- Lalor ed, The Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States (1899) good overview of economics topics
- primary sources on 19th century and early 20th century US RR recommended
- RR legislation & Management (1881)recommended good overview
- Encyclopedia Britannica complete text of monumental 11th edition (1910); excellent source for all topics as of that date, especially on cities and states, and on railroad technology
- word searches search through thousands of 19c books and articles recommended
- bibliography
- National Railway Museum British RR history
- Transportation History Collection 14,000 books, pamphlets, maps etc from U Michigan recommended
- Statistical Abstract of the US best starting place for current US demographic, economic & social data; also back volumes from 1878; See "Transportation" chapter 23; recommended
- Historical Statistics of the U.S.: Colonial Times to 1970 best resource for historical data; in PDF format recommended
- Statistical Atlas US, 1870-80-90 recommended
- discussion of "Railway Economy" by Dionysius Lardner (1850) analysis of classic British accounting treatise
- B.H. Meyer, and Caroline E. MacGill. History of Transportation in the United States before 1860(1917) 698pp; Encyclopedic coverage; details on railroads by state pp 319-550. recommended
- Massachusetts in 1829; fascinating early report
- Lyman Abbott, "The American Railroad" good overview; 1874 article from Harper's Monthly
- Development of Early Transportation Systems in the United States by J.L. Ringwalt (1888) useful book
- History of the Express Business, Including the Origin of the Railway System in America, by Alexander Lovett Stimson - 1881
- Management
- RR management 1889 article
- freight service 1889 article
- supplies
- "Railway Accounting," by Thomas L. Greene, Political Science Quarterly 7#$ (Dec., 1892) pp. 598-612.
- Frederick A. Cleveland and Fred Wilbur Powell, Railroad Finance (1912)
- "Britain and American Railway Development," by Leland H. Jenks, Journal of Economic History, 11#4 (1951), pp. 375-388. British finance of US railroads
- Telegraphy
- Government telegraphs. by William Orton (1870)
- Telegraphy 1881 article by journalist Charles Barnard
- telegraph in 1889
- Canadian RR telegraph
- telegraph in Omaha
- History of Telegraph Industry from Economic History Encyclopedia recommended
- The Great Transatlantic Cable from PBS
- Labor
- Government Aid & Regulation
- Charles F. Adams. Chapters of Erie (1871) sophisticated exploration of interaction of railroads, finance & politics
- David Potter, ''The Historical Development of Eastern-Southern Freight Rate Relationships" Law and Contemporary Problems 12#3 (1947), pp. 416-448
- "Training America: Law, Liberty and the Railroad" by Charles A. Lofgren Reviews in American History 31.2 (2003) 275-282
- primary sources on RR regulation recommended
- Land Grants see also K: The Transcontinental Lines
- Cochran, Thomas C. "North American Railroads: Land Grants and Railroad Entrepreneurship" The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 10, Supplement. (1950), pp. 53-67. JSTOR
- Fleisig, Heywood. "The Central Pacific Railroad and the Railroad Land Grant Controversy" Journal of Economic History 1975 35(3): 552-566. Asks whether promoters of the Central Pacific Railroad were oversubsidized. Confirms the traditional view that subsidies were not an economic necessity because they "influenced neither the decision to invest in the railroad nor the speed of its construction." Notes that estimates of rate of return for the railroad developers using government funds range from 71% to 200%, while estimates of private rates of return range from 15% to 25%.
- Mercer, Lloyd J. "Rates of Return for Land-grant Railroads: the Central Pacific System" Journal of Economic History 1970 30(3): 602-626. Analyzes the impact of land grants, during 1864-90, on rates of return from investment in the Central Pacific Railroad. Results suggest that even without land grants, rates of return were high enough to induce investment. Also, land grants did not pay for the construction of the railroad. Land grants, however, did produce large social returns in western states by accelerating construction of the system.
