The First American Railroads
The first American locomotive was the Rack Steam Locomotive, by John Stevens which ran in his back yard in Hoboken, NJ in 1825.
The first railroad in the United States was built in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1827 to haul granite from quarries to the river. A coal-hauling railroad was built in Pennsylvania in 1827. But these used horses for power. The Delaware & Hudson Canal Company's railroad, built in 1828, was the first to try steam power when it purchased the Stourbridge Lion from Foster & Rastrick in England in 1829. On August 8 of that year, the Lion made its first run in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.
The seeds of what would become the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad were planted in New Jersey in the 1830s. The Camden & Ambo, running between Camden (across from Philadelphia) ans South Amboy (across from New York City) began using steam power when the John Bull entered service in 1831. The locomotive arrived from England unassembled and without instructions. The C&A's master mechanic, Isaac Dripps, assembled the locomotive and added items that would become standards on nearly all American Locomotives for the next 150 years. Dripps was the first to mount a headlight, bell, and pilot (cowcatcher) to a locomotive.
The Camden & Amboy Railroad used the John Bull to power passenger trains across New Jersey in the 1830's. The original John Bull still exists. The John Bull was fitted with many accessories that would soon become standard on locomotives, such as a headlight, bell, and cab.
The railroad industry at the start of the 1840s hardly resembled what it was at the start of the 1830s. Mileage had grown from less that 100 to nearly 3,000 and locomotives were already getting more powerful. In addition to the Camden & Amboy, Baltimore & Ohio, and Delaware & Hudson, steam railroads were sprouting up in South Carolina and elsewhere. Developments in railroad technology were also occurring, some of which would become permanent features of railroading into the 21st Century. Steam locomotives had pilot wheels added to help negotiate curves. Signals were invented to control train movements, as was the timetable. The canal companies, who started building about the same time as the railroads, never had a chance. Railroads had quickly become the transportation choice.
Steam locomotive design made quantum improvements during the 1830s. While the early locomotives resembled sewing machines run amok, development soon gave a familiar look to the smoking beasts. Boilers were placed horizontally on the frame, and the driving wheels were connected by rods to horizontal cylinders at the front of the locomotive. Smoke stacks, while usulally large, were nonetheless mounted in the familiar spot at the front of the locomotive, and the engineer and fireman were removed from platforms next to the rear of the locomotive. Tenders for carrying water and fuel (wood or coal) were added. In just a very short time, locomotive development had come a long, long way.
But even though a standard rail was now being used, the distance between the rails was still varying from railroad to railroad. Gauges varied from railroad to railroad, and most railroads decided on which gauge to use based on the gauge of the locomotives it first purchased. The Delaware & Hudson built to 4ft 3in gauge to accommodate the Stourbridge Lion. Gauges varied to as wide as 6ft. It was the eastern roads that first began to standardize on the 4ft 8-1/2 in that is used today, although there were notable exceptions such as the Erie and the Lackawanna,at 6ft.
By the 1850s, a standard locomotive was coming into favor--the 4-4-0 "American" type (although the system that would classify it as a 4-4-0 and call it an "American" type wouldn't be invented until 1901).
Meanwhile, passenger travel was getting more plush. While the travelers of the 1830s had to be content with riding on two-axle flat cars with benches, the invention of the two-axle truck (with a truck at each end of a coach, for fout axles total) allowed longer cars with a better ride. As more and more railroads came into being, competition grew as more than one railroad would cover the same route. That meant railroads were soon engaged ina war to attract passengers, and they used amenities like plush seats, food service, and the like to draw in patrons.
The U.S. Civil War (or "The War Between the States" as it is often called) from 1861-65 was the first where railroads played a significant role. They moved materials and troops from one location to another rapidly, and some say the Union's superior rail network had much to do with it's eventual victory over the Confederacy. Destroying the railroads was a primary goal during the war, and rebuilding them was a primary goal after the war.
One of the most famous incidents of the Civil War occured on April 25, 1862, when a group of 20 Union spies led by James J. Andrews stole the 4-4-0 General at Big Shanty, Georgia, and set out to cripple the Western & Atlantic Railroad, a major artery for the Confederacy, by burning 15 bridges between Big Shanty and Chattanooga. But once the theft was made, the trains conductor, William Fuller, set out chasing the stolen train, first on foot and ultimately by using the 4-4-0 Texas. Fuller disrupted Andrews plans and the raid failed.
It soon became clear that a transcontinental rail route was neede to unite California with the rest of the United States. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act on July 1, 1862, during the Civil War. The Union Pacific began building westward across Nebraska, while the Central Pacific started building from California in 1866. No one knew where the two lines would actually meet. Under the direction of Major General Grenville M. Dodge, the UP steadily proceeded with laborers from Ireland who had come to the US to escape their homeland famine. Out west, the Cental Pacific had a much more formidable challenge in the Sierra Nevada mountains, but construction superintendant J.H. Strobridge found that his Chinese laborers were more that up to the task. The UP encountered miles of endless prairies with no trees to use for crossties, while everything the CP needed had to be shipped around Cape Horn to California. The transcontinental railroad that had been started in 1866 was nearing completion three years later as the Union Pacific and Central Pacific converged in the Utah desert north of the Great Salt Lake. Because no definite meeting point had been set, the two railroads actually passed each other at one point, working on grading but never laying tracks. Finally Promontory, Utah, was set as the meeting point, and a Central Pacific train behind the Jupiter headed from Sacramento, while a Union Pacific train from Omaha headed west behind 4-4-0 No. 119. As the two trains approached the final gap in the transcontinental railroad, a laurel crosstie was placed at the meeting spot. Silver spikes from Nevada, Idaho, and Montana were provided, as was a gold spike from California. Wires were connected to the final spike so telegraphs across the country would receive the actual driving of the spike by California Governor Leland Stanford. Once the work was complete, the telegraph tapped out a single work--"Done!"
