The Louisiana & Arkansas Railway, known as "The Better Way," ran its first trains at the turn of the century and expanded over the years to connect New Orleans to Dallas. Well-maintained and enduringly profitable, this regional railroad succeeded because of the tenacity of three men who consecutively oversaw all aspects of operations. The story of the L&A is largely a collective biography of William Edenborn, William Buchanan, and Harvey Couch—the men who built and extended the line by shrewd acquisitions. These successful businessmen combined wisdom, foresight, and propensity for hard word—traits they had first demonstrated in other careers—with their longtime love for trains. Each applied remarkable talents for industry and commerce toward the development of the L&A to mold it into a model regional railroad. In this first history of the L&A, Fair traces the line's development from the early boom days of railroading to its dissolution in the modern era of takeovers. Although for much of its existence the L&A operated under the control of a parent company, the KCS, it long maintained independence. The eventual takeover by the superline in 1992 finally dissolved the L&A entirely.

The Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads were officially joined on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah, with the driving of a golden spike. This historic ceremony marked the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. Spanning the Sierras and the "Great American Desert," the tracks connected San Francisco to Council Bluffs, Iowa. "A Great and Shining Road" is the exciting story of a mammoth feat that called forth entrepreneurial daring, financial wizardry, technological innovation, political courage and chicanery, and the heroism of thousands of laborers.

Leading railroad historian H. Roger Grant tells the story of the Chicago & North Western Railway from 1848, when the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad ran the first train west from Chicago, to the Union Pacific takeover in 1995. With a lively narrative and 173 illustrations, including historical photographs and maps, he reveals the inner workings of a railroad that once spanned nine states and has long intrigued enthusiasts.

Nimrod J. Bell worked as a conductor for several southern railroads in their formative period, from 1857 to 1894. After his career was cut short by an accident, he wrote his memoirs detailing his first glimpses of some of the earliest trains in the South and his thirty-eight years as a conductor. Published in Atlanta in 1896, his book offers a firsthand account of working conditions on the railroads, operational procedures, wartime railroading, and passenger travel during Reconstruction.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which journalist LuciusBeebe once called the "Mother of Railroads," was the brainchild of Baltimorecity planners who hoped to outstrip New York in the race for western trade,wealth, and populace. Although Baltimore lost the race, it gave New York a runfor its money early in the 19th century and certainly achieved manyfirsts: the first timetable in 1830, the first eight-wheel passenger coach in1831, and right-of-way for the first telegraph in 1844. In later decades, itwould be a pioneer in the introduction of electric locomotives, diesels, andair conditioning. Author of six earlier books about United States railroads,John F. Stover packs this narrative history with careful scholarship andcolorful description which will appeal to the railroad buff and theprofessional historian, as well as to any reader who wishes to travel with the "Motherof Railroads" through an exciting period in United States history.

This study provides a detailed, in-depth analysis of a single incident rooted in the effort of a group of professional employees to serve the public welfare It reveals in microcosm the interplay of political forces, economic interests, personal ambition, organizational structure, and professional ethics that culminated in an act of whistle-blowing. The incident took place during the final construction phase of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART), designed to be America's first attempt at space-age mass transportation. Three BART engineers, convinced of the lack of responsiveness of management to their concerns about the system's safety, were fired for insubordination and other organizational sins. Based upon repeated interviews with the engineers, with BART managers and directors, and with the professional societies involved, as well as upon an extensive body of documents and court depositions, legislative reports, media reports, and institutional memoranda. Divided Loyalties sets a theoretical context for the issues, traces the incident from its beginning, examines the aftermath of the engineers' dismissal, and concludes with a set of recommendations that should be considered by public and private organizations, professional associations, agencies of government, and individual professional employees.

Empire's Tracks boldly reframes the history of the transcontinental railroad from the perspectives of the Cheyenne, Lakota, and Pawnee Native American tribes, and the Chinese migrants who toiled on its path. In this meticulously researched book, Manu Karuka situates the railroad within the violent global histories of colonialism and capitalism. Through an examination of legislative, military, and business records, Karuka deftly explains the imperial foundations of U.S. political economy. Tracing the shared paths of Indigenous and Asian American histories, this multisited interdisciplinary study connects military occupation to exclusionary border policies, a linked chain spanning the heart of U.S. imperialism. This highly original and beautifully wrought book unveils how the transcontinental railroad laid the tracks of the U.S. Empire.