- Mercer, Lloyd J. "Land Grants to American Railroads: Social Cost or Social Benefit?" Business History Review 1969 43(2): 134-151. Attempts by the use of econometrics to determine the values of railroad land grants of the 19th century to the railroads and to society as a whole. The author summarizes and criticizes previous treatments of this subject and then discusses his own findings. Using only the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific systems as the basis for his investigation, the author concludes that the railroad owners received unaided rates of return which substantially exceeded the private rate of return on the average alternative project in the economy during the same period. Thus the projects turned out to be profitable although it was generally expected by contemporary observers that the roads would be privately unprofitable without the land grant aid. The land grants did not have a major effect, increasing the private rate of return only slightly. Nevertheless, it is contended that the policy of subsidizing those railroad systems was beneficial for society since the social rate of return from the project was substantial and exceeded the private rate by a significant margin.
- Land grants note: the federal government gave the RR empty land to construct new lines in the west; the government kept every other section in checkerboard fashion, and resold its land for large sums; the railroads used their lands to back construction mortgages, then sold the land to farmers to pay off those mortgages
- The Business History Review > Vol. 4 0, No. 1 (Spring, 1966), pp. 66-76
- "Competition and Regulation: The Railroad Model," by Maury Klein The Business History Review Vol. 64, No. 2, American Business Abroad (Summer, 1990), pp. 311-325 in JSTOR
- essays by Charles F. Adams leading expert
- "North American Railroads: Public Railroad Construction and the Development of Private Enterprise in the South before 1861" by Milton S. Heath in The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 10, Supplement: The Tasks of Economic History. (1950), pp. 40-53.
- "Government Engineering Aid to Railroads before the Civil War" by Forest G. Hill The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 11 (Summer, 1951), pp. 235-246.
- Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh. "Review of Robert G. Angevine, The Railroad and the State: War, Politics, and Technology in Nineteenth-Century America," H-War, H-Net Reviews, February, 2005
- Civil War
- R.E. Riegel, "Federal Operation of Southern Railroads" Mississippi Valley Historical Review (1922) 9:126 + in JSTOR
- R.S. Cotterill, "Southern Railroads" Mississippi Valley Historical Review (1924) 10:396+ in JSTOR
- C. W. Ramsdell, "Confederate Government and Railroads" American Historical Review (1917) 22: 794+ in JSTOR
- The Railroads of the Confederacy by Robert C. Black III (1998) recommended
- "The Social Costs of Regulating the Railroads," by Ann F. Friedlaender The American Economic Review Vol. 61, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Eighty-Third Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (May, 1971), pp. 226-234 in JSTOR
- Grangers
- RR & Farms in 1873 early report on Granger movement to control rates
- "The Granger Movement" by C. F. Adams, Jr. 1875 magazine article
- Buck, Agrarian Crusade ch 1-4 on Grangers vs Midwestern RR in 1870s; good 1919 book by scholar
- Atwater, "The Regulation of Railroads" 1881
- Ely, "The Economic Evils in American Railway Methods" (1886) by leading economist
- Hadley, "The Railroad in Its Business Relations" (1888) by leading economist
- "Railroad Problems in a Western State" [Nebraska] scholarly article about politics by A. G. Warner in Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 1. (March 1891), pp. 66-89. online in JSTOR
- "Railroad Control in Nebraska" scholarly article by Frank Haigh Dixon, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 4. (Dec., 1898), pp. 617-647. in JSTOR
- "Can Government Be Trusted to Keep Its Part of a Social Contract?: New Jersey and the Railroads, 1825-1888," by Christopher Grandy Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization Vol. 5, No. 2 (Autumn, 1989), pp. 249-269 in JSTOR
- The Iron Horse and the Constitution: The Railroads and the Transformation of the Fourteenth Amendment by Richard C. Cortner (1993)
- "The Leviathan with Tentacles of Steel: Railroads in the Minds of Kansas Populists," by by Thomas Frank in The Western Historical Quarterly Vol. 20, No. 1 (Feb., 1989), pp. 37-54 in JSTOR
- Huntington, "A Plea for Railway Consolidation" (1891) by the dominant railroad man in California
- "The Railway Invasion of Mexico" 1882 article
- Adams, Henry C., "A Decade of Federal Railway Regulation" The Atlantic Monthly, (April 1898).
