Trains Have Steamed Their Way Into the American Psyche

rains a across the USA T by Phyllis McIntosh

34 2 0 1 3 N u m b e r 1 | E n g l i s h T e a c h i n g F o r u m With colorful names like Wabash Cannonball, Speed Witch, and Tom Cat, trains have steamed their way into the American psyche. They have a mystique all their own that persuades railroad enthusiasts to lovingly preserve old locomotives and picturesque train stations and entices generations of children, and adults, to play with model railroads. As an efficient mode of transportation, trains revolutionized travel and commerce across the vast expanses of the North American continent and united the states from east coast to west. Although in recent decades trains have been overshadowed by automobiles and airplanes as modes of general travel in the United States, they still carry more than 40 percent of the nation’s freight. And passenger trains, whose routes traverse some of the most scenic regions of the country, remain a popular and relaxing way to travel. Though modern trains may lack the charm of their forerunners, they harken back to a golden age of transportation that lives on in American culture.

Birth of Rail Travel In the early 1800s, travel in the United States was slow and arduous. People and goods moved by stagecoach, by horse and wagon, or on boats that navigated rivers and canals. In 1827, a group of enterprising

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gentlemen in Baltimore, Maryland, took mounted sometimes violent opposition a gamble on a new means of transport, to the newfangled railroads. Even author chartering the nation’s first commercial Henry David Thoreau ranted about “that railroad to compete with New York’s Erie devilish Iron Horse, whose ear-rending Canal. Because their goal was to extend neigh is heard throughout the town.” the rails 380 miles from Baltimore to Such complaints could not stop prog- the Ohio River, these men named their ress, however. By 1840, there were 2,800 railroad the Baltimore & Ohio, known miles of railroad track east of the Missis- simply as the B&O. sippi River; a decade later that figure had On July 4, 1828, 90-year-old Charles tripled to 9,000 miles. During the Civil Carroll, the last surviving signer of the War in the 1860s, railroads played a vital Declaration of Independence, laid the role in moving men and materials to the ceremonial first stone for the new railroad. battlefront. Two years later when the first 13 miles of Amid the darkest days of the Civil rails opened, horses pulled the trains along War, the United States embarked on a the track. But the B&O soon introduced mission to complete a transcontinental a small experimental steam engine called railroad, a dream long held by President the Tom Thumb, thought to be the first Abraham Lincoln. Over six years, two steam locomotive built in the United companies—the Union Pacific starting in States. According to legend, the Tom Omaha, Nebraska, and the Central Pacific Thumb once raced a horse-drawn rail starting in San Francisco, California—laid car. The horse galloped to victory after a more than 1,700 miles of track. The Cen- mechanical failure halted the locomotive, tral Pacific employed thousands of Chinese but steam power won out in the end. By laborers, who had immigrated to the United 1831, the B&O’s four-legged horses had States after gold was discovered in Califor- been replaced by the Iron Horse, the name nia, for the grueling task of carving the rail- given to the early steam locomotive. road through the Sierra Nevada mountains. As trains became more common, On May 10, 1869, the two rail lines not everyone welcomed them. Turnpike met at Promontory Point, Utah, where operators, canal companies, stagecoach they were joined with a ceremonial golden companies, tavern owners, and innkeepers spike. As the message “Done” was tele-

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hu System in the late 1890s and early 1900s. © © S graphed across the nation, bells rang out intensive forms of locomotion, such in cities from coast to coast. A cross-coun- as diesel engines and electricity pro- try trip that, a decade earlier, had taken vided by overhead wires. The last several months could now be completed major steam-powered rail line closed in just one week. in 1960, and by the end of the decade, steam locomotives had all The Golden Age of but disappeared from the nation’s Railroads rails. They live on, however, in dozens of museums, on short-line scenic The turn of the 20th century ushered railways, and in the hearts of thou- in a golden age of railroads that would last sands of enthusiasts who volunteer for 50 years. Some features of this golden their time to educate a new genera- age are described below. tion about the mystique of the steam • Steam locomotives. In the early locomotive. 1900s all trains were powered by • Luxury passenger trains. By the early massive steam locomotives whose 20th century, railroads took pride in boilers were fired first by wood speeding customers to their destina- and later by coal. The distinctive tions in comfort and luxury. In addi- chuff-chuff sound produced by the tion to standard seating, trains began venting of steam inspired the term to feature specialized cars for dining, choo-choo as a nickname for a train. sleeping, socializing, and enjoying the Among the most famous steam scenery. Most were produced by the locomotives were the Union Pacific Pullman Company of Illinois, best Railroad’s Big Boys of the 1940s. known for its Pullman sleeper, which Weighing 600 tons and extending featured private accommodations for 132 feet in length, these power- nighttime travelers. ful machines were designed to pull In the 1930s, the outward freight trains over a mountainous appearance of many passenger trains route in Utah and Wyoming. also changed. Inspired by the Art During the 1930s, railroads Deco movement, railroad compa- began to turn to cleaner, less labor- nies enshrouded their locomotives

