American Railroads ebook

by John F. Stover

American Railroads book.

Few scenes capture the American experience so eloquently as that of a lonely train chugging across the vastness of the Great Plains, or snaking through tortuous high mountain passes. Stover describes the growth of the railroads' monopoly, with the consequent need for state and federal regulations; relates the vital part played by the railroads during the Civil War and the two World Wars; and charts the railroads' decline due to the advent of air travel and trucking during the 1950s. In two new chapters, Stover recounts the remarkable recovery of the. railroads, along with other pivotal events of the industry's recent history.

In two new chapters, Stover recounts the remarkable recovery of the railroads, along with other pivotal events of the industry's recent history. During the 1960s declining passenger traffic and excessive federal regulation led to the federally-financed creation of Amtrak to revive passenger service and Conrail to provide freight service on bankrupt northeastern railroads. The real savior for the railroads, though, proved to be the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, which brought prosperity to rail freight carriers by substantially deregulating the industry.

Railroads - United States - History. University of Chicago Press. inlibrary; printdisabled; ; china.

Stover describes the growth of the railroads' monopoly, with the consequent need for state and federal regulations .

Stover describes the growth of the railroads' monopoly, with the consequent need for state and federal regulations; relates the vital part played by the railroads during the Civil War and the two World Wars; and charts the railroads' decline due to the advent of air travel and trucking during the 1950s. In two new chapters, Stover recounts the remarkable recovery of the railroads, along with other pivotal events of the industry's recent history.

As John Stover points out in his book, "The Routledge Historical Atlas Of The American Railroads," one school board in Ohio described them as a "device of the devil" while those overseeing the Massachusetts turnpike called them "cruel turnpike killers" and "despisers of horseflesh. There was even a claim that rail travel would cause a "concussion of the brain.

Stover certainly gives us a lot of facts about the American railroad from its early beginnings to its present-day situation and in a very readable style. Examples: He frequently informs us of the changing track mileage of Class I railroads.

Although this vision was eclipsed for a time by the rise of air travel and trucking, railroads have enjoyed a rebirth in recent years as profitable freight carriers.

John Stover describes the growth of the railroads' mopoly, with the consequent need for state and federal regulations; relates the vital part played by the railroads during the Civil War and the two World Wars; and charts the railroads' decline due to the advent of air travel and trucking during the 1950s. The author recounts the remarkable recovery of the railroads, along with other pivotal events of the industry's recent history

John Stover describes the growth of the railroads' monopoly, with the consequent need for state and federal regulations; relates the vital part played by the railroads during the Civil War and the two World Wars; and charts the railroads' decline due to the advent of air travel and trucking during the 1950s. The author recounts the remarkable recovery of the railroads, along with other pivotal events of the industry's recent history.

Traces the history of the railroads from its invention and describes its role in the Civil War and how it shaped America

Yadon

Extremely condensed text with fine print. One long story divided into 10 chapters but no subdivisions or footnotes. No explanations or diagrams for terms such as "watered stock", air brakes, steam injection, rail design, etc., (couplers were discussed). Never mentioned "Chinese walls" which were vital to getting over the Sierra Nevada. Ignored UP route from Los Angeles harbor to Salt Lake City built in 1900 which is so valuable for distribution of Asian containers. Asian shipments to west coast largely ignored. Labor and ICC always to blame for RR losses. Does not understand that after protecting shippers, the ICC protected RRs from each other, Author indulges in never ending routine of name dropping of RR presidents. Most glaring omission is the economic model for RRs. They are public utilities with a very high fixed investment and costs and a concomitance of production and consumption. They can't go out of business and have a short term incentive to limit revenue only to covering variable costs. RRs must bear the burden of mistreated shippers and passengers over a 150 years. List of "recommended reading" is helpful. An appendix would have been helpful also.

Wenes

Railroads have had a truly massive effect on the United States, and this in turn makes it very difficult to write an introduction which is simultaneously concise enough and detailed enough. All things considered, John Stover has done a fairly good job. At barely 260 pages (not including end notes), one gets the impression he could have spent another forty or fifty pages on various other matters, such as technical innovations in the different types of locomotives; the effects that railroads had on micro-regional economies (the Atlanta area, St. Louis area, and so on) rather than merely on New England, the South, and the West; and perhaps a greater amount of time dedicated to the rebirth of railroads post-1980. He spends several chapters charting their decline, and only one (one of the shortest in the book, at that) describing their remarkable resurrection. Still, as an introduction it is quite a capable work, and will succeed in illuminating to readers which aspects of railroads they would like to study in greater detail.

Runemane

As a lifelong railroad buff, I had been looking for a good overall history of the railroads in the United States. This book definitely does not disappoint. The author includes several maps, charts and tables to back up and illustrate several of the facts he presents in the book. As he weaves the stories of the rails inching their way across America you'll be thrown all kinds of economic trivia such as operating ratios, profit, wages, cargo rates and such. For the real railfans, this will be welcome but the average reader might not appreciate all the nitty-gritty details.

My one big gripe with the book is the author does tend to slant toward the pro-government side. Several times in the book he implies that it was "necessary" for the government to step in or take it for granted that it needed to step in, specially in his section on the government takeover of the railroads during World War I. For his credit, he does document how inefficient the Feds were at operating the rail network during the war years. He actually does a decent job of documenting the deregulation effort when his beloved government had nearly killed off the railroads and needed to back off.

Yllk

Excellent!

Crazy

very precise and give a good overview with many important detail. It is also a good story thru the times about the railroad in different area of USA
Good for the money

Samugul

Stover certainly gives us a lot of facts about the American railroad from its early beginnings to its present-day situation and in a very readable style. But the order that he chooses to present them in seems backwards. Examples: He frequently informs us of the changing track mileage of Class I railroads. Great, only what IS a Class I railroad? He finally explains that in the last chapter! He rightly devotes much of the midsection of the book to the Golden Age from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of World War I. But in Chapter 4 he explains the construction of the lines during that period as if people were jolting through it all on Civil War era rolling stock. What about airbrakes? That innovation he explains in Chapter 6. In Chapter 4 he mentions a railroad having 400 miles of electrified track just after the turn of the century. But he doesnft bother explaining ELECTRIFICATION of railroads until Chapter 8. And at the beginning of that chapter that deals with the decline of railroads after World War II, he suddenly jumps us from 1945 to 1965 when 707s were jetting people coast to coast in a few hours and sinking long-distance rail passenger service in their wakes. Hey, what about the immediate postwar years when flimsy props were crashing more people than they were getting to their destinationsG and such modern luxury limiteds sprouting vista-domes as the El Capitan were smoothly and safely whizzing passengers across the continent? Ah, that he explains towards the END of the chapter. These and so many other sidetrackings made me feel Stover was trying to derail me!

Still, if you manage to avoid being derailed by him on the way, by the end of the book Stoverfs explanations do give you a very good overview of the American railroad. But he ONLY explains. Nowhere does he DESCRIBE. So, if you want a fairly comprehensive list of events of this revolutionary innovation in transportation that played such a vital role in shaping modern America, then ALL ABORAD! But if you want to actually FEEL what it was like to ride on one of those bone shakers of the 1840s, to dine in the elegance of a dinning car of the 1890s, to board the first run of the streamlined, diesel-driven Zephyr in 1934, (and which Stover could so easily have given us by adding just a few descriptive paragraphs!j. . .then alas, you WILL get derailed!