- current documents 21st century
- 20th Century
- Railroads and Government: Their Relations in the United States, 1910-1921. by Frank Haigh Dixon (1922)
- Railroads: Cases and Selections. ed by Eliot Jones and Homer B. Vanderblue (1925). rate setting
- Claude Fuess, Joseph B. Eastman (1952] Coordinator of Transportation for New Deal (1933-40)
- The Interstate Commerce Commission and the Railroad Industry: A History of Regulatory Policy Richard D. Stone (1991) covers 1920-1980, with emphasis on end of ICC
- Amtrak: The History and Politics of a National Railroad by David C. Nice (1998)
- Technology
- overview of early RR technology
- books
- primary sources on RR technology and construction recommended first American trip
- jargon, technology, FAQs good explanations & diagrams
- more FAQ's brakes, signals, wheels
- Westinghouse air brake 1872 manual
- Pullman & other cars
- electric railways 1890 magazine article about the new system
- bridge building
- Brooklyn Bridge
- engineering feats 1888
- construction 1888
- locomotives & cars 1888
- RR mail service 1889 magazine report
- "The early years of electric traction: invention, development, exploitation". By: Robbins, Michael. Journal of Transport History, Mar2000, Vol. 21 Issue 1, pp 92-102. On England; available online at many academic libraries via EBSCO
- "Air Brakes for Freight Trains: Technological Innovation in the American Railroad Industry, 1869-1900," by Steven W. Usselman The Business History Review Vol. 58, No. 1, Transportation (Spring, 1984), pp. 30-50 in JSTOR
- . Regulating Railroad Innovation: Business, Technology, and Politics in America, 1840-1920 Steven W. Usselman, Regulating Railroad Innovation: Business, Technology, and Politics in America, 1840-1920 2002
- Locomotives
- Brian Solomon books on modern locomotives & RR technology; short, authoritative; well illustrated
- Stourbridge Lion recommended don't miss the Flash animation of this 1829 locomotive
- The Life of George Stephenson and of His Son Robert Stephenson: Comprising Also a History of the...Railway Locomotive Samuel Smiles - 1868 - 501 pages
- An Introduction to the Industrial History of England By Abbott Payson Usher (1920) ch 17-18 recommended
- Joseph Harrison, The Locomotive Engine (1872) useful history; well illustrated.
According to DAB, his Philadelphia firm originated several important improvements in the locomotive. They were the first to design a practical eight-wheel engine, with four driving and four truck wheels. A method for equalizing the weight on the driving wheels was patented by Harrison in 1839, and he also devised an improvement in the forward truck, making it flexible so that it would accommodate itself to irregular undulations on the rails. Locomotives designed and built by this firm were among the first to burn anthracite coal successfully, and they surmounted higher grades than had previously been overcome in America or in Europe. In 1841 the firm built a locomotive called the Gowan & Marx, weighing but little over eleven tons, for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad. Its performance in drawing 101 loaded coal cars over that road caused a sensation and brought a major contact from the Russian government. He built 162 locomotives in Russia in the 1840s. Returning to Philadelphia he in 1859 invented a major safety improvement in the steam engine. - History of steam engine original texts recommended
- The History of the First Locomotives In America From Original Documents And The Testimony Of Living Witnesses by William H. Brown (1871)
- Old official railway guides and schedules, Starting 1870s
- RR books, travel guides
- "Perceptions of the locomotive driver: image and identity on British railways, c.1840-c.1950," by Ralph Harrington. illustrated
- Speed in Locomotives 1892 article part 2 part 3
- Baldwin locomotives 1906
- Pictorial History of the Locomotive (1899), ed. by William Wright
- early locomotives
- early British engines
- locomotives & cars 1888
- Maps & Travel Experience
- Transportation History Collection 14,000 primary sources---books, pamphlets, maps etc from across the world; from U Michigan recommended
- original maps recommended
- Derek Hayes, Historical Atlas of the North American Railroad (2010), 4000 old railroad maps
- Carlos A. Schwantes and James P. Ronda. The West the Railroads Made. (U of Washington Press, 2008), many in full color. Recommended.