E n g l i s h T e a ching F o r u m | N u m b e r 1 2 0 1 3 37 The Crawford Depot in Carroll, New Hampshire, built by the Maine Central Railroad in 1891, is typical of railroad architecture of that era. Preserved as a visitor center, the depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. © Shutterstock.com

and cars with an aluminum skin architectural works of art has grown, that gave them a sleek, modern many towns and small cities have look. Known as streamliners, these taken steps to preserve their stations, trains epitomized style, comfort, converting them into museums, res- and speed. taurants, and shops. Some of the The most celebrated of the grandest structures, like New York streamliners was the 20th Centu- City’s Pennsylvania Station, are gone ry Limited, operated by the New forever. Others, notably New York’s York Central Railroad between New Grand Central Terminal, escaped York City and Chicago. Catering to the wrecking ball through the efforts upper class and business travelers, of celebrities such as Jacqueline Ken- the Limited was renowned for the nedy Onassis. plush red carpet that was rolled out • Harvey Girls and Pullman Por- for passengers to walk on going to ters. Women and African Americans and from the train. That practice played key roles in the early days of is thought to have given rise to the railroads. The Union Pacific Rail- phrase “red carpet treatment” to road, for example, hired women as refer to special service. nurse-stewardesses to assist elderly • Iconic railroad stations. The hun- passengers and women with chil- dreds of railroad stations built in dren on cross-country journeys. the late 19th and early 20th cen- The best known of the early rail- turies included numerous architec- way women were the Harvey Girls, tural gems, ranging from the wood young women hired by entrepre- and brick Victorian-style depots that neur Fred Harvey to work as wait- graced towns across the country resses in his restaurants and hotels to the ornate railway palaces of at stops along the Atchison, Topeka, the major cities. As pride in these and Santa Fe Railroad in the west-

38 2 0 1 3 N u m b e r 1 | E n g l i s h T e a ching F o r u m ern states. These young women in their starched black-and-white uni- Amtrak’s 40th anniversary train forms conveyed a wholesome image makes a stop at the station in Bakersfield, California, during its that attracted railroad passengers to anniversary tour in 2011. © Richard Thornton / Shutterstock.com the more than 80 Harvey House establishments. Because many of the Harvey Girls eventually married and settled in the areas where they worked, they are credited with help- ing to civilize the Wild West. African American men, hired by George Pullman to staff his Pullman sleeping and dining cars, were the An Amtrak conductor signals to backbone of customer service aboard someone on the platform at the trains in the early 20th century. Wilmington, Delaware, train station. Although working on the trains was © spirit of America / Shutterstock.com considered one of the most pres- tigious jobs open to blacks at the time, the porters often were over- worked and underpaid. In 1925, led by activist A. Philip Randolph, the porters formed the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first black labor union to bargain suc- The Empire Builder, a passenger cessfully with a major corporation. train with a scenic route from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest, Randolph and the Sleeping Car makes a station stop. © Shutterstock.com Porters remained major voices in the civil rights movement through the 1960s.

Railroads Today With the growth of air travel and development of the interstate highway system following World War II, the hey- day of the railroads came to an end. Both passenger and freight revenues declined, and by the 1960s railroads were in finan- cial trouble. But over the years, with help from the U.S. government, the railroads have rebounded; once again they represent a major segment of transportation in the United States. And today’s rail service includes: A commuter train pulls out of • Long-distance passenger trains. To downtown Chicago. relieve railroads of the increasingly © Shutterstock.com

E n g l i s h T e a ching F o r u m | N u m b e r 1 2 0 1 3 39 A string of tank cars rattles along a railroad track. © Shutterstock.com

