. ISBN: 978-1607816379
Fisher Fishkin, Shelley, et al. Zhi Lin: In Search of the Lost History of Chinese Migrants and the Transcontinental Railroads. 2017. ISBN: 978-0924335433
Murphy, Robert L. Eagle Talons: The Iron Horse Chronicles Book One. 2014. ISBN: 978-1432828769
Murphy, Robert L. Bear Claws: The Iron Horse Chronicles Book Two. 2015. ISBN: 978-1432830489
Murphy, Robert L. Golden Spike: The Iron Horse Chronicles Book Three. 2017. ISBN: 978-1432834395
White, Richard. Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. 2011. ISBN: 978-0393342376

DVDs

Modern Marvels: Trains That Tamed the West. A&E. 2005.

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