1 2 Volume 9, #3, May/June 2020 The international heritage interpretation e-magazine. It seems like yesterday was New Years Day and here we are in late spring and edging into summer. So many wonderful articles to share with you, both about railroad heritage and environmental issues and climate change. InterpNEWS publications have been expanding, enlarging IN issues content, and birthing our new John Veverka’s Interpretive Explorer e- magazine. It’s the goal of Interpretive Explorer to focus on personal interpretive experiences, discoveries and exploring the world’s natural and cultural history wonders from an interpreters’ story telling perspective. I have 40 years of world-wide site visits, wanderings and interpretive experiences to share, and would like to share yours as well. So, repeating my Call for Articles for InterpNEWS, and Call for Explorer stories for Interpretive Explorer e-magazine. Deadline for the July/August InterpNEWS is the 15th of June. Any questions, feel free to ask – [email protected]. Cheers and happy exploring. John Veverka. In this Issue Page - Interpreting ten historic train lines and stories. National Geographic 3 - 8 Things You May Not Know About Trains. BARBARA MARANZANI 11 - Railroad Bridges/Train Trestles – An Overview. American Railroads.com 16 - Scientists say creating hybrids of the extinct beasts could fix the Arctic tundra and stop greenhouse gas emissions. By Paul Mann 19 - First evidence of feathered polar dinosaurs found. Gondwana Research 22 - Climate change is contributing to California’s fires. Alejandra Borunda 24 - Preserving Railroad History. John Gruber 27 - Who Invented the Railroad? WORLD FACTS 29 - Dreams of a Transcontinental Railroad. HISTORY.COM EDITORS 31 - Climate Change and Agriculture- A Perfect Storm in Farm Country. Union of Concerned Scientists 35 - What’s in a Name? (Curator) Matthew Parkes, National Museum Ireland 41 - Megafauna extinction: DNA evidence pins blame on climate change. Michael Slezak 44 - July 6 1881: Kate Shelley Saves Two Hundred Lives. American Railroad Folklore S. E. Schlosser 47 - Greenhouse gases reach new peak in 2018, U.N. says. Emma Farge 49 - 10 Great Train Robberies. David E. Israel 52 - Railroads In The Civil War. American Railroads.com 57 - Wild Weather – How to live with it. 64 - Is Global Warming Fueling Increased Wildfire Risks? Union of Concerned Scientists. 68 - An Overview of the Underground Railroad – the routes to freedom. Numerous Authors 71 - Railway Post Office Cars Sort & Distribute Mail. Rail West. 77 - Unlocking The Minds Of Your Audience - Speaking Tip # 66. Ethan Rotman 81 - Rails-with-Trails, Rails to Trails Conservancy. 82 - Mount Mitchell Adds Radio to MaximizeVisitor Safety. Linda Folland 85 - Interpreters are Political! Rod Burns 89 - “Seems Unusual,” Dr. Martha Benn Macdonald 94 -“Daughter of a Southern Railway Surgeon, Anecdotes and More” - Dr. Martha Benn Macdonald 96 - Opening Up New Mexico’s Southeast: A Visionary, Water, Town sites and a Railroad - Part 1 Mark H. Gutzman, 98 - Opening Up New Mexico’s Southeast:A Visionary, Water, Townsites and a Railroad - Part 2 Mark H. Gutzman 102 InterpNEWS is published six times a year as a FREE John Veverka & Associates publication and published as a service to the interpretive profession. If you would like to be added to our mailing list just send an e-mail to [email protected] and we’ll add you to our growing mailing list. Contributions of articles are welcomed. It you would like to have an article published in InterpNEWS let me know what you have in mind. Cover photo: Historic locomotive on the move. www.heritageinterp.com – [email protected] – SKYPE: jvainterp 3 InterpNEWS Interpreting ten historic train lines and stories. National Geographic 1. Liverpool and Manchester Railway “Views of the Most Interesting Scenery on the Line of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.” (Credit: SSPL/Getty Images) The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in September 1830 marked the dawn of steam-powered rail travel. Prior to its construction, most railways were horse-drawn and used to haul freight such as coal over short distances. The 31-mile railroad linking Liverpool and Manchester was the first to carry both passengers and freight by means of steam-powered locomotives, which were designed by George Stephenson, winner of the railroad’s open design competition. Capable of traveling 30 miles per hour, Liverpool and Manchester Railway trains carried more than 500,000 passengers in the first year of operation, resulting in generous dividends to investors. Carrying cotton from the port of Liverpool to the mills of Manchester, the railroad spurred the development of England’s Industrial Revolution, and its legacy lives on as the distance between the Liverpool and Manchester’s rails chosen by Stephenson—4 feet, 8.5 inches—remains the industry’s standard gauge. InterpNEWS 4 2. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad The “Tom Thumb,” constructed by Peter Cooper in 1829, was the first locomotive to be built in America. (Credit: George Rinhart/Getty Images) In order to compete with the commercial boom experienced by New York Cityfollowing the construction of the Erie Canal, leaders of the rival port of Baltimore proposed a 380-mile rail line linking the city with the Ohio River in Wheeling, West Virginia. In 1827, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad became the first American company to be granted a charter to transport both passengers and freight, and it was the first American railway to employ steam locomotives to carry both passengers and freight on a regular schedule. President Andrew Jackson became the first commander in chief to ride the rails when he boarded a B&O train running from Ellicott’s Mills to Baltimore in 1833. 3. Panama Railway Rail tracks linked the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for the first time when the Panama Railway was completed in 1855. The 50-mile railroad eased the arduous journey across the Panamanian isthmus for passengers who traveled by sea between the East and West Coasts of the United States, and it became popular with the tens of thousands of prospectors seeking riches from the California Gold Rush in the years before the completion of the transcontinental railroad in the United States Railroad train following tracks beside Panama Canal. (Credit: Thomas D. Mcavoy/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) 5 InterpNEWS The Panama Railway, which transported cargo for steamship companies as well as U.S. mail, was the most intensively used freight rail line until the 1914 opening of the Panama Canal, which followed nearly the same route across the isthmus. 4. Lincoln Funeral Train Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad engine, with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln mounted on the front, 1862. The engine was one of several used to carry Lincoln’s body from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Ill. (Photo by Buyenlarge/Getty Images) After departing Washington, D.C., on April 21, 1865, the black-draped train bearing the coffin of Abraham Lincoln spent nearly two weeks winding its way through 180 cities and seven states before reaching the assassinated president’s burial site in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois. The need to keep Lincoln’s body preserved on the 13-day journey as hundreds of thousands of Americans paid their respects helped popularize the nascent industry of funeral embalming, and it also served as a publicity boon for George Pullman, who lent the use of his new, luxurious sleeping cars for the comfort of passengers traveling from Chicago to Springfield on the “Lincoln Special.” After Lincoln’s burial, orders took off for Pullman’s sleepers, which featured polished black walnut interiors, chandeliers and marble washstands and made overnight travel much more enticing for passengers. 5. Metropolitan Underground Railway The railway age reached new heights when trains began to operate at unprecedented depths below the streets of London on January 10, 1863, with the inauguration of the Metropolitan Underground Railway. The world’s first subway operated on a four-mile-long line connecting Paddington Station with the city’s financial district and was a hit from its opening day when it carried more than 30,000 passengers who rode in gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. The London Underground proved the effectiveness of mass transit and eased the horse-drawn traffic congestion that was clogging the streets of the British capital and stifling its prosperity. 6 InterpNEWS “Metropolitan Railway, Bellmouth Praed Street” shows a GWR broad gauge train at Praed Street junction near Paddington station looking towards Edgware Road. (Credit: Public Domain) 6. Transcontinental Railroad The United States truly became united when a sledgehammer pounded a ceremonial golden spike into the ground of Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869, to complete the country’s first transcontinental railway. Constructed over the course of seven years with the Central Pacific Railroad building east from Sacramento, California, and the Union Pacific Railroad building west from Omaha, Nebraska, the transcontinental railroad slashed the travel time for the 3,000-mile cross-country The ceremony for the driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah on May journey from months to less than a 10, 1869. (Credit: Public Domain) week. The transcontinental railroad contributed to the rapid westward expansion of the United States, bringing with it the rise of the Wild West and wars with Native American tribes who lived on those lands. It also made it economically feasible to extract the abundant resources of the West and transport them to the markets in the East. 7 InterpNEWS 7. Trans-Siberian Railway Trans-siberian Railway. (Credit: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket/Getty Images) Spanning eight time zones and 6,000 miles across treacherous sub-arctic terrain, the Trans-Siberian Railway was the longest and most-expensive railroad ever built when it was completed in 1916. By shortening from months to just eight days the time it took to travel from Moscow to Vladivostok, the Trans-Siberian allowed for greater government control over the world’s largest country.