- John Westwood and Ian Wood, The Historical Atlas of North American Railroads (2011)
- Bill Yenne, Atlas of North American Railroads (2005)
- John F. StoverThe Routledge Historical Atlas of the American Railroads (1999)
- Rusling, The great West and Pacific coast; or, Fifteen thousand miles by stage-coach, ambulance, horseback, railroad, and steamer--across the continent and along the Pacific slope ... among Indians, Mormons, miners and Mexicans full text of 1877 book
- "Incidents of Railroad Travel" by Miss Wentworth (1876)
- "Going places? Visitors, enthusiasts and the public history of transport," by Colin Divall (1999 paper) Britain
- Central Pacific Museum recommended with many links to original documents and photos
- "The railway accident: trains, trauma and technological crisis in nineteenth-century Britain" by Ralph Harrington
- "Trains in the Wilderness: The Corporate Roots of Environmentalism" by Kevin Michael DeLuca Rhetoric & Public Affairs 4 #4 (2001) 633-652 Southern Pacific RR, promoting tourism, helped create Yosemite national park
- Meeks, Carroll L. V. The Railroad Station: An Architectural History. (1995)
- Straus, Roger, ed. America's Great Railroad Stations(2011)
- Brown, Christopher. Still Standing: A Century of Urban Train Station Design. (2005).
- Accidents 1879 book
- Smith, The Old Colony railroad: its connections, popular resorts, and fashionable watering-places. 1875 pamphlet on Massachusetts
- Comforts & discomforts 1882
- passenger trains 1888
- for more on the travel experience, see the scholarly book by Sarah Gordon, Passage to Union: How the Railroads Transformed American Life, 1829-1929 (1997)
- RR movies
- standard time zones set up by RR in 1883
- "'The Most Reliable Time': William Bond, the New England Railroads, and Time Awareness in 19th-Century America," by Carlene Stephens in Technology and Culture Vol. 30, No. 1 (Jan., 1989), pp. 1-24 in JSTOR
- "The lost idea of a train," by Carter, Ian. Journal of Transport History; Sep 2000, Vol. 21 Issue 2, pp117-40. Re railway novels in Britain, esp 'Dombey and Son,' by Charles Dickens; Arnold Bennet; G.K. Chesterton; 'Howards End,' by E.M. Forster.
- Thomas M. Heany, "The Call of the Open Road: The American Family Vacation, 1935-1960" PhD prospectus 1997
- Canada, Europe & World
- World railways 1881. Long overview from Lalor, ed. Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States (1889); emphasis on Britain
- Transportation History Collection 14,000 primary sources---books, pamphlets, maps etc from across the world; from U Michigan recommended
- transcontinentals on every continent
- Britain
- Overview from Wikipedia
- The Railways of England: containing an an account of their origin, progress, and present state; By James Gilbert (1839)
- Smiles, Samuel. The Life of George Stephenson and of His Son Robert Stephenson: Comprising Also a History of the...Railway Locomotive - 1868 - 501 pages
- "Industrial Revolution & RR System' focus on Britain' Recommended
- Britain 1830-1850 concise overview
- Primary sources--Books on British RR recommended
- RR Mania in Britain, 1844
- "English and American Railways" comparison from Harper's Monthly (1885) ditto 1894
- English methods 1894
- The Impact of the Railway on Society in Britain: Essays in Honour of Jack Simmons By Jack Simmons, et al (2003)
- Railways and the Electronic Age compares economic impact of RR with computers
- British RR Friendly Societies
- "Employment on the railways in east Kent, 1841-1914". By: Andrews, Frank W. G.. Journal of Transport History, Mar2000, Vol. 21 Issue 1, p54-72, 19p; online at many academic libraries (EBSCO)
- "Rates of return, concentration levels and strategic change in the British railway industry, 1830-1912" By: Arnold, A. J.; McCartney, S.. Journal of Transport History, Mar 2005, Vol. 26 Issue 1, pp 41-60, online at many academic libraries (EBSCO)
- "The Channel tunnel, 1955-75". By: Bonnaud, Laurent. Journal of Transport History, Mar 2001, Vol. 22 Issue 1, pp 6-22, online at many academic libraries (EBSCO)
- "The sad state of British railways" By: Bagwell, Philip. Journal of Transport History, Sep 2004, Vol. 25 Issue 2, p111-124, online at many academic libraries (EBSCO)
- "The Railway Companies and the Growth of Trade Unionism in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries" by Geoffrey Alderman The Historical Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1. (Mar., 1971), pp. 129-152. in JSTOR; deals with British unions
