Rails || Trails

Railroads Connect Us…
Even When They Are No Longer Here

A traveling photography and history exhibition that explores the lasting ways railroads connect people and places through the rails-to-trails movement in the United States.

Images: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the Capital Crescent Trail in Baltimore, Maryland. Courtesy of the B&O RR Historical Society and Franz Jantzen

FEATURED TRAILS ↓
TRAVELING EXHIBIT ↓
Trail vIDEOS ↓
Online exhibit ↓
Hailey Paige, left, with Scott Lothes and Maureen Muldoon in the Local Motive Gallery in Madison, Wisconsin, was the principal behind Rails ||Trails. She was the Center’s exhibitions and events coordinator from 2017 through 2023. Photograph by Inga Velten

Rails || Trails is a traveling photography exhibition that explores the lasting ways railroads connect people and places through the rails-to-trails movement in the United States. The exhibition’s mission is to educate the general public about the prolific influence that railroads have left on the United States’ history, geography, economy, and community structures through the lens of the rail-trail movement and its presence in both rural and urban life.

The railroad industry employed 1.8 million people at its height in 1916. Today, the industry employs roughly 150,000 in both freight and passenger rail. Most people who interact with the railroad landscape do so through the use of recreational trails that have been developed in revitalized former railroad corridors. This exhibition explores the history of how those transitions came to be and the impacts of both railroads and rail-trails on communities. We invite rail-trail users to explore their connections to both their national and local railroad history.

The exhibition spotlights 24 rail-to-trail transitions across 19 states. The photography features collections from the Center for Railroad Photography & Art, the Denver Public Library, the Museum of History & Industry, the Historical Society of Western Virginia, and many more. We are also proud to feature the photography of members of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art who assisted in the creation of this exhibition.

Contributing archives

B&O RR Historical Society, Center for Railroad Photography & Art, Denver Public Library, Historical Society of Western Virginia, Kheel Center, Miami-Dade Public Library System, Museum of History & Industry, Princeville Heritage Museum, and South Dakota State Historical Society

Contributing photographers

Chap Achen, Ben Bachman, Bryan Bechtold, Ron Flanary, Barre Fong, Justin Franz, T. Bondurant French, Barry Gaston, Oren Helbok, Paul Hensler, Drake Hokanson, Franz Jantzen, Wayne Kemp, Cate Kratville-Wrinn, Elrond Lawrence, David Lester, Mark Llanuza, Scott Lothes, Mike Matejka, Emily Moser, Hailey Paige, Mike Pechner, and Robert Sartain

Featured trails

Right: A young boy watches a circus train on the Illinois Central Railroad in Madison, Wisconsin, from the Allen Street overpass on August 5, 1963. This route is now a rail-trail: the Southwest Commuter Path. Photograph by John Gruber, collection of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art, Gruber-05-33-002

California
1. Pacific Electric Inland Empire Trail
2. San Francisco Bay Trail

Colorado
3. Mineral Belt Trail

Florida
4. The Underline / Miami Loop

Georgia
5. Atlanta BeltLine

Idaho
6. Route of the Hiawatha

Illinois
7. Illinois Prairie Path
8. Rock Island Trail

Indiana
9. Erie Lackawanna Trail

Iowa
10. High Trestle Trail

Maryland
11. Capital Crescent Trail

Minnesota
12. Stone Arch Bridge on the Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail

Missouri
13. Katy Trail

New York
14. The High Line
15. Walkway Over the Hudson

Pennsylvania
16. D&L Trail
17. Manayunk Bridge Trail

South Dakota
18. George S. Mickelson Trail

Utah
19. Historic UnionPacific Rail Trail

Virginia
20. Virginia Creeper National Recreation Trail

Washington
21. Burke-Gilman Trail

Wisconsin
22. Elroy-Sparta State Trail
23. Southwest Commuter Path

Wyoming
24. Medicine Bow Trail

About the exhibition

Pop-up display of Rails || Trails at the Center’s Conversations 2025 conference at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois. Photographs by Elrond Lawrence

Hosting the traveling exhibition

To book a showing or get more information, get in touch withthe Center for more information at info [at] railphoto-art [dot] org or 608-251-5785.

About the Exhibition

  • Five self-standing exhibition displays
  • 1 x introductory exhibit box (4 sq. feet)
  • 4 x zig-zag exhibit displays (8 sq. feet)
  • Timelapse video of the Elroy-Sparta State Trail across four seasons (10 minutes)
  • Option for local history and/or trail section (personalized for venue)

In gratitude

Rails || Trails would not be possible without the generous support of the Lexington Group in Transportation History and the annual support from our member community. Thank you to everyone who donated to this project.

While working on the Rails || Trails exhibitions, the Center partnered with the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation on a walking tour of the “West Rail Corridor” in Madison, Wisconsin. Scott Lothes leads a tour in 2023; check with the Trust about upcoming tours. Photograph by Inga Velten

Videos: Ride the Elroy-Sparta Trail in All Four Seasons

Full length: Ride the entire trail from Sparta to Elroy (three hours).
Highlights: See key places and learn about the history of the corridor (10 minutes).

Discover the historic 32.5-mile Elroy-Sparta Trail in western Wisconsin, a former Chicago & North Western Railway main line. This trail made history in 1967 as the first rail-to-trail conversion in the United States. Now, it’s a year-round tourist hot spot!

Join the Center for Railroad Photography & Art as we pedal through the seasons:

  • Spring: Sparta to Tunnel 3
  • Summer: Tunnel 3 to Tunnel 2
  • Autumn: Tunnel 2 to Tunnel 1
  • Winter: Tunnel 1 to Elroy

Online exhibition