steep costs of running passenger San Francisco; the Coast Starlight, trains, Congress in 1970 passed which skirts the West Coast from a law that created the National Seattle to Los Angeles; and the Railroad Passenger Corporation— Empire Builder, whose route from known as Amtrak—to provide Chicago to Seattle and Portland, passenger service between cities. Oregon, includes the majestic wil- Amtrak, which celebrated 40 years derness of the Pacific Northwest, of continuous service in 2011, car- Glacier National Park, and the ries nearly 29 million passengers a Columbia River Gorge. year on a nationwide network serv- Amtrak also boasts the longest ing 500 destinations in 46 states and passenger train in the world—the three Canadian provinces. Auto Train, which carries passen- Amtrak’s busiest route is the gers and their cars 900 miles from Northeast Corridor between Wash- Lorton, Virginia, near Washington, ington, D.C., and Boston, which D.C., to Orlando, Florida. transports more than a quarter • Commuter trains. Two dozen com- million passengers every weekday. muter rail lines transport millions One loyal and enthusiastic rider for of passengers daily between the sub- 35 years was Joe Biden, who as a urbs and central business districts U.S. Senator commuted via Amtrak of major metropolitan areas. Oper- from his home in Delaware to Wash- ated mostly by local governments ington every day that Congress was or quasi-government entities, these in session. trains share tracks with Amtrak and Trains remain a favorite way to freight railroads. Many connect to see the United States in all its won- bus and subway lines in the cities. der. Popular scenic routes include Many commuter trains run only those of the California Zephyr, during morning and evening rush which passes through the Rocky hours—when most people are going Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas to and from work—but others oper- on its daily run from Chicago to ate from morning until late at night

40 2 0 1 3 N u m b e r 1 | E n g l i s h T e a ching F o r u m A train loaded with freight containers makes its way to a port where the containers will be loaded on ocean-going ships. © Shutterstock.com

transporting people to sporting Trains carry 43 percent of inter- events and other recreational des- city freight as measured by weight, tinations in addition to places of according to the American Associa- employment. tion of Railroads (AAR). The most The New York City and Chi- important commodity transported cago metropolitan areas have the is coal, which is used mainly to gen- greatest concentrations of commut- erate electricity at coal-fired power er trains in the United States. The plants. Other major rail commodi- nation’s oldest and busiest com- ties include industrial chemicals and muter railway is the Long Island fertilizers, grain, food, steel, forest Railroad, which operates 24 hours products, motor vehicles, and waste a day, seven days a week. With and scrap materials. 700 miles of track, it covers the Many freight trains carry a vari- entire length of Long Island via two ety of goods in a mix of specialized routes and connects to three termi- cars, such as flatcars, oil tank cars, nals in New York City. closed boxcars, and motor vehicle • Freight trains. In the 1970s, Con- carriers. But some are dedicated gress passed laws to rescue declin- to a single product. One notable ing freight railroads. Now largely example is the so-called juice train, deregulated, the railroads have reor- which travels northward daily from ganized, discontinued unprofitable Florida’s citrus region. routes, and returned to promi- nence in transporting goods across Recent Trends in the country. Of the more than Railroading 500 freight railroads currently operating in the United States, the vast Containerized freight shipping majority are local short-haul lines. The past two decades have seen tre- Seven major long-haul railroads mendous growth in an efficient means of account for most freight industry transport known as intermodal service, or revenue, however. containerized shipping, in which freight

E n g l i s h T e a ching F o r u m | N u m b e r 1 2 0 1 3 41 Acela trains, seen here in Washington, D.C., provide high-speed rail service— reaching speeds of 150 miles per hour—along the Northeast

Corridor of the United States. © Vacclav / Shutterstock.com

is packed in containers that can be carried control of signals, switches, and other by train, truck, and ocean-going ships. high-tech mechanisms. The method combines the door-to-door High-speed rail convenience of trucks with the long- haul economy of railroads, and it greatly Currently, the nation’s only high-speed streamlines international shipping. service is Amtrak’s Acela Express, inaugu- rated in 2000 along the Northeast Cor- Focus on the environment ridor. The Acela is capable of speeds up to Both Amtrak and freight railroad 150 miles per hour, but because of aging companies emphasize that trains’ fuel effi- track and congested areas, it actually reach- ciency and lower pollution levels make es that speed on only a portion of the route. them a greener alternative to other means Amtrak says it is planning for 220 miles of transport. According to the AAR, trains per hour service on the Northeast Corri- on the average are four times more fuel dor. In California, construction is slated to efficient than trucks. Furthermore, a single begin in 2012 on an 800-mile high-speed freight train can take the loads of at least system that will link the state’s major cities. 280 trucks off overcrowded highways. For passengers, railroads represent a * * * welcome alternative to clogged highways Although modern trains lack the aura and cramped airplanes, and, according to of a chugging steam locomotive or a sleek Amtrak president and CEO Joe Board- twentieth-century streamliner, the plaintive man, trains “preserve the pleasure that sound of a train whistle in the night can still once made people want to travel.” stir the soul. As train aficionado Ruth Guyer commented on National Public Radio: “The High-tech equipment other evening I stepped onto the track near Like many aspects of modern life, my home and stared off till my eyes met the railroads today operate with the aid of vanishing point where the glistening iron computers, satellites, and remote sensors. rails seemed to merge. I knew the tracks Many railroad employees are white-collar would never do that, but I thought if the workers who command trains from hun- trains themselves were ever to vanish, the dreds of miles away through electronic romance of travel would surely be lost.”

