George H. Peck

George Huntington Peck, Jr. (October 15, 1856 – January 9, 1940) was an American real estate broker, developer and millionaire.
Born in San Francisco, California, he began his career as a railroad conductor and is credited with driving the first Southern Pacific train into San Pedro. Convinced of the need for harbor facilities, he later bought land along the seashore and, in 1890–despite little formal education–established the first bank in San Pedro.
Peck eventually acquired virtually all of San Pedro and much of the north part of what became Manhattan Beach. He also subdivided and laid out the small town of El Porto, originally called "Peck's Beach", which was eventually annexed by Manhattan Beach and became part of its north end. He built Peck's Pier. Among his larger real estate transactions were the sale of properties for the Standard Oil (now Chevron) refinery at what became El Segundo and the Army's Fort MacArthur at San Pedro.
George Peck died at age 83 in his home located at 1315 W. Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles, (which is now the historic West Adams District), leaving an estate valued at $5,000,000. Much of his estate was left in trusts for his chronically ill children, with the remaining value defaulting to the city upon their deaths. He is interred in the Mausoleum of the Golden West, Sanctuary of Faith at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.
Streets in San Pedro and Manhattan Beach bear his name.


Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railway

The Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railway (formerly American Rail Heritage, Ltd. d/b/a Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railroad Company) is a Class III common carrier shortline railroad that operates in the cities of Marion and Herrin in the Southern Illinois region. It is most historically recognized by the FRA for being the last U.S. railroad of any kind to use steam locomotives exclusively in regular revenue freight service up until 1986.
Overview.
The present-day shortline currently operates a total of of track across the industrial centers of Williamson County in two separate railroad districts with a fleet of two diesel switcher engines. One line being known as the "Marion District", which is the railroad's main working division with roughly of track; and the other division being the "Herrin District", which mostly serves the city's manufacturing industries along a stretch of track.
It also has three different interchange points with two Class I railroads. Near their main offices in downtown Marion, the railroad has a junction with Union Pacific's Marion Subdivision; another interchange is located in the nearby Marion suburb of Bainbridge with BNSF Railway's Beardstown Subdivision. A second BNSF connection with the same line is also present in the Herrin district. Most of the CO&E Railroad's revenue freight products primarily consist of coal, lumber, petroleum, grain, steel, paper, chemicals, manufactured goods, and railcar repair service.
History.
Background: 1970s.
On , the Crab Orchard & Egyptian railroad was first founded and incorporated under the name of American Rail Heritage Ltd. and the new company started off by creating a vintage tourist line operation alongside Illinois Central Gulf owned trackage. With the first revenue operations commencing on , the railroad ran its very first train consisting of CO&E's newly acquired 2-4-2T #5 and three former Illinois Central Railroad commuter cars from the former IC passenger station on Market Street in downtown Marion with several sightseers in haul. Their tourist runs would go west towards the old Crab Orchard Refuge railroad junction near Ordill where the train would do a brief turn-around and eventually make a return trip back to the passenger depot.
Locomotive #5 was rebuilt after its first season in service. The saddle tank and coal bunker were removed and a tender purchased from the Illinois Central Gulf in nearby Carbondale, Illinois, was added in its place. The rebuild resulted in a locomotive that looked more at home pulling the passenger trains, and also gave #5 additional fuel and water capacity.
About two years later, a second and much larger steam engine was purchased from John Thompson of Chicago, Illinois. The locomotive was in storage in the Central Vermont Railway roundhouse in New London, Connecticut and was moved to Marion in early 1975 to further complement the CO&E Railroad's historic roster. This new Canadian-built locomotive was former Roberval & Saguenay 2-8-0 #17, although since it was not in operable condition, the new engine couldn't be used in immediate service until an overhaul was performed. Despite a promising bright future, a tragic turnaround occurred on , when the CO&E's first major incident took place as a fire suddenly broke out inside the old Illinois Central depot. The building was completely gutted, leaving the building little more than an empty brick shell. The fire destroyed the railroad's main offices, which were located inside the depot, and two of the CO&E's six passenger cars used in its tourist operation; this huge loss permanently affected future tourist services and would eventually be abolished indefinitely a year later by .
All was not necessarily lost after this incident when only four months later, the sold the CO&E Railroad its trackage and property altogether after they discontinued freight service along the entire route. With this new advantage in hand, the railroad's first common carrier freight services would commence soon afterwards and the first revenue train was pulled behind 2-4-2 #5 on . These changes in operation immediately took off successfully as freight customers started growing rapidly with CO&E's new locally owned and operated service. Piggyback service was also eventually added in when a large fleet of more than 200 new flatcars and 600 highway trailers painted for the CO&E Railroad were delivered. A new engine was acquired at the same time to help switch cars around when a small Davenport 35-Ton switcher arrived on the property in 1978. Not long afterwards, the first test run of the 2-8-0 steamer finally occurred on after an extensive four-year overhaul and quickly became the primary power of choice by July.
Last American steam railroad: 1980s.
As the next decade started for the Crab Orchard & Egyptian railroad, steam-powered freight service was still expanding and the railroad purchased several different freight cars of its own over the next few years; many of these included coal hoppers, covered hoppers, and 25 former Ahnapee & Western boxcars, all of which were lettered for the CO&E with their classic pyramid logo.
By the mid-decade in , the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway in Jackson, Missouri made a deal to purchase the CO&E's 2-4-2T #5 steamer for use on their scenic tourist trains and the locomotive was eventually retired from revenue service soon afterwards to be sent to its new owner. A year later, the CO&E leased their very first diesel-powered switchers from Precision National in , which were two former Missouri Pacific Railroad SW1200s numbered #1147 and #1136. #1147 arrived on the property on September 4, 1986, while #1136 followed the next day. The arrival of the diesels proved to be fortuitous.
On the afternoon of , the #17 was out switching coal hoppers when the dry-pipe inside the boiler suddenly collapsed and indefinitely put the engine out of service unless another major overhaul could be performed on it. The CO&E Railroad's fame of pulling common carrier freight trains, including intermodal piggyback cars, with a steam locomotive finally came to an abrupt end due to this incident. The incident also marked the end of an era for American-wide railroading in general.
As it was, the railroad had been preparing for the post-steam era. The arrival of the diesels was evidence to this. #17 had been in service for seven years, and was approaching a federally mandated overhaul. The major work that would have been required was the replacement of the tubes and flues running from the firebox to the smokebox in the boiler. The withdrawal from service of #17 for the required overhaul would have marked the end of her career, as there was no plan to overhaul #17 when its flue time ran out.
Since it was no longer in operating condition, the #17 was eventually sold on and later transferred to the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad in Boone, Iowa to be used for historic display purposes where it remains today; the railroad's roster became fully dieselized afterwards with both of their remaining GM-EMD SW1200s and gasoline powered Davenport 35-ton switcher. A third former Missouri Pacific SW1200, #1161 was eventually purchased and joined the roster in the spring of 1987. Before arrival, it was given a full coat of paint which matched Marion's local high school colors of blue and yellow; however the #1147 was never painted into the railroad's scheme and only given a patch job with their pyramid logo.
During the fall of next year, a new line was purchased directly from the Illinois Central Gulf on in the nearby city of Herrin. This new addition expanded the CO&E's current system by and gave them access to Herrin's lucrative manufacturing industry such as Maytag Inc. #1136 and was fully painted to match Herrin's local high school colors of orange and black.
Current day: 1990s - Present.
While the modern-day Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railroad has been operating common carrier services across Williamson County since the 1970s, the 1980s did see a big difference in the way things were done with the railroad. Intermodal piggyback service started winding down in 1982 and was eventually phased out four years later due to deregulation within the railroad industry. The CO&E's entire roster of freight cars were also sold off early in the decade with the growing popularity of independently and privately owned freight car shippers, many of such were sold to other shortlines for leasing purposes.
In 1995, the railroad's small, but longest-lasting, "Rosi-Clare" Davenport 35-tonner was finally retired from the roster after nearly 20 years of service with the CO&E Railroad. It was later donated to the American Fluorite Museum in the engine's namesake town of Rosiclare, Illinois the same year where it currently resides in full CO&E paint and lettering for display purposes. With Rosi-Clare's departure, a new EMD SW1 switcher would later be purchased from the former Sahara Coal Company as a replacement. It was repainted into the CO&E Railroad's "Marion District" colors of blue and yellow and given the new name and number of "The Six" on the cab side. During , The Six was eventually given the formal name of "William "Bill" E. Schreiber" in devotion to one of the CO&E's original founders who had recently died in 2006.
The current traffic base for the CO&E Railroad consists of more than 10 different industrial areas with rail access, all of which ship various commodities on both lines. In the Marion District, there is Warren Oil (liquids and lubricants), Perma-Treat (treated lumber), North Side Wholesale, Illinois Transload, and P&S Grain. Some of its largest customers here are Southern Illinois Railcar, which provides freight-car repair services, Hastie Mining, and Excel Mining, which ship equipment and supplies used in mining applications, and General Dynamics, a government contractor whom makes ammunition for the military.
Inside the railroad's Herrin District, there is the CO&E's largest customer, Whirlpool-Maytag's appliance factory, Stone Container (a cardboard box plant), DJM Oil (fuels and lubricants), and East Side Wholesale. Many of these plants have closed down over time within the past few years though, such as the case with Whirlpool shutting down their factory in December 2006 and DJM Oil burning down to the ground in 2007.
Sale and name change.
In late 2012, American Rail Heritage, Ltd. sold the railroad to Progressive Rail Incorporated, with December 19, 2012 being the final day of operations for the old company. The railroad is now known as Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railway, a Division of Progressive Rail Incorporated.
Equipment.
Current active roster.
Over its three decade history, the Crab Orchard and Egyptian's locomotive roster has seen a large transition between steam power back in the 1970s and the present-day diesel power currently running; overall they have owned a total of seven different engines from four different locomotive builders over the course of its time. The modern roster comprises only two EMD SW1200's, all of which are fully painted into CO&E's present scheme; however their individual colors correspond to their own district's local high school colors.
Past historic roster.
One of the railroad's former steam engines, COER 2-8-0 #17, is most widely known for holding the historic title as the last operating common carrier steam locomotive in America. It currently sits on display at the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad in Boone, Iowa and is still painted with the CO&E's classic pyramid logo. The railroad's other steam engine, COER 2-4-2T #5, is currently in storage at the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway in Jackson, Missouri and pending further restoration.
As for the CO&E Railroad's very first diesel switcher, SW1200 #1147, it only spent three years on the shortline before it was returned to Precision National in 1989 after originally being acquired in August 1986. This company would later sell the engine to the Alcoa Terminal Railroad near Knoxville, Tennessee the same year where it currently remains and works with today.