"An extraordinary book by a master historian! Orsi demonstrates that the Southern Pacific was not simply a predatory corporation obsessed with maximizing its profits and political power; it had a strong sense of the public good and a devotion to building stable, prosperous communities. This superb book should be required reading for all historians of the West, business, and the environment."--Donald J. Pisani, author of "Water and American Government"
"This deep and extensive examination of the Southern Pacific's development activities in California will encourage readers to look beyond the overblown rhetoric of the railroad's many political enemies and see afresh its many positive economic accomplishments as it worked to build the Twentieth-Century West. Orsi's presentation is as luminous as it is impressive"--Carlos Schwantes, author of "Going Places: Transportation Redefines the Twentieth Century West"
"This brilliantly researched and beautifully written study of one of America's greatest railroads offers wonderful insights into both transportation and Western history. Orsi places the early history of the Southern Pacific Railroad in proper focus by skillfully untangling the long-standing Octopus myth. This work deserves to be called a landmark in the field."--H. Roger Grant, author of "Follow the Flag: A History of the Wabash Railroad Company"
""Sunset Limited" illuminates not only the workings and ambitions of the Southern Pacific railroad but teaches us a great deal about the late nineteenth and early twentieth century American West as well. This is a wonderful scholarly study: remarkably thorough, ambitious, and gracefully rendered."--William Deverell, author of"Railroad Crossing: Californians and the Railroad, 1850-1910"

Railway expansion was the great industrial project of the late 19th century, and the Great Powers built railways at speed and reaped great commercial benefits. The greatest imperial dream of all was to connect the might of Europe to the potential riches of the Middle East and the Ottoman Empire. In 1903 Imperial Germany, under Kaiser Wilhelm II, began to construct a railway which would connect Berlin to the Ottoman city of Baghdad, and project German power all the way to the Persian Gulf. The Ottoman Emperor, Abdul Hamid II, meanwhile, saw the railway as a means to bolster crumbling Ottoman control of Arabia. Using new Ottoman Turkish sources, Murat Ozyuksel shows how the Berlin-Baghdad railway became a symbol of both rising European power and declining Ottoman fortunes. It marks a new and important contribution to our understanding of the geopolitics of the Middle East before World War I, and will be essential reading for students of empire, Industrial History and Ottoman Studies.

Originally part of the LNWR network, built to link industrial South Wales with the Midlands and the North, this superbly scenic line runs from Craven Arms to Swansea via Builth Road, Llanwrtyd Wells, Llandovery and Llandilo, and is a popular route for steam-hauled specials, featured among Roger Siviter's photographs.

To provide efficient goods movement on the U.S. transportation network, the United States will need to undertake new approaches. An approach advanced by industry groups as a potential path forward for the continued economic prosperity and competitiveness of the United States is a focus on corridor level thinking. A corridor approach can help focus the Nation's assets and resources on key transportation infrastructure that supports national economic activity. The European Union (EU) adopted the corridor approach in the mid-1990s and has continually evolved its freight corridor program with the admission of new member states, increased freight volumes, and the changing demands, including environmental sustainability, placed on the transportation network. The EU views this corridor approach as strategically important to its global economic competitiveness. Given EU's experience with this concept, the scanning study was designed to engage the European Commission and key member states in the policy, funding, and programmatic implications of integrating corridors into their transportation planning. This book discusses the understanding of the policy and program structure of national and international freight corridor programs in the EU.

The goal of this book is to provide transportation and land use planning practitioners in the public and private sectors with the tools and resources to properly assess the impacts of land use decisions on freight movements, as well as the impacts of freight development and growth on land use planning goals. The book identifies freight-related land use issues, key considerations, and available resources. Throughout the handbook, examples and case studies from a range of urban and rural areas across the country are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of these techniques.

Covering almost every line in the country, this acclaimed series of books juxtaposes photographs of the same railway location separated in time by just a few years, or maybe a century or more. Sometimes the result is dereliction or disappearance, in others a transformation into a modern high-speed railway. In both cases, the contrasts are intriguing and informative. This volume includes: Middlesborough, Stockton and Tees-side; the Cleveland coast line to Saltburn; the North Yorkshire Moors Railway; and, the Yorkshire Coast Line through Whitby Malton to Scarborough and Filey.

The factors affecting the economic viability of high speed rail lines include the level of expected riders, costs, and public benefits, which are influenced by a line's corridor and service characteristics. High speed rail tends to attract riders in dense, highly populated corridors, especially when there is congestion on existing transportation modes. Characteristics of the proposed service are also key considerations, as high speed rail attracts riders where it compares favourably to travel alternatives with regard to door-to-door trip times, prices, frequency of service, reliability and safety. In this book, a strategic vision for high speed rail is offered, particularly in relation to the role that high speed rail can play in the national transportation system, clearly identifying potential objectives and goals for high speed rail systems and the roles that federal and other stakeholders should play in achieving each objective and goal. The recently enacted Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 will likely increase the federal role in the development of high speed rail, as will the newly enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

The debate on rail privatisation often seems to focus on very narrow issues. Those on both sides of the argument seem to be able to employ a mass of statistics to prove their point. Proponents of privatisation suggest, with some credibility, that all was reasonably well with the privatised railways until the Hatfield disaster. Opponents point to spiralling costs since privatisation. The authors of this monograph examine privatisation in the context of the long history of continual government intervention. The government imposed upon the industry a particular structure - separation of track and wheel. It also wrapped it up in increasing amounts of regulation. After examining the history of government intervention in the railways and the privatisation process, the authors of this monograph then examine the future of railway policy. Should the industry be allowed to evolve its own structure - remerging the ownership of track and wheel if it wishes? What aspects of a railway should be regulated? Who should own the various parts of the infrastructure? This monograph is essential reading for all with an interest in railway policy and the process of privatisation.

