OxfordPress.com

DAYTON — In the first decade of the 20th century, a railroad traveled through what are now the southern suburbs of the Gem City, winding past barns, farm houses and narrow country lanes. It touched the NCR Corp. and the University of Dayton.

Flash forward nearly a century. Much of the line's long-abandoned remnants have been either converted to drainage easements, bicycle or walking trails or are the subject of discussion for possible use as trails.

What remains of those days long past has come into view once again largely because of Joni Knopp, a 49-year-old history buff from Kettering.

She salvaged a promotional 1912 souvenir booklet for the Dayton, Lebanon and Cincinnati Railroad from a box of miscellany found at an auction.

The booklet contains 50 rare photos of life along the tracks.

The pages of this small time machine show a lost world: Oakwood traveled by horse and buggy, a railroad station on Brown Street near UD, life at NCR that included a "Boy's Garden," and a railroad repair shop in Centerville.

There's a move afoot to re-use a segment of the rail line that travels from the University of Dayton into Kettering, to Shroyer Road and Jane Newcom Park. It's being spied as a good way to connect the suburbs with campus, said Grant Neeley, a UD professor who directs the graduate program in public administration.