Doe Gully, West Virginia

Doe Gully is an unincorporated community along the Potomac River in Morgan County in the U.S. state of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. Located along the old Baltimore and Ohio Railroad where it bisects a bend in the Potomac by way of the Randolph Tunnel, Doe Gully is only accessible by way of Doe Gulley Lane (West Virginia Secondary Route 18/2) from Orleans Road (West Virginia Secondary Route 18/1). It is located southwest of Orleans Cross Roads. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park crosses the Potomac River onto the West Virginia side to Doe Gulley's west and it also lies directly across the river from it. Like most of the old B&O railroad stations and their communities, Doe Gully is popular with railfans.


Strasburg Rail Road

The Strasburg Rail Road is the oldest continuously operating railroad in the western hemisphere and the oldest public utility in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Chartered in 1832, the Strasburg Rail Road Company is today a heritage railroad offering excursion trains hauled by steam locomotives and rarely diesel locomotives on of track in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, as well as providing freight service to area shippers. The railroad's headquarters are outside Strasburg, Pennsylvania.
Strasburg has a total of eight steam locomotives on their current roster (five of which are operational). As of 2021, Great Western No. 90, Canadian National No. 89, Norfolk & Western No. 475 and Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal No. 15 (rebuilt as Thomas the Tank Engine) are all in active service. Canadian National No. 7312 (No. 31) is undergoing its ongoing mandated 1,472-day inspection and overhaul. Canadian Pacific 972 has been under restoration since 1999. The other 2 steam locomotives are 15” Gauge 4-4-0’s built by Cagney in the early 1900s. They also have the nation's largest operating fleet of historic wooden passenger coaches. The Strasburg Rail Road is one of the few railroads in the U.S. to occasionally use steam locomotives to haul revenue freight trains. It hosts 300,000 visitors per year.
The nearby Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania occasionally uses Strasburg Rail Road tracks to connect to the Amtrak Philadelphia-to-Harrisburg Main Line junction in Paradise, Pennsylvania.
Description.
Strasburg Rail Road is a shortline railroad built to connect the town of Strasburg with a main line. Today, the original line carries passengers on a 45-minute round-trip journey from Strasburg to Leaman Place Junction through nearly in southeastern Lancaster County.
The train includes the United States' only operational wooden dining car on which visitors may dine while riding. Attractions at the station include the fully operational gauge Pint-Sized Pufferbelly (Cagney steam-powered ridable miniature railway) a vintage pump car and several c.1930s "cranky cars" along with several gift shops and a cafe.
A percentage of each train ticket is contributed to the Lancaster Farmland Trust.
The railroad's mechanical and car shops maintain and restore locomotives and rolling stock for the Strasburg Rail Road and a wide variety of public and private clients, including fellow steam railroads, train museums, attractions, and more. In 2016–17, the shops were enlarged by to accommodate demand for their services.
Its freight department carries goods to and from the main line for local and regional clients. Since 2008, freight carloadings have increased substantially, spurred by development of a $1.5 million transshipment facility funded by the railroad and matching grants.
History.
By the 1820s, the canal system had replaced the Conestoga wagon as the primary method of overland transportation. When the Susquehanna Canal opened, the majority of goods were directed through Baltimore, Maryland, rather than Philadelphia. The small amount of goods that were destined for Philadelphia traveled via a wagon road through Strasburg. Philadelphia attempted to reclaim its position as a major port city by constructing the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad in 1831. A railroad was easier and more cost effective to build than a canal. Because the new railroad would bypass Strasburg and cause Strasburg to lose its livelihood, a group of businessmen petitioned the state government for the right to build their own railroad to connect Strasburg to the Philadelphia and Columbia. A charter was issued by the Pennsylvania Legislature with the signature of Governor George Wolf on June 9, 1832 to "incorporate the Strasburg ".
Although the pre-1852 history of the Strasburg Rail Road is sketchy, it is believed that the line was graded in 1835 and was operational by 1837. The railroad operated as a horse-drawn railroad until it purchased a second-hand Norris-built, 4-2-0 steam locomotive named the "William Penn" in 1851. Controlling interest in the railroad was purchased by John F. and Cyrus N. Herr in 1863. The rails were replaced around the same time with heavier ones to accommodate the locomotive. In 1866, the Herrs were granted a charter to extend the Strasburg Rail Road to Quarryville; surveys were carried out, but the extension was eventually canceled because of an economic depression in 1867. Isaac Groff managed The Strasburg Rail Road for about 20 years until the fire of January 16, 1871, which destroyed the depot, grist, and merchant-mill, planing-mill and machine-shop — in all, more than $50,000 worth of property. In 1878, the Strasburg Rail Road and the shops were sold. The railroad was eventually again sold in 1888 to the Edward Musselman, with the Musselmans retaining control of it until 1918 when it was purchased by State Senator John Homsher. By this time, the number of passengers had dropped off due to tracks for the Conestoga Traction Company's streetcars reaching Strasburg in 1908, which offered a more direct route between Lancaster and Strasburg.
In 1926, the Strasburg Rail Road purchased a , gasoline-powered, Plymouth switcher—the only locomotive that was ever built specifically for the Strasburg Rail Road. By 1958, the railroad fell on hard-times from cumulative effect of years of declining freight business and infrequent runs, damage caused by Hurricane Hazel and inspectors from the Interstate Commerce Commission's lack of approval for operation of the Plymouth locomotive. Upon the death of Bryson Homsher, the Homsher estate filed for abandonment with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. Hearing of the potential abandonment, an effort to purchase and save the railroad was organized by Henry K. Long and Donald E. L. Hallock, both railfans from Lancaster. They organized a small, non-profit group to purchase the railroad. After the better part of a year of hard work, the purchase was completed on November 1, 1958. The following week, on November 8, the first carload of revenue freight was hauled to what was then the only customer, a mill in Strasburg.
Tourist excursion service began on January 4, 1959 and their first steam locomotive arrived the following year.
Locomotive roster.
Main units.
"Thomas" is actually Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal #15. The engine was sold to the Strasburg Rail Road by Keith Brigode from the Toledo, Lake Erie and Western Railway in March 1998 and was originally going to pull excursions on the site. However, it would not be easy to run the engine the entire line and back due to the engine's limited water capacity of the saddle tank. Unfortunately, the railroad had already purchased the engine and it was scheduled to arrive in May of that year. When the Strasburg Railroad finished shooting arrangements for the film, "Thomas and the Magic Railroad", a few representatives from the Britt Allcroft company were impressed and requested the railroad to host Day Out with Thomas events. The railroad accepted the offer and restored No. 15 to resemble the character, Thomas the Tank Engine. In April 2014, Thomas's face was replaced with the animatronic CGI face with the mouth's ability to open and close, and a voice speaker.
No. 89 first operated for Steamtown, U.S.A. as F. Nelson Blount's favorite steam locomotive. It was purchased by the Strasburg in 1972, and while in route to Strasburg that June, it was in Penn Central's Buttonwood, Pennsylvania, yard when Hurricane Agnes flooded the Susquehanna River. The floodwaters entered the locomotive's stack, delaying its debut at Strasburg. 89 arrived at the railroad facing East, and it remained in that status until the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania's turntable was installed across the street in 1975.
For several years, groups have scheduled photo charters when the railroad reletters locomotives in their heritage paint scheme. For the movie "Thomas and the Magic Railroad", #475 and three passenger cars (only two of which wound up being used) were re-lettered "Indian Valley".
No. 90 is occasionally repainted into different paint schemes for photo charters, such as the Great Western Railway (Colorado) scheme in a 2013 charter.
No. 972 was acquired from Rail Tours Inc. of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania after the company could not afford the payments for mechanical repairs that Strasburg was performing on the locomotive at the time. She sits in storage until she can be repaired.
SRR also has a collection of early internal combustion locomotives; all but No. 1235 are in operation.
No. 1 has operated on the Strasburg Rail Road ever since it was built in 1926. The engine is notable for being used to reconstruct the track and rails for the railroad between 1958 and 1959, after the railroad was purchased to become a tourist line.
No. 1235 was brought to the railroad in late 2018. It arrived in poor condition, and is currently awaiting restoration to operation.
Former units.
Both 1223 and 7002 were leased for operation. 1223 was leased from the PRR from 1965 to 1968, from Penn Central from 1968 to 1979 and from the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1990. 7002 was also leased from the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. After ultra-sonic testing both engines were found to have thin spots in their fireboxes, which are a part of their boilers, thus the engines were taken out of service. The railroad stated they could have done the repairs but the lessor, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, wanted to preserve the "historical fabric" of each locomotive and did not renew their leases the following year. 1223's last day of service for SRC was Thursday, October 26, 1989, while 7002's was earlier that year in January right after filming a Prudential Insurance commercial in Harrisburg Train Station. They have both remained on static display since being removed from service.
No. 1187 ran as No. 4 between 1962 and 1967. It had inadequate strength for SRR's heavy trains. As such, it ran as a switcher during the summer months from 1963 to 1967. It is a camelback-type locomotive. After a loan to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, it long sat dismantled pending long-term future restoration. It ws acquired by the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, Ohio, in an auction on July 15, 2020 and left the Strasburg yard on July 31, 2020.
No. 98 was bought by Strasburg to be used like 31 and 4, but restoration was slow and so she was sold. She is currently out of service undergoing a overhaul at the Wilmington and Western Railroad.
Pre-1958.
Strasburg rostered at least six steam locomotives prior to 1958. Evidence suggests that Strasburg only rostered one locomotive at a time, operating it until it was no longer economically viable to run it anymore and would purchase a new locomotive to replace it.


