The Story of American Railroads: From the Iron Horse to the Diesel Locomotive

I've barely made a good start into this, but so far, it's an absolute treasure, and is just what I've been wanting, which tells the stories of railroading and all the details about it.If you're not already knowledgeable about the history of the railroads, this will certainly enlighten you, because it goes into great detail about the incredible impact of the railroads on American life.And that's very good, because until I read about it, I had no idea of the profound importance of the appearance of the railroads into the daily life of, not only Americans, but every nation on earth.The railroads actually started the whole modernization direction of this country, and of the entire world, as well.It is mind-boggling to realize to just what extent the railroads served to illuminate our thinking on so many fronts, and had a staggering, profound effect, on many aspects of our lives, in ways we could hardly imagine.And that is the reason to read the whole text, to fully comprehend the overwhelming effect the coming of the railroads had on our daily life.It's certainly more than can be summed up in a few sentences, just how profoundly the railroads affected so many areas.As just one example, imagine vast wooded areas of the country which were almost as impenetrable as the jungles of South America or Asia, and how opening up these areas by building a railroad through the very heart of it would facilitate the further expansion of civilization.Everywhere the railroad went, settlements, and the building of homes and towns was sure to follow.In a nutshell, that is what happened, over and over, and America just mushroomed, almost overnight, into a vibrant, hectic community, whereas before it had been pretty much staid, quiet, and sedentary.Prior to the arrival of the railroads, many people had never been outside the boundaries of their home town, or maybe had never even left their immediate neighborhood.It's easy to forget, but before the railroads came, it was the horse and buggy era, and if you wanted to get from point A to point B, you walked, or rode a horse, or drove a horse-drawn buggy.There were no such things as cars, or even paved roads. There were roads, but they were deeply rutted dirt paths, which turned into a sea of mud when it rained.Nothing out of the ordinary had been happening here in the USA for a long time, but when the railroads appeared, suddenly there was something new and exciting going on every day.One could almost compare what had started to happen in the mid 19th century, as the railroads came into being, with the frantic pace of some of the 1930s movies.This was brand new, and very exciting stuff, to say the least, and to say that we had a tiger by the tail is not far off, as to an accurate description of what the railroad was all about.The early trains were crude affairs, and had only just very recently even been invented. But improvements were constantly being made, and new applications discovered, and the railroads were continually upgraded, almost on a daily basis. So many people contributed their area of expertise to all the different facets of the railroad, that the sum total amounted to the best knowledge that many people had to offer, into one finished product.And not only the train itself, but everything connected to it - the locomotives, the passenger cars, the track, the stations - everything.And it only got better, or more complicated, or more sophisticated - whichever analogy you want to use - but it was definitely exciting, however you describe it.As the railroads matured, and we grew more accustomed to it, and settled into an easy acceptance of rail travel as the only way to go, it was like taking a fantastic trip.Actually riding on a train was a mind-boggling experience. From your front-row seat of the passenger car, you were treated to a panorama of scenes; through populated city neighborhoods, sometimes through slums, and then on to the outlying areas of a city, through the countryside, and on to the next city, which was like a mini-education in the way many other people lived, which we could see on a continuous, non-stop parade.Of course, as we explored the whole continent of the U.S. we discovered that some areas just were not habitable, such as the scrub areas of Nevada, for example, but even there, the sheer beauty of some of the far western states was made available to at least gaze upon, even if we couldn't actually live there.To this day, certain areas of the West are no more habitable today than they ever were, but they're still beautiful to look at.At least the railroads made it possible to travel through those places, and see what was there, and make the judgement as to whether it was worthwhile to attempt to settle or not. But for the railroads, we would never have had the opportunity to even see all the marvelous places there are to experience.How wonderful to glide through high mountain passes in deeply wooded mountains, covered with snow, and here we sit, safe and warm in our beautiful, glass-enclosed railway observation coach, sipping a hot cocoa or hot toddy.We may not want to live there, but it's fantastic to be able to see it all.Just think of the amazing wonder of it all: It's almost like sitting in a comfortable easy chair, with our feet up on a hassock, with a steaming cup of coffee, and looking at a Viewmaster slide show, seeing, in rapid succession, how so many other people live their daily life, almost as if we were participating in it.In some cases, as we zip along, we pass by whole neighborhoods where we are literally in people's back yards, and we catch them in some activity of their daily life - quite by surprise - and we feel like an eavesdropper, or voyeur.The really satisfying part of learning about all of this is that we come to realize that life is lived day by day, and by every individual on earth, and the struggles they experienced, and how they overcame one problem after another, collectively, to bring us to what we have on our plate today. And we are able to realize how difficult it was once upon a time, just to exist in that daily struggle.Actually, though, that's what progress is all about: When we come