Author Note: A little note about myself before I get started. I have been fascinated by trains for as long as I can remember so you can call this a love letter to railroads that have helped play a major part in the America that we all know today. As I am turning 21 in five months, this may seem like 8 year old me is rewriting a script from a Thomas and Friends episode but this is original. Feel free to vote, comment, follow for future updates, and I hope you enjoy!!! God Bless- Louis
The concept of railroad technology was born in Great Britain in 1804 with the invention of the first steam locomotive. These machines would not make across the Atlantic for another twenty five years, and a result was the first American railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio. Over the next half century, the railroads grew in popularity and total trackage as they were being used to drive the curiosities that stemmed from the era of 'Manifest Destiny' and westward expansion, transported troops and supplies during the Civil War, and the greatest achievement of the nineteenth century in the Transcontinental Railroad.
As the country got bigger, the routes grew longer, the trains got heavier, the locomotives that were being built were getting bigger from the 1900s all the way to the mid-1940s, in the advent of World War II. The railroad was the form of luxury travel in the Roaring Twenties, and they were often used by politicians and celebrities of the era. In the Great Depression, they were still vital as proven by the many developments that they made in order to bring back ridership and freight revenue, such as the era of streamlined passenger trains and monstrous articulated steam engines that were heading the goods trains. During the war, trains were vital in the same ways that they were used 80 years prior in the Civil War, with the mass transportation of guns, tanks, and other supplies along with troops to Europe and Japan. The end of the war in 1945 brought a sense of peace and tranquility across the nation but cracks were beginning to form. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride, because this is where our story begins.....
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Fiery Steel: Rivals Joined By Rail
Historical FictionRailroads have been a major part of the development of our country since the 1820s. They were titans in American industry, largely due to the jobs that they provided. For railfans and historians, there were railroads that operated on the same lines...