Davis station (California)

Davis, formerly known as Davisville, is a train station in Davis, California. The station is owned by the city, while the tracks are owned by the Union Pacific Railroad. The station is served by Amtrak "California Zephyr", "Capitol Corridor", and "Coast Starlight" trains.
History.
It was built by the California Pacific Railroad between August 24 and November 15, 1868, connecting Davis to Washington (now part of West Sacramento) to the east, Vallejo to the southwest, and Marysville to the northeast via a wye at Davis to Woodland, where the line separated to go northwest to Redding via Tehama and northeast to Marysville via a drawbridge at Knights Landing. In 1871 the Cal-P (as it later was called) was taken over by the Central Pacific Railroad; a fire later burned down the 19th century-style station. In 1914 the Central Pacific built a second depot, which was remodeled in 1986. The depot was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.


History of rail transportation in the United States

Wooden railroads, called wagonways, were built in the United States starting from the 1720s. A railroad was reportedly used in the construction of the French fortress at Louisburg, Nova Scotia, in New France (now Canada) in 1720. Between 1762 and 1764, at the close of the French and Indian War (1756–1763), a gravity railroad (mechanized tramway) (Montresor's Tramway) is built by British military engineers up the steep riverside terrain near the Niagara River waterfall's escarpment at the Niagara Portage (which the local Senecas called "Crawl on All Fours.") in Lewiston, New York.
Railroads played a large role in the development of the United States from the industrial revolution in the North-east (1810–1850) to the settlement of the West (1850–1890). The American railroad mania began with the founding of the first passenger and freight line in the nation of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1827 and the "Laying of the First Stone" ceremonies and beginning of its long construction heading westward over the obstacles of the Appalachian Mountains eastern chain the following year of 1828, and flourished with continuous railway building projects for the next 45 years until the financial Panic of 1873 followed by a major economic depression bankrupted many companies and temporarily stymied and ended growth.
Although the antebellum South started early to build railways, it concentrated on short lines linking cotton regions to oceanic or river ports, and the absence of an interconnected network was a major handicap during the Civil War (1861–1865). The North and Midwest constructed networks that linked every city by 1860 before the war. In the heavily settled Midwestern Corn Belt, over 80 percent of farms were within of a railway, facilitating the shipment of grain, hogs, and cattle to national and international markets. A large number of short lines were built, but thanks to a fast developing financial system based on Wall Street and oriented to railway bonds, the majority were consolidated into 20 trunk lines by 1890. State and local governments often subsidized lines, but rarely owned them.
The system was largely built by 1910, but then trucks arrived to eat away the freight traffic, and automobiles (and later airplanes) to devour the passenger traffic. After 1940, the use of diesel electric locomotives made for much more efficient operations that needed fewer workers on the road and in repair shops.
A series of bankruptcies and consolidations left the rail system in the hands of a few large operations by the 1980s. Almost all long-distance passenger traffic was shifted to Amtrak in 1971, a government-owned operation. Commuter rail service is provided near a few major cities such as New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the District of Columbia. Computerization and improved equipment steadily reduced employment, which peaked at 2.1 million in 1920, falling to 1.2 million in 1950 and 215,000 in 2010. Route mileage peaked at in 1916 and fell to in 2011.
Freight railroads continue to play an important role in the United States' economy, especially for moving imports and exports using containers, and for shipments of coal and, since 2010, of oil. According to the British news magazine "The Economist," "They are universally recognized in the industry as the best in the world." Productivity rose 172% between 1981 and 2000, while rates rose 55% (after accounting for inflation). Rail's share of the American freight market rose to 43%, the highest for any rich country.
Chronological history.
Early period (1720–1825).
A railroad was reportedly used in the construction of the French fortress at Louisburg, Nova Scotia in 1720. Between 1762 and 1764, at the close of the French and Indian War, a gravity railroad (mechanized tramway) (Montresor's Tramway) is built by British military engineers up the steep riverside terrain near the Niagara River waterfall's escarpment at the Niagara Portage (which the local Senecas called "Crawl on All Fours.") in Lewiston, New York.
Early period (1826–1860).
The animal powered Leiper Railroad followed in 1810 after the preceding successful experiment—designed and built by merchant Thomas Leiper, the railway connects Crum Creek to Ridley Creek, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It was used until 1829, when it was temporarily replaced by the Leiper Canal, then is reopened to replace the canal in 1852. This became the Crum Creek Branch of the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad (part of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) in 1887. This is the first railroad meant to be permanent, and the first to evolve into trackage of a common carrier after an intervening closure.
In 1826 Massachusetts incorporated Quincy's Granite Railway as a common freight carrier to primarily haul granite for the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument; operations began later that year, and which still had a section of it operating until the 1940s.
Other railroads authorized by states in 1826 and constructed in the following years included the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's gravity railroad; and the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, to carry freight and passengers around a bend in the Erie Canal. To link the port of Baltimore to the Ohio River, the state of Maryland in 1827 chartered the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the first section of which opened in 1830. Similarly, the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company was chartered in 1827 to connect Charleston to the Savannah River, and Pennsylvania built the Main Line of Public Works between Philadelphia and the Ohio River.
The Americans closely followed and copied British railroad technology. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier and started passenger train service in May 1830, initially using horses to pull train cars. The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was the first to use steam locomotives regularly beginning with the Best Friend of Charleston, the first American-built locomotive intended for revenue service, in December 1830.
The B&O started developing steam locomotives in 1829 with Peter Cooper's "Tom Thumb". This was the first American-built locomotive to run in the U.S., although it was intended as a demonstration of the potential of steam traction rather than as a revenue-earning locomotive. Many of the earliest locomotives for American railroads were imported from England, including the "Stourbridge Lion" and the "John Bull", but a domestic locomotive manufacturing industry was quickly established, with locomotives like the "DeWitt Clinton" being built in the 1830s. The B&O's westward route reached the Ohio River in 1852, the first eastern seaboard railroad to do so.
By 1850, of railroad lines had been built. The federal government operated a land grant system between 1855 and 1871, through which new railway companies in the uninhabited West were given millions of acres they could sell or pledge to bondholders. A total of were granted to the railroads before the program ended, supplemented by a further granted by the states, and by various government subsidies. This program enabled the opening of numerous western lines, especially the Union Pacific-Central Pacific with fast service from San Francisco to Omaha and east to Chicago. West of Chicago, many cities grew up as rail centers, with repair shops and a base of technically literate workers.
Railroads soon replaced many canals and turnpikes and by the 1870s had significantly displaced steamboats as well. The railroads were superior to these alternative modes of transportation, particularly water routes because they lowered costs in two ways. Canals and rivers were unavailable in the winter season due to freezing, but the railroads ran year-round despite poor weather. And railroads were safer: the likelihood of a train crash was less than the likelihood of a boat sinking. The railroads provided cost-effective transportation because they allowed shippers to have a smaller inventory of goods, which reduced storage costs during winter, and to avoid insurance costs from the risk of losing goods during transit.
Likewise, railroads changed the style of transportation. For the common person in the early 1800s, transportation was often traveled by horse or stagecoach. The network of trails along which coaches navigated were riddled with ditches, potholes, and stones. This made travel fairly uncomfortable. Adding to injury, coaches were cramped with little leg room. Travel by train offered a new style. Locomotives proved themselves a smooth, headache free ride with plenty of room to move around. Some passenger trains offered meals in the spacious dining car followed by a good night sleep in the private sleeping quarters. Railroad companies in the North and Midwest constructed networks that linked nearly every major city by 1860. In the heavily settled Corn Belt (from Ohio to Iowa), over 80 percent of farms were within of a railway. A large number of short lines were built, but thanks to a fast developing financial system based on Wall Street and oriented to railway securities, the majority were consolidated into 20 trunk lines by 1890. Most of these railroads made money and ones that didn't were soon bought up and incorporated in a larger system or "rationalized". Although the transcontinental railroads dominated the media, with the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 dramatically symbolizing the nation's unification after the divisiveness of the Civil War, most construction actually took place in the industrial Northeast and agricultural Midwest, and was designed to minimize shipping times and costs. The railroads in the South were repaired and expanded and then, after a lot of preparation, changed from a 5-foot gauge to standard gauge of 4 foot 8 ½ inches in two days in May 1886.