- useful books: Not on line (for sale at abe.com)
- Jack Simmons & Gordon Biddle, eds. The Oxford Companion to British Railway History (1997) recommended
- Harold Perkin, The Age of the Railway (1970) on Britain recommended
- Adrian Vaughan, Railwaymen, Politics and Money: The Great Age of Railways in Britain (1997)
- O.S. Nock, Encyclopedia of Railways (1977), heavily illustrated, global perspective recommended
- Railways and the Victorian Imagination by Michael Freeman (1999)
- Hamilton Ellis, British Railway History: An Outline from the Accession of William IV to the Nationalization of Railways, 1877-1947 vol 2 1877-1947, online at Questia
- France, Germany & Belgium
- France: 19c
- France
- "How the First French Railways Were Planned," by Arthur L. Dunham, The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 1, No. 1. (May, 1941), pp. 12-25. JSTOR
- "Railroads and German Economic Growth: A Leading Sector Analysis with a Comparison to the United States and Great Britain," by Rainer Fremdling The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 37, No. 3. (Sep., 1977), pp. 583-604. in JSTOR
- "Recent Discussions on Railway Management in Prussia," F. W. Taussig The Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 9, No. 1 (Oct., 1894), pp. 77-87 in JSTOR. Germans complained of poor engineering & also management dominated by lawyers
- Jim Cohen, "Divergent Paths, United States and France: Capital Markets, the State, and Differentiation in Transportation Systems, 1840-1940," Enterprise & Society, Sep2009, 10#3 p449-497; why US lines decayed and French flourished after 1945
- John M. Sherwood, "Rationalization and Railway Workers in France: Raoul Dautry and Les Chemins de Fer de l'Etat, 1928-1937," Journal of Contemporary History 15#3 (July, 1980), pp 443-474. Raoul Dautry (1880-1951), head of the French State Railway System, 1928-37, considered himself morally and socially responsible for his employees. His efforts to provide welfare, educational, and social services was the most important management effort to improve labor relations in France.
- 19th c growth statistics
- "Some Curious Phases of the Railway Question in Europe" scholarly article by Simon Sterne, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 1, No. 4. (Jul., 1887), pp. 453-468. JSTOR
- RR in World War One Europe
- 1930s links
- Sweden
- RR historical societies esp. British Empire, Europe recommended
- Primary sources--Books on European RR recommended
- Colonies/ Third World
- Trans-Siberian
- Cape to Cairo Africa
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Mexico
- Mexico
- Primary sources--Books on 3rd World RR recommended
- "Indispensable Railroads in a Backward Economy: The Case of Mexico," by John H. Coatsworth The Journal of Economic History Vol. 39, No. 4 (Dec., 1979), pp. 939-960 in JSTOR
- Trans-Australia finished 1917
- Australia overview
- RR technology in Australia, 1788-1988
- "Australian Economic Problems. I. The Railways" by Victor S. Clark in The Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 22, No. 3 (May, 1908), pp. 399-451 in JSTOR
- "Railways in New Zealand" by James Edward Le Rossignol and William Downie Stewart The Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 23, No. 4 (Aug., 1909), pp. 652-696 in JSTOR
- Ireland
- India
- "Capital Movement and Transportation: Great Britain and the Development of India's Railways" by Daniel Thorner, The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 11, No. 4. (Autumn, 1951), pp. 389-402. in JSTOR
- Ian J. Kerr and John Hurd II, India's Railivay History: A Research Handbook (Brill, 2012), 338pp. Recommended
- The transcontinental lines
- The Transcontinental Railroad Primary sources from the Linda Hall research library in Kansas City. Recommended
- 19th century books on the Transcontinental Recommended
- building the transcontinental excellent site from PBS
- Transpacific news from 1869
- background to Transpacific & vg cartoon
- "Rail Road to the Pacific" 1848 magazine article
- "Kansas City to Denver to Cheyenne: Pacific Railroad Construction Costs and Profits" by William R. Petrowski The Business History Review 48#2 (1974), pp. 206-224
- how many workers killed building transcontinental? the number is fewer than 1000 but often exaggerated
- Ambrose, Stephen E. Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869; critics have pointed to numerous inaccuracies.