A gripping, groundbreaking biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism.
Founder of a dynasty, builder of the original Grand Central, creator of an impossibly vast fortune, Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt is an American icon. Humbly born on Staten Island during George Washington's presidency, he rose from boatman to builder of the nation's largest fleet of steamships to lord of a railroad empire. Lincoln consulted him on steamship strategy during the Civil War; Jay Gould was first his uneasy ally and then sworn enemy; and Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president of the United States, was his spiritual counselor. We see Vanderbilt help to launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation--in fact, as T. J. Stiles elegantly argues, Vanderbilt did more than perhaps any other individual to create the economic world we live in today.
In "The First Tycoon," Stiles offers the first complete, authoritative biography of this titan, and the first comprehensive account of the Commodore's personal life. It is a sweeping, fast-moving epic, and a complex portrait of the great man. Vanderbilt, Stiles shows, embraced the philosophy of the Jacksonian Democrats and withstood attacks by his conservative enemies for being too competitive. He was a visionary who pioneered business models. He was an unschooled fistfighter who came to command the respect of New York's social elite. And he was a father who struggled with a gambling-addicted son, a husband who was loving yet abusive, and, finally, an old man who was obsessed with contacting the dead.
"The First Tycoon" is the exhilarating story of a man and a nation maturing together: the powerful account of a man whose life was as epic and complex as American history itself.

"From the Hardcover edition."

With their speed and geographical reach, America’s railroads reigned supreme through much of the nineteenth century, knitting together the sprawling country as no other mode of transportation was able to do. Around 1900, however, an upstart challenger—the automobile— arrived on the scene. At first regarded as little more than a plaything for the wealthy, the new invention rapidly gained popularity, especially after Henry Ford’s innovative mass-production techniques made cars affordable to the middling classes. In this engaging book, John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle—renowned experts on the wide-ranging effects of automobility on American life—examine the various ways in which the railroads responded to their new competition, not just from the automobile itself but from its close cousins, the motor truck and motor bus, through several decades up to the eve of World War II. Drawing on extensive research in the trade publications of the period, the authors examine the development of interurban and intraurban rail transport, the transition from steam to electric and diesel power, and the railroads’ close involvement in the nascent trucking and passenger-bus industries. They devote a chapter to the places where trains and automobiles came most directly and dangerously into conflict—railroad crossings—and pay special attention throughout to the key role of government in the competition, whether through antitrust legislation, taxation, or the building of the “good roads� that were so necessary to the rise of auto, truck, and bus transport. Although the railroads remain with us, it was the automobile that emerged as the predominant transportation form, owing to its promise of speed, convenience, flexibility of movement, and, most important, self-gratification. In a country that places such high value on individual freedom, the romance of motoring has proven irresistible.

This book is the first substantial study in any language of one of revolutionary Russia's most distinguished and controversial engineers - Iurii Vladimirovich Lomonosov (1876-1952). Not only does it provide an outline of his remarkable life and career, it also explores the relationship between science, technology and transport that developed in late tsarist and early Soviet Russia. Lomonosov's importance extends well beyond his scientific and engineering achievements thanks to the rich variety and public prominence of his professional and political activities. His generation - Lenin's generation - was inevitably at the forefront of Russian life from the 1910s to the 1930s, and Lomonosov took his place there as one of the country's best known and ultimately notorious engineers. As well as an innovative engineer who campaigned to enhance the role of science, he played a major role in shaping and administering the Russian railways, and undertook several diplomatic and scientific missions to the West during the early years of the Revolution. Falling from political favour during an assignment in Germany (1923-1927), he achieved notoriety in Russia as a 'non-returner' by apparently declining to return home. Thereby escaping probable arrest and execution, he began a new life abroad (1927-1952) which included a research post at the California Institute of Technology in 1929-1930, collaborative projects with the famous physicist P.L. Kapitsa in Cambridge, a long-time association with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London, and work for the British War Office during the Second World War. From Marxist revolutionary to American academic, this study reveals Lomonosov's extraordinary life. Drawing on a wide variety of official Russian sources, as well as Lomonosov's own diaries and memoirs, a vivid portrait of his life is presented, offering a better understanding of how science, technology and politics interacted in early-twentieth-century Russia.