With its extensive river system, the United States supported a large array of horse-drawn or mule-drawn barges on canals and paddle wheel steamboats on rivers that competed with railroads after 1815 until the 1870s. The canals and steamboats lost out because of the dramatic increases in efficiency and speed of the railroads, which could go almost anywhere year round. The railroads were faster and went to many places a canal would be impractical or too expensive to build or a natural river never went. Railroads also had better scheduling since they often could go year round, more or less ignoring the weather. Canals and river traffic were cheaper if you lived on or near a canal or river that wasn't frozen over part of the year, but only a few did. Long distance transport of goods by wagon to a canal or river was slow and expensive. A railroad to a city made it an inland "port" that often prospered or turned a town into a city.
Civil War and Reconstruction (1861–1877).
Rail was strategic during the American Civil War, and the Union used its much larger system much more effectively. Practically all the mills and factories supplying rails and equipment were in the North, and the Union blockade kept the South from getting new equipment or spare parts. The war was fought in the South, and Union raiders (and sometimes Confederates too) systematically destroyed bridges and rolling stock — and sometimes bent rails — to hinder the logistics of the enemy.
In the South, most railroads in 1860 were local affairs connecting cotton regions with the nearest waterway. Most transports was by boat, not rail, and after the Union blockaded the ports in 1861 and seized the key rivers in 1862, long-distance travel was difficult. The outbreak of war had a depressing effect on the economic fortunes of the railroad companies, for the hoarding of the cotton crop in an attempt to force European intervention left railroads bereft of their main source of income. Many had to lay off employees, and in particular, let go skilled technicians and engineers. For the early years of the war, the Confederate government had a hands-off approach to the railroads. Only in mid-1863 did the Confederate government initiate an overall policy, and it was confined solely to aiding the war effort. With the legislation of impressment the same year, railroads and their rolling stock came under the de facto control of the Confederate military.
Conditions deteriorated rapidly in the Confederacy, as there was no new equipment and raids on both sides systematically destroyed key bridges, as well as locomotives and freight cars. Spare parts were cannibalized; feeder lines were torn up to get replacement rails for trunk lines, and the heavy use of rolling stock wore them out. In 1864–65 the Confederate railroad network collapsed; little traffic moved in 1865.
The Southern states had blocked westward rail expansion before 1860, but after secession the Pacific Railway Acts were passed in 1862 and 1863, which respectively established the central Pacific route and the standard gauge to be used. With federal financing in the form of bonds and generous land grants and with the heroic help of the mainly Chinese and Irish laborers, Central Pacific Railroad working eastward and Union Pacific Railroad working westward combined to complete in 1869 the major breakthrough First Transcontinental Railroad, which linked by rail the eastern states with the Pacific coast and made possible moving from New York to San Francisco Bay in only six days. In addition, other transcontinentals were built in the South (Southern Pacific, Santa Fe) and in the North along the Canada–US border (Northern Pacific, Great Northern), accelerating the settlement of the West by offering inexpensive farms and ranches on credit, carrying pioneers and supplies westward, and cattle, wheat and minerals eastward. In 1860 before the transcontinentals, railroads carried less than half as much freight as inland waterways, whereas by 1890 railroads carried five times as much freight as waterways.
During the Reconstruction era, Northern money financed the rebuilding and dramatic expansion of railroads throughout the South; they were modernized in terms of track gauge, equipment and standards of service. The Southern network expanded from 11,000 miles (17,700 km) in 1870 to 29,000 miles (46,700 km) in 1890. The lines were owned and directed overwhelmingly by Northerners. Railroads helped create a mechanically skilled group of craftsmen and broke the isolation of much of the region. Passengers were few, however, and apart from hauling the cotton crop when it was harvested, there was little freight traffic.
The Panic of 1873 was a major global economic depression which ended rapid rail expansion in the United States. Many lines went bankrupt or were barely able to pay the interest on their bonds, and workers were laid off on a mass scale, with those still employed subject to large cuts in wages. This worsening situation for railroad workers led to strikes against many railroads, culminating in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
The Great Strike began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in response to the cutting of wages for the second time in a year by the B&O Railroad. The strike, and related violence, spread to Cumberland, Maryland, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Chicago and the Midwest. The strike lasted for 45 days, and ended only with the intervention of local and state militias, and federal troops. Labor unrest continued into the 1880s, such as the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886, which involved over 200,000 workers.
Expansion and consolidation (1878–1916).
By 1880 the nation had 17,800 freight locomotives carrying 23,600 tons of freight, and 22,200 passenger locomotives. The U.S. railroad industry was the nation's largest employer outside of the agricultural sector. The effects of the American railways on rapid industrial growth were many, including the opening of hundreds of millions of acres of very good farm land ready for mechanization, lower costs for food and all goods, a huge national sales market, the creation of a culture of engineering excellence, and the creation of the modern system of management.
On January 12, 1883 the southern section of the second transcontinental railroad line was completed as the Southern Pacific tracks from Los Angeles met the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway at a location three miles west of the Pecos River near Langtry, Texas.
New York financier J.P. Morgan played an increasingly dominant role in consolidating the rail system in the late 19th century. He orchestrated reorganizations and consolidations in all parts of the United States. Morgan raised large sums in Europe, but instead of only handling the funds, he helped the railroads reorganize and achieve greater efficiencies. He fought against the speculators interested in speculative profits, and built a vision of an integrated transportation system. In 1885, he reorganized the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, leasing it to the New York Central. In 1886, he reorganized the Philadelphia & Reading, and in 1888 the Chesapeake & Ohio. He was heavily involved with railroad tycoon James J. Hill and the Great Northern Railway.
Industrialists such as Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould became wealthy through railroad ownerships, as large railroad companies such as the Grand Trunk Railway and the Southern Pacific Transportation Company spanned several states. In response to monopolistic practices and other excesses of some railroads and their owners, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act and created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in 1887. The ICC indirectly controlled the business activities of the railroads through the issuance of extensive regulations.
Morgan set up conferences in 1889 and 1890 that brought together railroad presidents in order to help the industry follow the new laws and write agreements for the maintenance of "public, reasonable, uniform and stable rates." The conferences were the first of their kind, and by creating a community of interest among competing lines paved the way for the great consolidations of the early 20th century. Congress responded by enacting antitrust legislation to prohibit monopolies of railroads (and other industries), beginning with the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890.
The Panic of 1893 was the largest economic depression in U.S. history at that time. It was the result of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing, which set off a series of bank failures. One-quarter of U.S. railroads had failed by mid-1894, representing over . The failed lines included the Northern Pacific Railway, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. Acquisitions of the bankrupt companies led to further consolidation of ownership. As of 1906, two-thirds of the rail mileage in the U.S. was controlled by seven entities, with the New York Central, Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), and Morgan having the largest portions.
James J. Hill joined forces with Morgan and others to gain control of the Northern Pacific. Hill formed the Northern Securities Company to consolidate the operations of the Northern Pacific with Hill's own Great Northern, but President Theodore Roosevelt, a trust-buster, strongly disapproved and took it to court. In 1904 the federal courts dissolved the Northern Security company ("see Northern Securities Co. v. United States") and the railroads had to go their separate, competitive ways. By that time Morgan and Hill had ensured the Northern Pacific was well-organized and able to survive easily on its own.
In 1901 the Union Pacific Railroad acquired all of the stock of the Southern Pacific. The federal government charged UP with violating the Sherman Act, and in 1913 the Supreme Court ordered UP to divest itself of all SP stock. This ruling was received with considerable alarm throughout the industry, as UP and SP were widely considered at that time not to be significant competitors. (Later in the 20th century, with different economic conditions and changes in the law, UP successfully acquired the SP. "See" Resurgence of freight railroads.)
Continuing concern over rate discrimination by railroads led Congress to enact additional laws, giving increased regulatory powers to the ICC. The 1906 Hepburn Act gave the ICC authority to set maximum rates and review the companies' financial records.
US railroads were at their peak length of trackage in 1916 with 254,037 miles of tracks.
Nationalized management (1917–1920).