- Bain, David Haward. Empire Express; Building the first Transcontinental Railroad. (1999)
- Borneman, Walter R. Iron Horses: America's Race to Bring the Railroads West (2010); originally published as Rival Rails: Rival Rails: The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad; covers the story of later transcontinentals down to 1880.
- Evans, Cerinda W. Collis Potter Huntington (1954) builder of Central Pacific and Southern Pacific
- Galloway, John Debo. The First Transcontinental Railroad: Central Pacific, Union Pacific. (1950)
- Richard White, Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. (2011) Scholarly history critical of over building the transcontinentals; includes Canada
- White, Richard, "Information, Markets, and Corruption: Transcontinental Railroads in the Gilded Age". The Journal of American History 90.1 (2003) pp 19-43
- Railroaded--documents, maps, visuals supporting book by Richard White Recommended
- H-Net review of Railroaded by Cole Harris
- See review essay of Railroaded by Naomi R. Lamoreaux, "Taking Counterfactual History Seriously," California History. (2011) 89#1 pp 39-50 on how the book can use economic theory.
- "Still Controversial: The Pacific Railroad at 150," Railroad History (2013), Issue 208, pp 8-35.A transcript of a 2012 symposium with Maury Klein, Richard J. Orsi, T.J. Stiles and Richard White. Not online.
- Willumson, Glenn. ''Iron Muse: Photographing the Transcontinental Railroad'' (2013); on the production, distribution, and publication of images of the railroad in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
- Harper's Weekly 1869 news reports & Ilustrations
- Union Pacific history site
Canadian Pacific Railway poster - Canada:
- "Canadian Pacific Railway" in Wikipedia
- Berton, Pierre. The National Dream: The Great Railway, 1871–1881. (1970)
- Berton, Pierre. The Last Spike: The Great Railway, 1881-1885 (1971)
- Cruise, David. Lords of the Line: The Men Who Built the CPR (1988)
- Innis, Harold A. A History of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1923)
Scholarly Resources
- Reader's Companion to American History (1991) excellent short scholarly articles
- American Economic History by Harold Underwood Faulkner (5th ed. 1943), solid older textbook
- Bryant, Keith L., ed. Railroads in the Age of Regulation, 1900-1980 (1988); part of Encyclopedia of American business history and biography; 500+ pages each with coverage of entrepreneurs, corporations, and technologies, Plus specialized bibliographies
- Channon, Geoffrey. Railways in Britain and the United States, 1830-1940. 2001. ; review in Business History Review
- Frey, Robert L., ed. Railroads in the Nineteenth Century (1988); part of Encyclopedia of American business history and biography; 500+ Pages each with coverage of entrepreneurs, corporations, and technologies, Plus specialized bibliographies
- Railroads and the American People by H. Roger Grant (2012); 1830-1930 regarding trains and travel, stations, railroads and community life, and the legacy of railroading in America-
- Robert E. Gallamore & John R. Meyer, American Railroads: Decline and Renaissance in the Twentieth Century (Harvard UP, 2014) 506 pp.
