Unfortunately, the legislation went too far and had placed an increasing burden on the industry by the post-World War II period, at which point they no longer held a transportation monopoly. During the s several famous companies went under, now termed fondly as "fallen flags. Its failure led to others as neighboring railroads filed for reorganization. What eventually came out of the mess was the Consolidated Rail Corporation. A federally-funded corporation to restore service, Conrail began on April 1, A few years earlier, also partially in response to PC's downfall, another government-sponsored railroad was born, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation Amtrak.
It launched on May 1, and relieved many of their money-losing passenger services. In his book, " Rock Island Requiem ," author Gregory Schneider highlights how bad the issue became during the Penn Central bankruptcy hearings. Until deregulation the industry was not a true free market, everything including any potential line abandonment was controlled through the ICC. Before Penn Central was folded into Conrail, Federal Railroad Administrator John Ingram highlighted the difficulty for any railroad to abandon an unprofitable branch.
While touring the former Pennsylvania Railroad's Delmarva Peninsula trackage he said this during a speech highlighting the PC's plight:. You have to drive across the Eastern Shore of Maryland to get there, and I asked my staff to list a few of those Eastern Shore branch lines that the Penn Central wants to abandon.
I wanted to see for myself - perhaps count the boxcars on sidings to see if there really was a shortage of business. I drove to the area, checked my maps, and simply couldn't find anything that looked like a railroad.
On Monday morning, I hollered at my staff for having sent me off on a wild goose chase, but they stuck to their guns. So we went back - this time with property maps and a surveyor. We found the branch line, all right. At one place it was directly under a junkyard full of wrecked cars. At another point the highway department had covered the tracks with at least eight inches of pavement.
And just off the road we found a six-inch wide tree growing between the rails. That line had been completely forgotten, yet grown men were arguing before the ICC that that stretch of track was vital to the Nation's economy! Railroads of today would likely be very different if it wasn't for the Staggers Rail Act of , proposed by Harley Staggers of West Virginia. Prior to this legislation there had been discussions of simply nationalizing the entire industry, a scary proposition that both executives and those in the government wished to avoid.
The bill brought a great level of deregulation as railroads regained their footing thanks to renewed freedom in setting freight rates and abandoning unprofitable rail lines. The s saw a slow recovery as Conrail posted its first profits in late and the mega-merger movement continued, creating today's Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation that decade.
The freight growth has continued into the 21st century. We have also seen a renaissance in rail travel as folks look to escape the highway gridlock. In a gentleman by the name of Andre Kristopans put together a web page highlighting virtually every unit every out-shopped by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division.
Alas, in the site closed. However, Don Strack rescued the data and transferred it over to his UtahRails. If you are researching anything EMD related please visit this page first. The information includes original numbers, serials, and order numbers. Wes Barris's SteamLocomotive. But within 20 years there were more than 9,, as the U. By the beginning of the Civil War in , there were 30, miles more than 21, of them in the North , and lobbyists were clamoring for a transcontinental system across the nation.
The number of railroad miles continued to climb until hitting its peak in That year there were more than , miles of track—enough to reach the moon from Earth. When Englishman Richard Trevithick launched the first practical steam locomotive in , it averaged less than 10 mph. Today, several high-speed rail lines are regularly travelling 30 times as fast. In the 40 years since, the top speed of these trains has been steadily climbing, with a current world speed record of mph. Japan is no longer alone in the high-speed rail department however: France, China and Germany all operate trains capable of similar extreme speeds, and the plans are currently underway in the United States to construct a high-speed rail line connecting the California cities of San Francisco and Anaheim.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. The wagon ways were also very popular in the Greek empire. After the fall of the Greek empire, wagonways largely fell out of fashion, until increased trade in the 16th century increased the need for good transport links.
Several small advances were made in track and wagon design, to help to improve usage, however wagons still relied on human or horse power. The first steam-powered engine was invented in by Thomas Savery, although this machine was not intended for powering rail vehicles.
Whilst the engine could be used for its intended purpose raising water , there were several serious flaws in the design. However, other engineers and inventors were able to use this as inspiration for their own creations. The first self-propelled steam engine was invented by James Watt, with the help of his assistant William Murdoch, over 60 years after Savery trialled his designs.
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Mary Bellis. Inventions Expert. Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Bellis, Mary. The History of Railroad Technology. The Origins of the Term, 'Horsepower'. Overview of the Second Industrial Revolution. The Railways in the Industrial Revolution.
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