The United States Railroad Administration (USRA) temporarily took over management of railroads during World War I to address inadequacy in critical facilities throughout the overall system, such as terminals, trackage, and rolling stock. President Woodrow Wilson issued an order for nationalization on December 26, 1917. Management by USRA led to standardization of equipment, reductions of duplicative passenger services, and better coordination of freight traffic. Federal control of the railroads ended in March 1920.
Railroads in the early automobile era (1921–1945).
In the early 20th century, some members of Congress, the ICC, and some railroad executives developed concerns about inefficiencies in the American railroad system. Memories of the 1893 panic, the continuing proliferation of railroad companies, and duplicative facilities, fueled this concern. To an extent, the need to nationalize the system during the war was an example of this inefficiency. These concerns were the impetus for legislation to consider improvements to the system. The 1920 Esch-Cummins Act directed the ICC to prepare and adopt a plan for the consolidation of the railroad companies into a limited number of systems. In 1929 the ICC published its proposed "Complete Plan of Consolidation," also known as the "Ripley Plan," after its author, William Z. Ripley of Harvard University. The agency held hearings on the plan, but none of the proposed consolidations was ever implemented. Many small railroads failed during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Of those lines that survived, the stronger ones were not interested in supporting the weaker ones. In 1940 Congress formally abandoned the Ripley Plan.
Modern era (1946–present).
During the post-World War II boom many railroads were driven out of business due to competition from airlines and Interstate highways. The rise of the automobile led to the end of passenger train service on most railroads. Trucking businesses had become major competitors by the 1930s with the advent of improved paved roads, and after the war they expanded their operations as the Interstate highway network grew, and acquired increased market share of freight business. Railroads continued to carry bulk freight such as coal, steel and other commodities. However, the ICC continued to regulate railroad rates and other aspects of railroad operations, which limited railroads' flexibility in responding to changing market forces.
In 1966, Congress created the Federal Railroad Administration, to issue and enforce rail safety regulations, administer railroad assistance programs, and conduct research and development in support of improved railroad safety and national rail transportation policy. The safety functions were transferred from the ICC. The FRA was established as part of the new federal Department of Transportation.
Two of the largest remaining railroads, the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central, merged in 1968 to form the Penn Central. At the insistence of the ICC the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad was added to the merger in 1969; in 1970 the Penn Central declared bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history until then. Other bankrupt railroads included the Ann Arbor Railroad (1973), Erie Lackawanna Railway (1972), Lehigh Valley Railroad (1970), Reading Company (1971), Central Railroad of New Jersey (1967) and Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (1972).
In 1970 Congress created a government corporation, Amtrak, to take over operation of Penn Central passenger lines and selected inter-city passenger services from other private railroads, under the Rail Passenger Service Act. Amtrak began operations in 1971.
Congress passed the "Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973" (sometimes called the "3R Act") to salvage viable freight operations from the bankrupt Penn Central and other lines in the northeast, mid-Atlantic and midwestern regions, through the creation of the Consolidated Rail Corporation (ConRail), a government-owned corporation. Conrail began operations in 1976. The 3R Act also formed the United States Railway Association, another government corporation, taking over the powers of the ICC with respect to allowing the bankrupt railroads to abandon unprofitable lines.
Amtrak acquired most of the right-of-way and facilities of the Penn Central Northeast Corridor from Washington, D.C. to Boston, under the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act (the "4R Act") of 1976.
In addition to freight railroads, Conrail inherited commuter rail operations from several predecessor railroads in the northeast, and these operations continued to be unprofitable. State and local government transportation agencies took over the passenger operations and acquired the various rights-of-way from Conrail in 1983.
The National Association of Railroad Passengers, a non-profit advocacy group, was organized in the late 1960s to support the operation of passenger trains.
Beginning in the late 1970s Amtrak eliminated several of its lightly traveled lines. Ridership stagnated at roughly 20 million passengers per year amid uncertain government aid from 1981 to about 2000. Ridership increased during the first decade of the 21st century after implementation of capital improvements in the Northeast Corridor and rises in automobile fuel costs.
In 1980 Congress enacted the Staggers Rail Act to revive freight traffic, by removing restrictive regulations and enabling railroads to be more competitive with the trucking industry. The "Northeast Rail Service Act of 1981" authorized additional deregulation of northeast railroads. Among other things, these laws reduced the role of the ICC in regulating the railroads and allowed the carriers to discontinue unprofitable routes. More railroad companies merged and consolidated their lines in order to remain successful. These changes led to the current system of fewer, but profitable, Class I railroads covering larger regions of the United States.
Since the beginning of the current deregulatory era, the following Class I railroads have been involved in mergers:
In 1995, when most of the ICC's powers had been eliminated, Congress finally abolished the agency and transferred its remaining functions to a new agency, the Surface Transportation Board.
In the early 21st century, several of the railroads, along with the federal government and various port agencies, began to reinvest in freight rail infrastructure, such as intermodal terminals and bridge and tunnel improvements. These projects are designed to increase capacity and efficiency across the national rail network. Two examples are the Heartland Corridor and the National Gateway.
Both the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations had announced plans for new high-speed rail lines in their first terms. In the case of Clinton era, the only tangible outcome was the introduction of Amtrak's Acela Express, serving the Northeast Corridor, in 2000. Obama even mentioned his rail plans in his State of the Union address, the first time in decades a President had done so. While several small scale improvements to rail lines were financed by federal money, more ambitious plans in Florida, Ohio and other states failed when newly elected Republican governors stopped existing high-speed rail plans and returned federal funding.
In 2015 construction began on the California High-Speed Rail line. The Phase I portion, which would link Los Angeles and San Francisco in under three hours, was originally projected to be completed in 2029 at a cost of $40 billion. By 2018 however, the project experienced numerous delays and cost miscalculations, with an estimated completion date of 2033 and a cost of $98.1 billion.
Technology.
The B&O established its Mount Clare Shops in Baltimore in 1829. This was the first railroad manufacturing facility in the U.S., and the company built locomotives, railroad cars, iron bridges and other equipment there. Following the B&O example, U.S. railroad companies soon became self-sufficient, as thousands of domestic machine shops turned out products and thousands of inventors and tinkerers improved the equipment.
Rail manufacturing.
In general, U.S. railroad companies imported technology from Britain in the 1830s, particularly strap iron rails, as there were no rail manufacturing facilities in the United States at that time. Heavy iron "T" rails were first manufactured in the U.S. in the mid-1840s at Mount Savage, Maryland and Danville, Pennsylvania. This improved rail design permitted higher train speeds and more reliable operation. Discovery of high-quality iron ores in the mid-19th century, particularly in the Great Lakes region, led to the fabrication of better-quality rails.
Steel rails began to replace iron later in the 19th century. Several railroads imported steel rails from England in the 1860s, and the first commercially available steel rails in the U.S. were manufactured in 1867 at the Cambria Iron Works in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. By the mid-1880s U.S. railroads were using more steel rails than iron in building new or replacement tracks.
Track gauge.
Through the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s, not only local projects, but long-distance links, were completed, so that by 1860 the eastern half of the continent, especially the Northeast, was linked by a network of connecting railroads. However, although Great Britain had early adopted a standard gauge of , once Americans started building locomotives, they experimented with different gauges, resulting in the standard gauge, or a close approximation, being adopted in the Northeast and Midwest U.S., but a gauge in the South, and a gauge in Canada. In addition, the Erie Railway was built to broad gauge, and in the 1870s a widespread movement looked at the cheaper narrow gauge.
The Pacific Railway Act of 1863 established the standard gauge for the first transcontinental railroad. Except for the narrow gauge, gauges were standardized across North America after the end of the Civil War in 1865.
Locomotives.
In the early years American railroads imported many steam locomotives from England. While the B&O and the PRR built many of their own steam locomotives, other railroads purchased from independent American manufacturers. Prominent among the early steam manufacturers were Norris, Baldwin and Rogers, followed by Lima and Alco later in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Diesel locomotives were first developed in Europe after World War I, and U.S. railroads began to use them widely in the 1930s and 1940s. Most U.S. roads discontinued use of steam locomotives by the 1950s. A diesel engine was expensive to build, but was less complex and easier to maintain than a steam locomotive, and required only one person to operate. This meant reduced costs and greater reliability for the railroads. Several companies developed fast streamliner trains, such as the Super Chief and the California Zephyr during the 1930s and 1940s. Their locomotives used either diesel or similar internal combustion engine designs. "See" Dieselisation in North America.
