Railroads: The Great American Adventure

by Charlton Ogburn
Photographed by James A. Sugar

Front Cover/Spine:

This is a neat old book. It was published in 1977 by the National Geographic Society. The book measures 7 1/8 inches by 10 ¼ inches and contains 203 pages. The black cloth pictorial cover shows minor signs of wear. The spine is tight and the hinges are strong. The pages show no signs of rips. Exceptions noted, the overall condition of the book is very good.


Inside a polished cab, fireman Roger Myli pauses while showing Brian Woodward, son of a fellow trainman, the workings of a steam locomotive – one of three still operating on a branch line of the Denver and Rio Grande Western. In summer the line, a national historic landmark, carries daily service between Durango and Silverton in Colorado.

Contents:

    Foreword
  1. From Teakettle-on-Wheels to Iron Horse
  2. Buccaneers and Builders: Spanning a Continent
  3. A Growing Nation Takes to the Rails
  4. The Golden Era of the Railroads
  5. The Tracks Ahead: Today and Tomorrow

    6. Acknowledgements and Additional Reading
    Index


During the summer, work gangs on the BAR live in mobile “outfit cars” (right), where employee rosters can grow or shrink according to the talents of the cook. Below, a crew realigns track as a mechanical tamper follows close behind, repacking the ballast between the ties. In 1975, track maintenance cost this Maine company one-fourth of its freight revenues-about five million dollars.

Excerpt - Foreword:
Come all you rounders, I want you to hear,
the story told of a brave engineer…

So begins the immortal ballad of railroader “Casey” Jones, who died in one of history’s most famous train wrecks. The song is more than a eulogy; its spirit and message staunchly proclaim America’s durable love affair with the iron horse. Highlights of a memorable era leap to mind: the Great Locomotive Chase of the Civil War…pounding home the golden spike at Promontory, Utah…Butch Cassidy, Jesse James, and other train robbers battling the Pinkertons…George Mortimer Pullman’s famous sleeping cars…Fred Harvey and the Harvey girls…droves of hoboes during the Depression…the Twentieth Century Limited, renowned for comfort, fine meals, and on-time service…
End excerpt


The Hoboes – In boxcar doorway a Texas-bound hobo called Slim waits out a delay caused by brake trouble on a freight train in California. “Knights of the road” quickly took to the rails behind the new iron horse in the 19th century.


Waitress prepares a table at a restaurant in Aspen, Colorado, that occupies a restored private railroad car built in 1887…


Passenger locomotives fill a Santa Fe repair shop in Topeka, Kansas, at the turn of the century. Today the 200-acre Topeka yard includes 28 acres of shops primarily servicing equipment for moving freight, the railroad’s main business.


The Commuters – Reading the morning paper, a commuter awaits his express train into New York City – one of the 715 passenger runs that carry about 225,000 people every weekday over the routes of the Long Island Rail Road.


Smoke billows from a locomotive owned by New England’s Steamtown Foundation as it rounds a curve near Hagerstown, Maryland. Such steam engines require great quantities of water; fireman Michael Pardina (above) fills the 4,000 gallon tank of a Sierra Railroad tender. Every twenty miles the train takes on more water, the amount depending on grade and speed. A steam pressure gauge (left) measures a boiler’s pressure. Early steam locomotives could withstand only 50 pounds of pressure per square inch; by 1860 the permissible pressure had doubled, greatly increasing power and efficiency.

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