Milestones

[ironhorseman]

U.S. News & World Report has come out with a special issue called The Making of a Nation: 100 Milestones That Define America. They've picked from the National Archives 100 documents and events that shaped America from the Lee Resolution of 1776 to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The chapters in this 95 page magazine are Westward Ho!, Foreign Affairs, Civil Liberties, Doing Buisness, The Safety Net, The Record Keepers, and An Unfinished Story.

In there they've picked at least three events revolving around railroads that are part of America's milestones.

1) The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 - a short summary on the trancontinental railroad, briefly mentioning the Central Pacific's and Union Pacific's physcial obstacle and feats; picture of Thomas Durant on those cross ties with no rails on them.

2) Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 - At this time blacks were considered seperate but equal from whites. Seperate railroad coaches were provided for blacks, however the condition of these railcoaches were very unfavorable. The railroads were opposed to this type of segregation because it mean adding extra rail cars. A black man, Plessy, insisted on sitting in the white coach and was jailed and took his case to Supreme Court where segregation was kept Constitutional. The situation is about the same as Rosa Parks sitting at the front of the bus over half a century later.

3) Business/Industry Regulation- The railroads were the first industry to be regulated. Famous Supreme Court case was Gibbons v. Ogden over who had steam boat rights to ferry passenger from New York to New Jersey. Ruling was that Congress had the right to oversee interstate commerce, not the state of New York. The article describes and event where Vanderbilt allows heavy barrels of oil to be transported at a cheaper rate than lighter cans of milk on his railroad. This leads to the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commision; picture of a Chicago rail yard probably pre-1950s.

So there you have it: railroads involved in westward expansion, civil rights/segregation, and interstate commerce regulation.

[?]If we could put together a list of 100 American railroad milestones what would you include? How about 100 railroad milestones world wide?[?]

How about 10 miles of track laid in one day in 1869? The invention of the diesel locomotive? The 3rd cylinder in steam locomotives? The founding of the Baltimore & Ohio? What else?

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

For your consideration:
1. The establishment of Standard Time in 1883. Prior to this time, operation by timetable and train order was almost impossible since no two roads would agree on the time for a given location.

2. The development of piggyback by the North Shore Line in 1926. Where would railroading be today without intermodal?

3. The Railroad Passenger Service Act of 1971. This is the statute that established Amtrak. Passenger service beyond suburban zones would probably have vanished without it.

4. The Staggers Act. Without deregulation, railroading would probably have collapsed or been nationalized.

[Anonymous]

What about...

1 - welded rail
2 - computer traffic control
3 - subways and the development of municipal owned RR's
4 - Hi Speed rail service, oh wait that hasn't happened yet

[mudchicken]

and...

1.) Acts of Congress 1866,1872,1875
2.)ICC Valuation Act of 1913
3.) USRA
4.) Advent of the Diesel Locomotive
5.) Westinghouse Air Brake
6.) 1883 Formation of ICC
7.) The telegraph
8.) The radio
9.) Browns System
10.) Eads Bridge & The transcon
11.) Alco's RS-1 & the roadswitcher

[CShaveRR]

Unfortunately, not all milestones are going to be of the pleasant variety...

June (?) 1970: Penn Central's bankruptcy...the biggest up to that time, and led to much-needed rationalization of northeastern railroad structure. (Some people might call the creation of Conrail a milestone, but it wouldn't have been necessary without this.)

1976: C&NW wreck at Glen Ellyn, Illinois (perhaps along with others at about the same time): led to major changes in tank car design and crashworthiness, and possibly to FRA track standards.

19??: The Gunpow incident: led to recognition that alcohol is not the only thing that could impair the ability of railroaders.

[Anonymous]

The Staggers Act was long overdue when it was implemented! It saved the industry IMHO.

[Anonymous]

How about...
...the death of steam (if you can put a definite date on that)(a milestone in the wrong direction to railfans).
...the completion of the transcontinental railroad (May 10, 1869).

See you around the forums,
Daniel

[ironhorseman]

Those are some pretty good suggestions. Of course I can't think of everything and of course all milestones aren't going to be good or pleasant but they're still noteworthy, they can't be ignored.

1) In addition to the formation of Conrail how about the end of Conrail? I'd have to did through my back issues of Trains Mag but I belive (correct me if I'm wrong) the cover story read, at the end of Conrail's tenure, "Mission Accomplished." I'll have to go back and find out what that was all about. I never paid much attention to Conrail when it was around.

2) As far as inventions:

• The Sperry Rail car
• the "I" shaped rail
• AC power

I'll have to pull out all my books and videos to find some more ideas.

mudchicken put Eads bridge in his list (#10). That reminded me of a debate I had a few years ago with some of my friends about that bridge. I was visiting a friend in St. Louis on year and we rode the Metrolink across the bridge. He and his other fried were saying that this bridge, Eads bridge, was the first bridge across the Mississippi. I knew, somehow, this was not true, but couldn't think where or how I knew this. When I got home I went through some train tapes of history I have and then the library. I found out that the first bridge across the Mississippi was the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad's bridge in Rock Island, IL, back in the 1850s. The steam boat pilot of the Effie Afton crashed into it destroying both the bridge and the boat. Headlines read: "MISSISSIPPI RAILROAD BRIDGE DESTROYED: LET ALL REJOICE!" It turns out Abraham Lincoln was hired by the railroad when they took their case to court. Lincoln concluded that it wasn't accident but sabatoge and this is where he gave his Manifest Destiny speeck of westward expansion. Railroads were necessary for westward expansion.

Many years later, I don't remember right now which decade, the Eads bridge St. Louis was built. It was not the first to span the mighty Mississippi, but it was the first steel bridge across the great river and is probably the oldest surviving. Incidently it was a railroad bridge at the time, and it is now, connecting Metrolink from Missiouri to Illinois.

[michaelstevens]

Isn't the Ead's bridge, actually an iron bridge ??

[mudchicken]

very early Steel (mfg. by Keystone Steel/Carnegie) tubular arch...only iron on the bridge is decorative (per ASCE) - IRONHORSEMAN raised a very valid point - thanx!