Train Talk Websites of Interest ballast – gravel, slag, or other material placed Amtrak on the rail bed to hold tracks in place www.amtrak.com brakeman In addition to routes and schedules, this web- – train crew member who site of America’s passenger railroad network offers inspects the train, assists the conduc- virtual tours of sleeping car accommodations, tor, operates the brakes, and assists with information on planning a vacation by rail, and an switching online magazine with feature stories, riders’ memo- caboose – car attached to the rear end of a ries, and a “Kids Depot” game section. freight train for use by the train crew Association of American Railroads conductor – person in charge of a train www.aar.org and its crew This website of the trade association that coupler – a device for connecting train represents the freight railroad industry includes cars or locomotives together statistics and information about the efficiency and impact of freight trains in transporting the nation’s engineer – person who operates a locomotive goods. limited – a passenger train that serves only main stations; emphasis is on com- B&O Railroad Museum fort, speed, and convenience www.borail.org A guide to the museum of the nation’s first main line – the principal artery of a commercial railroad, this site features an educa- railroad system; used by trains operating tion section with information about the history of between cities railroads in the United States that includes down- roundhouse – a building, usually cir- loadable lesson plans. cular in design, where locomotives and National Museum of American History other railroad cars are inspected, cleaned, http://amhistory.si.edu/onthemove/exhibition repaired, and serviced A virtual tour of the Museum’s America on siding – a short stretch of track used to the Move exhibition about transportation, this site store railroad cars or enable trains on the traces the impact of railroads on people, towns, and commerce from the late 1800s until the pres- same line to pass ent day. switch – a connection between two lines of track that permits trains to pass from Phyllis McIntosh is a freelance writer whose one track to another work has appeared in many national magazines.

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Trains evoke a sense of romance and adventure have borne names of American heroes—George that moves people to bestow names on them and Washington, Abraham Lincoln—and poetic labels immortalize them in story and song. that create images of pleasurable escape—Desert Wind, Gulf Breeze, Starlight, Southern Belle. What’s in a name? A streamliner of the 1940s acquired its name, Some trains have had straightforward names that Phoebe Snow, from an advertising campaign that identified their freight contents—Johnstown Steel had run several decades earlier. Around the turn of Special, Beef Train, Florida Perishables. Some names the century, the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western indicated a train’s route or destination—the South- Railroad created a fictional character named Phoebe westerner, City of Miami—and some their typical Snow, a young socialite in a pristine white dress, riders: Fisherman’s Special. to promote its trains powered by cleaner-burning Many other trains have names that denote power anthracite coal. Lackawanna’s riders, the railroad and speed, such as Thunderbolt, Rocket, Cannon claimed, would still look clean when they reached Ball, Blue Dart, Silver Streak, or simply Guts. Animal their destination, unlike travelers on other steam names—Black Cat, Red Fox, Blue Goose, Rabbit trains, who often emerged from a long trip covered Run—are popular for freight trains. Passenger trains in black soot from burned soft coal.

44 2 0 1 3 N u m b e r 1 | E n g l i s h T e a ching F o r u m Train songs Colorful characters Trains figure prominently in American folk Trains are associated with a variety of larger- songs, blues, and country music. Most Americans than-life characters, both real and imagined. One have sung or heard the traditional song “I’ve Been legendary hero is John Henry, an immensely strong Working on the Railroad,” for example. “The City railroad builder who wielded his hammer in a of New Orleans,” a popular folk song of recent race against a drilling machine. Henry won but, years recorded by such artists as Willie Nelson, Arlo exhausted, collapsed and died with his hammer in Guthrie, and Johnny Cash, immortalizes a nightly his hand. Amtrak train that still travels between Chicago and Engineer Casey Jones, a real-life railroad hero New Orleans. from 1900, has become part of American lore for try- More upbeat songs include “Chattanooga Choo ing to slow his train as it was about to wreck, losing Choo,” a Big Band favorite in the 1940s, and the his life but saving other lives in the process. bluegrass fiddle tune “Orange Blossom Special,” A romanticized group of railroad characters are which commemorates a luxury passenger train the hobos, who sneaked onto freight trains to roam that once ran between New York City and Miami. the country in search of work, especially during the Another bouncy melody, “On the Atchison, Topeka Great Depression of the 1930s. The number of hobos and the Santa Fe,” sung by Judy Garland in a 1940s declined when diesel power replaced steam; trains no movie about the Harvey Girls, pays tribute to the longer had to make frequent stops for water, which railroad along which Fred Harvey built his famous had given the hobos opportunities to hop on and off Harvey House restaurants. the trains.

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