- Leland H. Jenks, "Capital Movement and Transportation: Britain and American Railway Development," Journal of Economic History, 11#4 (1951), pp. 375-388. in JSTOR
- review of Clark, Railroads in the Civil War (2001)
- Hayes, Derek. Historical atlas of the North American railroad (2010); 400 historical maps; small print
- Hubbard, Freeman H. Encyclopedia of North American railroading: 150 years of railroading in the United States and Canada. (1981); Very well illustrated
- Encyclopedia of North American Railroads by William D. Middleton, etal. (2007); 1281 pages; recommended
- Nock, O.S., ed. Encyclopedia of Railways (London, 1977), worldwide coverage, heavily illustrated
- Riley, C. J. The Encyclopedia of Trains & Locomotives (2002)
- Stover, John. The Routledge Historical Atlas of the American Railroads (2001) David Ross, ed. The Encyclopedia of Trains and Locomotives: The Comprehensive Guide to Over 900 Steam, Diesel, and Electric Locomotives from 1825 to the Present Day (2003)
- Christian Wolmar, Blood, Iron, and Gold: How the Railroads Transformed the World (2011)
- Saunders, Richard. Main Lines: Rebirth of the North American railroads, 1970-2002 (Northern Illinois University Press, 2003). also review of Saunders, Merging Lines: American Railroads, 1900-1970 (2003)
- Dobbin, Frank, Forging Industrial Policy: The United States, Britain & France in the Railway Age (1997), major scholarly comparison for 19c
- "The Franco-Russian Alliance and Russian Railways, 1891-1914, by D. N. Collins in The Historical Journal, 16#4 (Dec., 1973), pp. 777-788.
- John Moody, The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the States (1919) good, short old book by scholar
- "Railroads as an Economic Force in American Development," Leland H. Jenks, The Journal of Economic History, 4#1 (May, 1944), pp. 1-20. in JSTOR recommended
- History of Telegraph Industry
- Timeline for southern RR esp Civil War & Reconstruction
- Entrepreneurs
- "Entrepreneurial Leadership Among the 'Robber Barons': A Trial Balance," by Chester McArthur Destler, The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 6, Supplement: (May, 1946), pp. 28-49
- "American Historians and the Business Elite" by William Miller The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 9, No. 2. (Nov., 1949), pp. 184-208. JSTOR
- "The American Business Elite: A Collective Portrait, by C. Wright Mills The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 5, Supplement: (Dec., 1945), pp. 20-44. in JSTOR
- "James J. Hill's Philosophy of Railroad Management," by William J. Cunningham Bulletin of the Business Historical Society 15#5 (Nov., 1941), pp. 65-72
- "The Executive Mind: The Role of Railroad Leaders, 1845-1890," by Thomas C. Cochran Bulletin of the Business Historical Society Vol. 25#4 (Dec., 1951), pp. 230-241
- "Some Social Attitudes of Railroad Administrators at the End of the Nineteenth Century," by Thomas C. Cochran Bulletin of the Business Historical Society 17#1 pp 15-21
- "Patterns of American Railroad Finance, 1830-50," by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. The Business History Review 28#3 (Sep., 1954), pp. 248-263
- "Multiple-Level Organization of a Great Railroad," by Leland H. Jenks The Business History Review 35#3 (1961), pp. 336-343
- "Southern Railroad Leaders, 1865-1893: Identities and Ideologies," by Maury Klein The Business History Review 42#3 (1968), pp. 288-310
- Cornelius Vanderbilt & eastern RR
- Carnegie as entrepreneur much on Pennsylvania RR, steel rails
- "A Chapter of Erie" classic 1869 account by businessman/historian Charles F. Adams; more of the same, 1871
- Bain, Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad Excellent 1999 history Read Chapter 1
- James J. Hill & upper Midwest
- very good short bio of Hill
- short, simple bio of Hill
- Albro Martin, James J. Hill and the Opening of the Northwest (1990)
- Maury Klein, The Life & Legend of E. H. Harriman (2000) Read excerpt on 1906 financial battle
- Books & articles by historian Alfred Chandler
(1956)- Alfred D.Chandler, "The railroads: pioneers in modern corporate management." Business History Review 39#1 (1965): 16-40.