Though electric railways expanded in Europe, they never reached the same popularity in North America. They were built primarily in the north-west and the north-east beginning in the late 19th century. While some railroads used electric locomotives for both freight and passenger trains, by the end of the 20th century most freight trains were pulled only by diesel locomotives. The Northeast Corridor, the most heavily traveled passenger line in the US, is one of few long lines currently operating with electrification. "See" Railroad electrification in the United States.
Signalling and communications.
Early forms of American railroad signaling and communication were virtually non-existent. Before telegraphs, the American railroads initially managed their train operations using timetables. However, there were no means of communication between drivers and dispatchers, and occasionally, two trains were sent on a collision course, or "cornfield meets." With the advent of the telegraph in the 1840s, a more sophisticated system was developed that allowed the dissemination of alterations to the timetable, known as train orders. These orders overrode the timetable, allowing the cancellation, rescheduling and addition of trains. The earliest recorded use of train orders was by the Erie Railroad in 1851.
The development of the electrical track circuit in the 1870s led to the use of systems off block signals, which improved the railroads' speed, safety and efficiency. Mechanical interlockings, which prevent conflicting movements at rail junctions and crossings, were also introduced in the U.S. in the 1870s, after their initial development in Britain. In the late 20th century railroads began installing electronic interlocking systems at newly built junctions and replacing some mechanical interlockings.
Labor relations and worker safety.
Railways changed employment practices in many ways. Lines with hundreds or thousands of employees developed systematic rules and procedures, not only for running the equipment but in hiring, promoting, paying and supervising employees. The railway system of management was adopted by all major business sectors. Railways offered a new type of work experience in enterprises vastly larger in size, complexity and management. At first workers were recruited from occupations where skills were roughly analogous and transferable, that is, workshop mechanics from the iron, machine and building trades; conductors from stagecoach drivers, steamship stewards and mail boat captains; station masters from commerce and commission agencies; and clerks from government offices.
In response to the strikes of the 1870s and 1880s, Congress passed the "Arbitration Act of 1888," which authorized the creation of arbitration panels with the power to investigate the causes of labor disputes and to issue non-binding arbitration awards. The Act was a complete failure: only one panel was ever convened under the Act, and that one, in the case of the 1894 Pullman Strike, issued its report only after the strike had been crushed by a federal court injunction backed by federal troops.
Congress attempted to correct these shortcomings in the Erdman Act, passed in 1898. This law likewise provided for voluntary arbitration, but made any award issued by the panel binding and enforceable in federal court. It also outlawed discrimination against employees for union activities, prohibited "yellow dog" contracts (employee agrees not to join a union while employed), and required both sides to maintain the status quo during any arbitration proceedings and for three months after an award was issued. The arbitration procedures were rarely used. A successor statute, the Newlands Act, was passed in 1913 and proved more effective, but was largely superseded when the federal government nationalized the railroads in 1917.
As railroads expanded after the Civil War, so too did the rate of accidents among railroad personnel, especially brakemen. Many accidents were associated with the coupling and uncoupling of railroad cars, and the operation of manually operated brakes (hand brakes). The rise in accidents led to calls for safety legislation, as early as the 1870s. In the 1880s, the number of on-the-job fatalities of railroad workers was second only to those of coal miners. Through that decade, several state legislatures enacted safety laws. However, the specific requirements varied among the states, making implementation difficult for interstate rail carriers, and Congress passed the Safety Appliance Act in 1893 to provide a uniform standard. The law required railroads to install air brakes and automatic couplers on all trains, and led to a sharp drop in accidents.
The Esch–Cummins Act of 1920 terminated the nationalization program and created a Railway Labor Board (RLB) to regulate wages and issue non-binding proposals to settle disputes. In 1921 the RLB ordered a twelve percent reduction in employees' wages, which led to the Great Railroad Strike of 1922, involving rail shop workers nationwide, followed by a court injunction to end the strike. Congress passed the Railway Labor Act of 1926 to rectify the shortcomings of the RLB procedures.
Congress added railroad worker safety laws throughout the 20th century. Significant among this legislation is the "Federal Railroad Safety Act of 1970," which gave the FRA broad responsibilities over all aspects of rail safety, and expanded the agency's authority to cover all railroads, both interstate and intrastate.
Impact on American economy and society.
According to historian Henry Adams the system of railroads needed:
Shipping freight and passengers.
First they provided a highly efficient network for shipping freight and passengers across a large national market. The result was a transforming impact on most sectors of the economy including manufacturing, retail and wholesale, agriculture and finance. Supplemented with the Telegraph that added rapid communications, the United States now had an integrated national market practically the size of Europe, with no internal barriers or tariffs, all supported by a common language, and financial system and a common legal system. The railroads at first supplemented, then largely replaced the previous transportation modes of turnpikes and canals, rivers and intracoastal ocean traffic. For highly efficient Northern railroads played a major role in winning the Civil War, while the overburdened Southern lines collapsed in the face of an insurmountable challenge. In the late 19th century pipelines were built for the oil trade, and in the 20th century trucking and aviation emerged.
Basis of the private financial system.
Railroads financing provided the basis of the private (non-governmental) financial system. Construction of railroads was far more expensive than factories or canals. The famous Erie canal, 300 miles long in upstate New York, cost $7 million of state money, which was about what private investors spent on one short railroad in Western Massachusetts. A new steamboat on the Hudson, Mississippi, Missouri, or Ohio rivers cost about the same as one mile of track.
In 1860, the combined total of railroad stocks and bonds was $1.8 billion; 1897 it reached $10.6 billion (compared to a total national debt of $1.2 billion).
Funding came from financiers throughout the Northeast, and from Europe, especially Britain. The federal government provided no cash to any other railroads. However it did provide unoccupied free land to some of the Western railroads, so they could sell it to farmers and have customers along the route. Some cash came from states, or from local governments that use money as a leverage to prevent being bypassed by the main line. The larger sound came from the southern states during the Reconstruction era, as they try to rebuild their destroyed rail system. Some states such as Maine and Texas also made land grants to local railroads; the state total was 49 million acres. The emerging American financial system was based on railroad bonds. Boston was the first center, but New York by 1860 was the dominant financial market. The British invested heavily in railroads around the world, but nowhere more so than the United States; The total came to about $3 billion by 1914. In 1914–1917, they liquidated their American assets to pay for war supplies.
Inventing modern management.
The third dimension was in designing complex managerial systems that could handle far more complicated simultaneous relationships that could be dreamed of by the local factory owner who could patrol every part of his own factory in a matter of hours. Civil engineers became the senior management of railroads. The leading innovators were the Western Railroad of Massachusetts and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the 1840s, the Erie in the 1850s and the Pennsylvania in the 1860s.
After a serious accident, the Western Railroad of Massachusetts put in place a system of responsibility for district managers and dispatchers to keep track of all train movements. Discipline was essential—everyone had to follow the rules exactly to prevent accidents. Decision-making powers had to be distributed to ensure safety and to juggle the complexity of numerous trains running in both directions on a single track, keeping to schedules that could easily be disrupted by weather mechanical breakdowns, washouts or hitting a wandering cow. As the lines grew longer with more and more business originating at dozens of different stations, the Baltimore and Ohio set up more complex system that separated finances from daily operations. The Erie Railroad, faced with growing competition, had to make lower bids for freight movement, and had to know on a daily basis how much each train was costing them. Statistics was the weapon of choice. By the 1860s, the Pennsylvania Railroad—the largest in the world—was making further advances in using bureaucracy under John Edgar Thomson, president 1852–1874. He divided the system into several geographical divisions, which each reported daily to a general superintendent in Philadelphia. All the American railroads copied each other in the new managerial advances, and by the 1870s emerging big businesses in the industrial field likewise copied the railroad model.
Career paths.
The fourth dimension was in management of the workforce, both blue-collar workers and white-collar workers. Railroading became a career in which young men entered at about age 18 to 20, and spent their entire lives usually with the same line. Young men could start working on the tracks, become a fireman, and work his way up to the engineer. The mechanical world of the roundhouses have their own career tracks. A typical career path would see a young man hired at age 18 as a shop laborer, be promoted to skilled mechanic at age 24, brakeman at 25, freight conductor at 27, and passenger conductor at age 57. Women were not hired.