up with new ways to do things we must do every day, which make it easier to accomplish, we benefit all mankind, because from that day forward, the old ways are forgotten, and the new way prevails.But the fact that the railroad was a completely new enterprise, and was constantly being improved on an almost daily basis, got us into the mind-set of continually coming up with new ideas in every area of our daily life. Always for making it better, rather than settling for the same old, same old, of doing it the way it's always been done, simply because that's the way somebody did it in the beginning, but which has since been improved and made easier, and much more productive.Certainly none of it has been easy, and we have all those who went before us to thank for what we have to enjoy today.But what an unbelievable price they had to pay for it to all be possible.The railroads continued to improve, and steam was eventually replaced by diesel, and the trains just got better and better, as did everything about the whole rail experience, from the luxurious coaches to the grand railroad stations, for more than a hundred years.But just to skip ahead a little in time, the sad side of the coin is that in little more than a man's lifetime, the railroads have gone from non-existent, to very recently aborn, to adolescence, through maturity, and on into obsolescence, and then even banishment from the scene.But, there's a little bit of a misnomer here - the passenger railroad was never obsolete. It was just shunted aside by the convenience of the private automobile, which is completely understandable.But the demise of the passenger train meant that the long train excursions that virtually everybody loved, are also gone forever.In other words, they have come, and they have flourished, and they have gone.Of course, I'm referring to the passenger railroad; the freight train continues to thrive, and rolls on, virtually invisible to the eye, inasmuch as it's almost like the furniture, we so take it for granted.But we still have the stories, and there are old movies, which depict how the passenger railroad was, once upon a time, very much a part of the daily life of Americans, even as the automobile went through the same phases, and eventually supplanted the railroad altogether.It remains to be seen, whether the same fate will befall the cherished automobile - although I don't think so - but, who knows?Stranger things have happened.We could all be running around on hoverboards, or magic carpets, at some point in the future.Or they may perfect an anti-gravity machine to replace the helicopter, which we will look back on as being extremely quaint and crude. And of course, it would be, if we had the two to compare, side-by-side. The helicopter being so noisy and unwieldly, and very dangerous - vs. a silent machine, that could materialize right behind you, soundlessly.It wouldn't actually materialize out of thin air, because that speaks of the supernatural - but the effect is the same: If a machine could be invented that used anti-gravity technology to suspend the vehicle in the air, and could be controlled by the operator, just as a pilot controls an airplane, and be able to rapidly move through the air, and fly from one place to another, soundlessly, it would have almost the same effect of materializing out of thin air.Actually, it is still very possible that at some future time, depending on the sentiments of the politicians in office at the time, the railroad could stage a comeback, and reinstitute itself, which would be to the absolute delight of many people, myself included.It would all depend on how well it was received, and whether people would ever elect to once again utilize mass transportation over the personal convenience of owning and operating their very own automobile.Of course, one wouldn't necessarily mean the abandonment of the other, but there does exist the problem of having the automobile being so handy, so that taking a train would be, more than anything, a lark, or an elective event, just for the fun of it, like going to the zoo.The problem is, as with anything, "does it pay for itself?"Tremendous amounts of capital are required to build and equip and operate anything on a massive scale, and if it doesn't appeal to the masses, so that enough people utilize it for it to be economically feasible, it won't happen.The train was a fantastic invention in its time, especially when thrust upon a virgin landscape, where no previous mode of transportation existed, but no matter how long the reign of the "iron horse," or how wonderful it was at the time, progress will not be denied, and it was made completely obsolete, unfortunately, by Henry Ford and his cohorts in the car business.But as sad as that is to contemplate, and acknowledge, it happened, and each segment of the history of the country is deserving of the telling of its story, as to what happened, and the personalities who made it happen, and what happened next, and then next, and etc. etc. etc.History does not stand still, and wait for another segment to catch up, even if that means losing out to superior technology, or a better way to do something.That's what makes the world go round.No matter what someone comes up with, someone else is just waiting in the wings to do it better.And that is as it should be, because it keeps everybody on their toes, and staying at least a half-step ahead of the competition.

This is an extremely readable telling of the first hundred years of American Railroading. I have it in both Kindle, and Dead Tree versions.

good

The bag it was in torn and it fell out I did report it but it was never replaced Since we paid for this please replace

Kindle buyers beware. Digital download has no illustrations though the cover photo declares "100 illustrations". Returned immediately.

Excellent read. Page turner.

Wunderbare, emotional und faktenreich geschriebene Geschichte der Amerikanischen Eisenbahn und der Menschen, die sie aufbauten und betrieben. Der Autor schreibt im Jahr 1947 und bringt Interviews mit vielen Zeitzeugen und eigene Erlebnisse ein. Es sollte ein Standardwerk sein für alle, die Film- und Bühnenwerke oder anderes aus dieser Epoche schaffen.Reading it was absorbing!