The driving of the gold spike (along with the end of the Civil War) started a building boom in the railroad industry, which was just barely a half century old. Rail mileage in the US stood at 35,000 at the end of the war, but had swelled to 156,000 by 1888. The second transcontinental railroad, the Northern Pacific, was completed in 1883. The Santa Fe and Great Northern soon had transcontinental routes as well. The railroads of the east were becoming the financial toys of people like Jay Gould and Cornelius Vanderbilt. The railroads were also becoming the largest employer in the country and their economic impact was widespread as they were consumers of material like iron as well as the primary shipper for goods from coast to coast. By 1880 the nation was dependent on railroads as the sole viable transportation from, a status the railroads would enjoy for the next 30 years. Almost every piece of the country with a farm or a mine had a railroad nearby--it had become not a luxury, but a necessity.
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StandardizationWhile every railroad had its own way of doing things during the first 60 years of railroading, the growth of the industry meant that railroads had to interact with each other. And to successfully accomplish that, railroads needed to standardize. One of the ways they standardized was in the way time was kept---every town has its own time based on the sun, but trains were moving from town to town. How could a train crew keep track of time when they might encounter a dozen different "time sones?" The solution came from the American Railway Association at a meeting in 1883. At that meeting, it was determined that all US railroads would keep time based on four time zones. And since the economies and transportation in most US cities relied on the railroads, the towns adopted railroad time. The US Congress officially adopted railroad time as the US standard in 1918. Standardization also came in motive power, as the major builders switched production to diesel locomotives. Railroads were now able to buy locomotives out of a catalog, just like buying a car. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Boom and BustThe US railroads hit their apex as the country entered the Second World War. During the First World War, the railroads had been nationalized, but the government didn't feel it was necessary in 1941. Thus, the railroads operated independently, although the government placed restrictions on locomotive purchases. But the railroads certainly moved some tonnage during 1941-45. Constant parades of troop trains heading for the west coast and army material moving everywhere put the railroads at capacity. It was probably the finest hour for the industry. Unfortunately, the boom of World War II didn't last. Shortly after the end of the war, the jet passenger airliner was perfected and the US ambitiously built highways. With passengers leaving for the air or the automobile and more and more freight moving by truck, the railroads hit hard times. No one knew just how hard until the New York, Ontario & Western became the first railroad to simply abandon its entire line, doing so in 1957. The troubles of the late 1950s only deepened in the 1960s. Two bitter rivals, the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad, merged in 1967 to form Penn Central. But Penn Central itself was a monumental failure, filing for bankruptcy in 1970.
StandardizationWhile every railroad had its own way of doing things during the first 60 years of railroading, the growth of the industry meant that railroads had to interact with each other. And to successfully accomplish that, railroads needed to standardize. One of the ways they standardized was in the way time was kept---every town has its own time based on the sun, but trains were moving from town to town. How could a train crew keep track of time when they might encounter a dozen different "time sones?" The solution came from the American Railway Association at a meeting in 1883. At that meeting, it was determined that all US railroads would keep time based on four time zones. And since the economies and transportation in most US cities relied on the railroads, the towns adopted railroad time. The US Congress officially adopted railroad time as the US standard in 1918. Standardization also came in motive power, as the major builders switched production to diesel locomotives. Railroads were now able to buy locomotives out of a catalog, just like buying a car. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Boom and BustThe US railroads hit their apex as the country entered the Second World War. During the First World War, the railroads had been nationalized, but the government didn't feel it was necessary in 1941. Thus, the railroads operated independently, although the government placed restrictions on locomotive purchases. But the railroads certainly moved some tonnage during 1941-45. Constant parades of troop trains heading for the west coast and army material moving everywhere put the railroads at capacity. It was probably the finest hour for the industry. Unfortunately, the boom of World War II didn't last. Shortly after the end of the war, the jet passenger airliner was perfected and the US ambitiously built highways. With passengers leaving for the air or the automobile and more and more freight moving by truck, the railroads hit hard times. No one knew just how hard until the New York, Ontario & Western became the first railroad to simply abandon its entire line, doing so in 1957. The troubles of the late 1950s only deepened in the 1960s. Two bitter rivals, the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad, merged in 1967 to form Penn Central. But Penn Central itself was a monumental failure, filing for bankruptcy in 1970.
This event led to a near-collapse of all northeast railroads, as one by one the Jersey Central, Erie Lackawanna, Reading, Lehigh Valley, and others followed Penn Central into bankruptcy. The western railroads were staying alive, but the good times were over. The passenger train was a money-losing proposition all across the country, and on May 1, 1971, Amtrak was formed to take over all intercity passenger operations. Literally overnight, the number of passenger trains was cut in half. The government stepped in again and formed Conrail in 1976, combining most of the bankrupt eastern roads into one system. As the US celebrated its bicentennial in 1976, railroading was at its lowest point. Nonetheless, the railroads still hosted the American Freedom Train for the US milestone. The railroads certainly have had a colorful history. During the 1980s, reminders of its Golden Age (generally regarded as 1900-1945 or so) were vanishing. The great passenger stations were closing down and the reminants of the infrastructure built for steam was crumbling. Amtrak still ran passenger trains, but they couldn't compare to the great streamliners of the 1940s. But a transformation occurred in the late 1980s. New Traffic was found, the railroads were able to shed unprofitable lines (which the government wouldn't allow up to that point), and passenger trains entered a new high-speed era in the Northeast. At the dawn of the 21st Century, it's good times again for North America's railroads.
Copyright 2006 New England Railroad