White-collar careers paths likewise were delineated. Educated young men started in clerical or statistical work and moved up to station agents or bureaucrats at the divisional or central headquarters. At each level, they had more and more knowledge experience and human capital. They were very hard to replace, and were virtually guaranteed permanent jobs and provided with insurance and medical care. Hiring, firing and wage rates were set not by the foreman, but by central administrators, in order to minimize favoritism and personality conflicts. Everything was by the book, and increasingly complex set of rules told everyone exactly what they should do it every circumstance, and exactly what their rank and pay would be. Young men who were first hired in the 1840s and 1850s retired from the same railroad 40 or 50 years later. To discourage them from leaving for another company, they were promised pensions when they retired. Indeed, the railroads invented the American pension system.
Early attitudes towards railroads.
Boosters in every city worked feverishly to make sure the railroad came through, knowing their urban dreams depended upon it. The mechanical size, scope and efficiency of the railroads made a profound impression; people would dress in their Sunday best to go down to the terminal to watch the train come in. David Nye argues that:
Travel became much easier, cheaper and more common. Shoppers from small towns could make day trips to big city stores. Hotels, resorts and tourist attractions were built to accommodate the demand. The realization that anyone could buy a ticket for a thousand-mile trip was empowering. Historians Gary Cross and Rick Szostak argue:
The engineers became model citizens, bringing their can-do spirit and their systematic work effort to all phases of the economy as well as local and national government. By 1910, major cities were building magnificent palatial railroad stations, such as the Pennsylvania Station in New York City, and the Union Station in Washington DC.
As early as the 1830s, novelists and poets began fretting that the railroads would destroy the rustic attractions of the American landscape. By the 1840s concerns were rising about terrible accidents when speeding trains crashed into helpless wooden carriages. By the 1870s, railroads were vilified by Western farmers who absorbed the Granger movement theme that monopolistic carriers controlled too much pricing power, and that the state legislatures had to impose maximum prices. Local merchants and shippers supported the demand and got some "Granger Laws" passed. Anti-railroad complaints were loudly repeated in late 19th century political rhetoric. The idea of establishing a strong rate fixing federal body was achieved during the Progressive Era, primarily by a coalition of shipping interests. Railroad historians mark the Hepburn Act of 1906 that gave the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) the power to set maximum railroad rates as a damaging blow to the long-term profitability and growth of railroads. After 1910 the lines faced an emerging trucking industry to compete with for freight, and automobiles and buses to compete for passenger service.
Environmental history of railways.
Railways also disrupted the natural tendencies of the environment through an increased capacity for transportation. Railroads throughout the United States allowed quicker, more efficient transport of goods and people that were previously unavailable. Agriculture, animals, soldiers, goods, and natural resources were now able to move large distances in much shorter amounts of time. As a result, things that were not harvested before like certain tracts of arable land or animal populations were now being used.
Galena and Chicago Union Railroad.
The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad was the first railway to be built from Chicago. It never reached Galena, Illinois, but it reached Clinton, Iowa, and Freeport, Illinois. This railroad marked the beginning of Chicago's economic dominance in the Midwest though transportation of goods such as agriculture and bison hides. Railroads affected the American environment by opening up unexplored, immense tracts of the American wilderness for settlement commercialization.
The idea behind a railroad to Chicago was to steal Midwestern agricultural business from St. Louis, Missouri and Madison, Wisconsin. The area around Chicago was ideal for a railroad because it was flat and grassy. Citizens of Chicago believed they could use their environment for commercial gain by actually buying goods grown from the land as well as increasing the value the value of adjacent land neighboring the railroad. The Galena and Chicago Union railroad underwent construction in March 1848 to have the railroad run through Chicago, a booming Midwest town. In order to fund this, local Illinoisans pledged together to build a railway because of the potential economic prosperity. William Cronon writes, ”By the following April [1849], over twelve hundred people had pledged to buy stock hypothetically valued at about $350,000, though they had paid only about $20,000 in actual cash.” Farmers were enamored with the idea of a railroad because transporting crops and goods became much easier and more effective than traveling on dirt roads that could easily become muddy or impassable, so they pledged a lot of their money towards the venture. The process of local funding was stock installments.
By 1852, the Galena and Chicago Union railroad supplied Chicago over half of its wheat. This statistic changed the way people thought about the environment and its railways because railways through the countryside provided Chicagoans with increased wealth; railways became a symbol of mastery over land by being able to transport anything across terrain. This mastery coupled with an aligning of railroads with prosperity and wealth changed the way Chicagoans saw railways. It was a beacon of hope and deliverer of goods.
Impact on buffalo population.
During the first half of the 19th century, herds of buffalo were plentiful throughout the Midwestern states of America, but the American people through Manifest Destiny drastically changed the American landscape. Before the Civil War, 8 million buffalo roamed free, but only 4–6 million remained after the war because their hides had become valuable throughout the country and domestic horses and cattle had begun to occupy the same space and graze the same land as the bison. William Hornaday, an influential zoologist and student of the American bison, wrote, "as soon as the railways crossed the buffalo country, the slaughter began." Railroads gave rise to the consumption of buffalo because hunters and businessmen could transport parts of the buffalo to distant parts of the country where demand was high. Before, it was not plausible to commercialize the buffalo because the hide, meat, and bones since it would take so much longer to get to their destination. Since railroads made transportation much quicker, it was now plausible for people to make money off the seemingly endless resource in the plains of the Midwest: the buffalo. So extreme was the mass hunting of buffalo thanks to the new railroads that wolves could not consume all of the carcasses that were left behind.
As a result of the rapidly declining bison population, economic opportunities arose through the creation of jobs. Men acquired jobs hunting and skinning bison on the plains, as well as maintaining railroad infrastructure used to transport the valuable bison hides.
Railroads in popular culture.
In 1967 Gordon Lightfoot, a Canadian folk singer released a song called, "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" which documents the way he sees nature and how nature has changed because of increasing railways going through North America. He describes the pristine wilderness "long before the white man and long before the wheel" and before pioneers started to build mines, mills, and factories in the verdant land. Because of the optimism for wealth and adventure, Lightfoot claims, "The railroad men grew restless for to hear the hammers ring." He also describes the cost this industry had on nature by penning the line, "Open her heart let the lifeblood flow." He describes nature's heart as being bled by the workers' dreams, which could not be stopped, "Into the muskeg and into the rain." Because man wants to be in control of nature and conquer it, he wants to be able to say,
"On the mountain tops we stand
All the world at our command
We have opened up the soil
With our teardrops and our toil"
Through hard work technology, pioneers and businessmen adapted the environment for their own commercial needs and quest for power.
Historiography.
There is no question about the importance of railroads in American history. Churella finds that back in the 1950s business and economic historians, led by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. and Robert Fogel, made railroads the centerpiece of advanced historiography. That era has passed as graduate programs have faded away, courses on railroad history do not make the curriculum, and the historiography has shifted away from professional historian to the "railfans"—very well informed amateur writers fascinated by the memorabilia, technology and locomotives of the steam era. Looking at the voluminous output of railfan authors, Klein says:
The result is a multiplicity of histories of specific railroads, large and small. Typically they deal with standard topics: the builders and their organizational, legislative and financial dealings; colorful construction crews laying down wood ties and steel rail; the development of locomotives and passenger cars; boosters who sought a stop in their little town else it would die; the 1880–1920 golden age of the passenger long-distance travel and local excursions; the steady erosion of passenger service during the automobile age; the freight agent and the small-town depot. They end with the more recent saga of retrenchment, merger, and abandonment. Klein, Churella, Roth, and Franham all find that the popular writers show little interest in the development of managerial and organizational complexity of the sort that Chandler studied, or the economic impact that concerned Fogel's cohort. From outside the field of railroad history, academic labor historians now deal with the culture of the workers, strikes, the careers for blue collar and white collar men, and racial discrimination. Academic political historians deal with the Granger, Populist and Progressive attacks, and in federal or state regulation.


