The Iron Road: An Illustrated History of the Railroad

476 Pages·2014·58.91 MB·English

by  Christian Wolmar

Contents
Introduction

THE FIRST TRACKS
From Wagonways to Railroads
Father of the Railroads
Powering the Engine
The First American Railroads
The Early Years of American Steam
Europe Takes to the Rails
Map: Western European Railroads
Railroad Mania
Wheels and Trucks
The American Civil War
Signals in the Steam Age
Heroic Failures
India: Dalhousie’s Colonial Imperative
Map: Early Indian Railroads
The Navvies: Digging, Drinking, and Fighting
The Track Structure
Cuban Sugar Railroads
THE SPREAD OF THE RAILROADS
Crossing the Alps
Climbing Mountains
The Panama Railroad: A Deadly Rush for Gold
Crossing America
Map: North American Transcontinentals
Going Underground
Death on the Rails
Stopping the Train
The Railroad Experience
Turnouts and Sidings
Temples of Steam
Railroad Signal Telegraphy
Monopolies and Railroad Barons
Building Bridges
The Pullman Phenomenon
RAILROADS COME OF AGE
The Trans-Siberian Railway
Map: The Trans-Siberian Railway
The Orient Express
The Most Spectacular Railroads in the World
Going Uphill
Henry Flagler and the Overseas Railroad
Hauling Freight
Cape to Cairo: the Railroad that Never Was
Map: Cape to Cairo
Electricity Lightens the Load
Going Electric
The People Who Ran the Railroads
The Wrong Side of the Tracks
Indian Hill Railroads: Climbing Out of the Heat
WAR AND UNCERTAINTY
The Golden Age of the Railroads
The Field Railroads of World War I
American Luxury
Wartime Railroad Disasters
The Hejaz Railway
Streamliners
Australia’s Gauge Bungle
High-speed Steam Trains
Going Diesel: from the Fliegende Hamburger to the Future
Diesel Power Meets Electricity
World War II: Atrocities on the Line
THE IRON ROAD TODAY
Brezhnev’s Folly
Railroads Lost and Found
Vive le Channel Tunnel
Building Tunnels
Switzerland: the Best of the Best
Going Faster: Bullet Trains and High-speed Lines
China, the New Pioneer
The Railroad Renaissance
Maglev Trains
GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PUBLISHING INFORMATION
Introduction
O
f all the great inventions of the Industrial Revolution, the railroads had the
most impact. In a world before rail, travel over any distance was a major
undertaking. Regions of even small countries, such as France or England, could
be up to seven days’ journey from the capital, while large countries like the
United States, China, or Russia could take months to cross. Until the early 19th
century, most people lived their whole lives within the confines of the town or
rural area in which they were born, and no one had ever gone faster than a horse
could gallop. Travel was simply too difficult and too expensive for the vast
majority of people, which in turn limited the spread of ideas and technology.
Lack of mobility was a major barrier to economic and social development. In
the absence of rapid transportation, people could starve within only a few
hundred miles of plentiful food supplies. The slow transit of goods by horse and
cart, or along rivers and canals, meant that perishables had to be consumed very
rapidly. Sending a letter across the country took days, and newspapers were a
misnomer, since they were effectively full of old information. It took months for
people to learn the fate of loved ones at war, and news of major events, from
even just a short distance away, filtered through slowly.
Limitations on travel also translated into social restriction—people had little
choice of spouse, since opportunities to meet potential marriage partners from
even neighboring towns were rare. Concepts of time, too, were different before
the railroads. Daily life was regulated by the sun, and towns just a few miles east
or west of each other could operate on different schedules.
Then the railroads arrived and changed everything. One of their first major
impacts was to force countries to standardize their measurements of time, both
nationally and internationally, since railroad timetables would otherwise be too
confusing. Greenwich Mean Time, the standard by which the world sets its
clocks, was created partly as a result of the railroads, and the US was divided
into four time zones for the same reason. The Trans-Siberian, the longest railroad
in the world, still operates according to Moscow time, even though the line
crosses seven time zones on its way to Vladivostok. Punctuality and time-
keeping thus became vital, not just with regard to the railroads, but in all spheres
of life. The railroads created the structured day, which, prior to their arrival, had
been ten hours long, rather than today’s norm of eight. In other words, they
created the “nine-to-five” routine.
The railroads overthrew all established concepts of distance and time, and
social upheaval followed. The last vestiges of feudalism were swept away, since
people were no longer tied to the land—indeed, they could now work far from
home. People worked standard hours and expected to do so for a wage. Thus, the
growth of capitalism went hand in hand with the expansion of the iron road. As
people no longer had to find employment near their homes, towns and cities
could become far larger than would previously have been possible. Suburban
sprawl, often thought of as a product of the automobile age, is, in fact, the result
of the development of commuter lines.
Access to long-distance travel, in relative comfort at fairly low cost, changed
people’s horizons and opened up their imaginations. What had previously been
impossible became routine—such as going to the seaside or visiting an
exhibition. On a social level, the scope for potential marriage partners suddenly
broadened, being no longer confined to the immediate vicinity. The exchange of
ideas took off as national conferences could now be convened, and the
inventions of the Industrial Revolution spread—first across Britain, then across
the world. Professional sports became feasible as teams and their supporters
could travel long distances to play other teams, and league size was limited only
by how far a team could travel in a day.
Warfare, too, was revolutionized by the railroads. Armies had traditionally
sustained themselves by foraging and pillaging—an unreliable practice that
made it impossible to keep troops in the same place for long, since supplies,
especially for the animals, inevitably ran out. These logistical restrictions meant
that battles took place over days rather than weeks or months. With the rise of
railroads, armies no longer needed to be constantly on the move, since they
could be supplied with food and munitions from the nearest railhead. They were
also invaluable in transporting troops quickly to quell domestic riots or launch
wars against neighbors.
Nation states became more cohesive as country-wide railroad systems
developed. The railroads, often state-owned, were the glue that bound a country
together, linking disparate regions and enabling governments to expand their
influence in remote, previously lawless areas. The railroads also stimulated large
movements of people: Siberia and the American West were both populated after
major lines were built. Settlements everywhere congregated around the tracks;
indeed, in the US, several towns that were bypassed by the iron road simply
moved to be closer to it. Stations became hubs, attracting development and
commerce.
As the railroads expanded they brought change in their wake. Railroad
companies were often the largest organizations in their respective countries and,
due to their size, required new types of business management and even
accounting methods. The very engines of capitalism—bank loans, stock markets,
information on investment—suddenly became possible. Railroad companies
needed banks to fund their expansion and, in turn, banks found railroad
companies to be their best clients, since they were the biggest and most
ambitious. It was no coincidence that banks and railroad companies were the
driving force of mid-and late-19th century capitalism.
Moreover, since the railroad companies employed more workers than any
other, it was inevitable that, as the trade union movement was born and
developed, the railroads became the industry in which they flourished. Indeed,
they were the site of many of the fiercest disputes between capital and labor.
The story of the railroads is not just one of trains and technology, and this
richer history, set in a wider social context, is the one this book aims to tell.
Despite a strong challenge from the automobile, the railroads remain a brilliant
technological feat and a great way to travel—but they are, in fact, much more
than that, as every page will show.