Shoreliner

Shoreliners are a class of locomotive-hauled rail car used by the Metro-North Railroad for service on non-electrified portions of their system. They are similar to the Comet coaches used by New Jersey Transit, however there are several differences between the two. Ownership of the fleet is split between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Connecticut Department of Transportation, as part of the latter's operating agreement with the MTA. MTA coaches have blue window bands, while CDOT coaches have red ones.
Usage patterns.
The Shoreliners are primarily used on non-electric territory such as the upper Hudson Line north of Croton-Harmon, on the upper Harlem Line north of Southeast station, and the New Haven Line's Danbury and Waterbury branches. They are typically operated in a push-pull configuration.
Hudson Line.
Shoreliners are used in the non-electrified territory north of Croton-Harmon. Trains often operate to and from Grand Central Terminal and Poughkeepsie and running express south of Croton-Harmon, along with two daily late night shuttle trains running in the non-electrified territory, one in each direction.
Harlem Line.
Shoreliners are used in the non-electrified territory north of Southeast. Service between Southeast and Wassaic is mostly operated using three car shuttle trains. During rush hour, a few trains run direct to Grand Central Terminal.
New Haven Line branches.
Shoreliners operate on the Danbury and Waterbury branches, as well as to provide extra service on the main line during the day. Danbury service includes limited through-service to Grand Central during peak periods, while off-peak Danbury and all Waterbury service operates as shuttles from South Norwalk and Bridgeport, respectively.
Former Shore Line East Service.
Before the state of Connecticut acquired used equipment for Shore Line East, several Shoreliner sets would run on SLE service. These have since been transferred to the Metro-North pool.
Models.
Shoreliners I and II.
The Shoreliners I and II were built in 1983 and 1987, respectively. Based on the New Jersey Transit Comet II, their only difference is the type of lighting used for indicator lights. These cars have doors at each end vestibule, and no center door.
The Shoreliner I order includes 39 cars, while the Shoreliner II order includes 36 cars. Cars numbered in the 6200s are owned by Connecticut DOT, while all other cars are owned by the MTA.
Four of the Shoreliner I cars were originally equipped with an underfloor head-end power generator, for use behind CDOT's five rebuilt freight locomotives, which lacked HEP generators. The generators were removed when the freight locomotives were replaced by CDOT's rebuilt GP40-2H units. These cars are identified externally by twin square windows at the center of the cars, where the air intake ductwork (to the rooftop) for the generator was located.
Shoreliner III.
Shoreliner IIIs date from 1991; 49 cars were built. This series is based on New Jersey Transit's Comet III. The main differences between this series and previous ones are an added center door and the restroom is located at the center of the cars that are so equipped instead of the end.
Shoreliner IV.
The Shoreliner IV is much like the Shoreliner III but the engineers side door has been removed as a safety measure. Based on the NJ Transit Comet IV, they were built in two distinct groups between 1996 and 1998. The first order, from 1996–97, consisted of 50 cars. The second set, built for Connecticut DOT in 1998, consisted of 10 cars. This gives a total count for the order of 60 cars.
Car names.
Many of Shoreliner cars are named in honor of people and places significant to their service area, such as The Connecticut Yankee and Washington Irving.


Amos Tuck

Amos Tuck (August 2, 1810 – December 11, 1879) was an American attorney and politician in New Hampshire and a founder of the Republican Party.
Early life and education.
Born in Parsonsfield, Maine, August 2, 1810, the son of John Tuck, a sixth-generation descendant of Robert Tuck, a founder of Hampton, New Hampshire, in 1638. Tuck attended Effingham Academy and Hampton Academy and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1835. He studied law and passed the bar.
Career.
Tuck was an early supporter and donor to the Free Will Baptist's Parsonfield Seminary. He is the namesake of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He was a leading citizen of Exeter, New Hampshire, for 40 years and played an important part in Exeter's history between 1838 - 1879.
In his youth, Tuck came to Hampton and from 1836 to 1838 was Headmaster of the Hampton Academy founded by his ancestors. He was admitted to the bar in 1838 and commenced practice in Exeter. He later became a trustee of Dartmouth College. After leaving politics, Tuck was commissioned as a Naval officer of the port of Boston from 1861 to 1865. Following the American Civil War, he resumed the practice of law and also engaged in railroad building, at which he gained significant success and wealth.
Political career.
Tuck was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1842 as a member of the Democratic Party but broke with pro-slavery Democratic leaders in 1844 and was formally cast out of the party. He ran for Congress, anyway, and was elected as an Independent to the Thirtieth Congress.
In 1845 he called a convention to form an independent movement in favor of anti-slavery Congressional Candidate John P. Hale. This convention would later be identified as "the nucleus of the Republican Party." During the months following the convention (which was described by Tuck as "respectable in numbers and unparalleled in spirit") Tuck worked tenaciously to grow his young party. His hard work and enthusiasm resulted in the successful election of Hale in 1846.
Tuck himself ran as a Free-Soil candidate to the Thirty-first Congress, and as a Whig to the Thirty-second Congress (March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1853). After three consecutive terms he returned to Exeter in 1853 and began a movement to unite the many minor political factions that existed in the state of New Hampshire.
Founder of the Republican Party in New Hampshire.
Tuck organized a secret meeting, on October 12, 1853, at Major Blake's Hotel in Exeter of a group of anti-slavery men. Tuck suggested they form a party to be called "Republicans." The term "Republican party" had been widely used in New Hampshire politics in the 1830s. The dinner is commemorated by the tablet now affixed to the Squamscott House in Exeter. The participants campaigned for several parties in 1854 state elections, but the Republican party did not run a ticket that year in the state. He helped form the state Republican party in 1856 and was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1856 and 1860. Tuck was appointed a delegate to the peace convention held in Washington, D.C., in 1861 in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war.
He was a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, John Greenleaf Whittier and many other men prominent in his time, and is said to be responsible for putting Lincoln in office. "Lincoln...would never have realized his goals," according to Dartmouth historian Professor Frank Smallwood, "if his old friend, Amos Tuck of Exeter, New Hampshire...had not played such an influential role in helping him to secure the Republican party's presidential nomination in 1860."
Personal life.
Tuck married Davida Nudd and had a son, Edward Tuck, on August 25, 1842, and a daughter, Ellen Tuck French, who married Francis Ormond French, President of the Manhattan Trust Company.
Tuck died in Exeter, New Hampshire, on December 11, 1879. He was interred in Exeter Cemetery.
His son, Edward Tuck, financed and founded at Dartmouth College the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, and funded the New Hampshire Historical Society building, a "beautiful" granite structure in Concord, New Hampshire.
Family and political descendants founded the Amos Tuck Society to promote and spread the history of Tucks contributions and founding of the Republican Party. Edward Tuck also graduate from, and become a major donor to, Dartmouth College. He made his fortune in banking, railroads and international trade, becoming vice-consul to France.