- Henry Varnum Poor: Business Editor, Analyst, and Reformer
- editor, The Railroads: The Nation's First Big Business - Sources and Readings. (1965)
- Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise (1962)
- The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (1977) the most influential single book in business history, heavy emphasis on RR
- brief summary of Chandler's thesis
- major review by David Landes
- For a long recommended analysis of this work see, Richard John, "Elaborations, Revisions, Dissents: Alfred D. Chandler's The Visible Hand After Twenty Years" Business History Review, (1997) Vol.71 #2 p.151-200 recommended
- "Patterns of American Railroad Finance, 1830-50," by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. The Business History Review Vol. 28, No. 3 (Sep., 1954), pp. 248-263 in JSTOR
- review of Channon, Railways in Britain and the United States, 1830-1940 (2001)
- Books & articles by historian Maury Klein
- Unfinished Business: The Railroad in American Life (1997)
- The Life and Legend of Jay Gould (1997) excerpt online at Amazon.com
- The Life & Legend of E.H. Harriman (2000)
read chapter 1- "Southern Railroad Leaders, 1865-1893: Identities and Ideologies," by Maury Klein The Business History Review Vol. 42, No. 3 (Autumn, 1968), pp. 288-310 in
- Klein, Union Pacific: The Reconfiguration: America's Greatest Railroad from 1969 to the Present (2011)
- "Competition and Regulation: The Railroad Model," by Maury Klein The Business History Review Vol. 64, No. 2, American Business Abroad (Summer, 1990), pp.
- Books by historian Albro Martin
- James J. Hill and the Opening of the Northwest (1990)
- Railroads Triumphant: The Growth, Rejection, and Rebirth of a Vital American Force (1992)
- Enterprise Denied: Origins of the Decline of American Railroads, 1897-1917 (1980)
- "The Troubled Subject of Railroad Regulation in the Gilded Age--A Reappraisal." The Journal of American History (1974): 339-371.
- "Crisis of Rugged Individualism: The West Shore. South Pennsylvania Railroad Affair, 1880-1885." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (1969): 218-243.
- "The Teaching of Business History at Harvard." Business and Economic History (1981): 36-38.
- "James J. Hill and the First Energy Revolution: A Study in Entrepreneurship, 1865–1878." Business History Review 50#2 (1976): 179-197.
- Books by historian John Stover
- Routledge Historical Atlas of American Railways (1999) ed John Stover
- History of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (1987; 2nd ed 1999)
- History of the Illinois Central Railroad (1975)
- Iron Road to the West : American Railroads in the 1850's (1978)
- American Railroads (2nd ed 1997) good, brief overview; excerpt online at Amazon.com
- The Railroads of the South 1865-1900 A Study in Finance and Control (1955)
- Links to RR historical URLs
- links to online resources recommended
- 1891 maps recommended
- western RRs excellent maps
- National Railway Historical Society
- T. Specific Railroads
- Amtrak: The History and Politics of a National Railroad by David C. Nice (1998)
- Amtrak: current documents 21st century
- books on the Transcontinental
- links
- Baltimore and Ohio
- map
- 1827 report shows motivations of early boosters
- 1829 report fascinating; one of first in-depth accounts
- John Stover, History of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (1987; 2nd ed 1999)
- Chesapeake and Ohio
- "A Chapter of Erie" classic 1869 expose of Erie RR by businessman/historian Charles F. Adams
- "Erie Lackawanna: An Ohio Railroad" scholarly 1992 article by H. Roger Grant, author of Erie Lackawanna: Death of an American Railroad: 1938-1992 (1994)
After briefly tracing its mid-19th-century beginnings as the Erie Railroad, America's first long-distance trunk rail line, concentrates on the rise and fall of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad (EL). Formed in 1960 with the merger of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the EL faced enormous problems until 1968, when it was merged with the Norfolk & Western. An infusion of new executive talent as a result of this last merger helped boost the morale of EL workers, but the rail line nonetheless faced bankruptcy in 1972, as its volume of freight traffic dropped drastically due to trucking industry competition. Finally in 1976, after an effort to reorganize, EL was forced to accept financial assistance from the federal government and was absorbed into Conrail, thus disappearing as an identifiable carrier. [Am Hist & Life] - Great Northern
- GN history
- James J. Hill & Great Northern
- 1930 route guide
- The Great Northern Railway: A History by Ralph W. Hidy, Muriel E. Hidy, Roy V. Scott and Don L. Hofsommer (1988)
- Illinois Central Historical Society
- Illinois Central map
- Missouri Pacific map
- New York Central
- Cornelius Vanderbilt
- NYC Historical Society
- NYC Museum
- Albany NY region
- Pacific Electric inter-urban
- Southern Pacific
- Southern Pacific
- Daggett, Stuart. Chapters on the History of the Southern Pacific'' (1922) detailed history
- major history of Southern Pacific by Richard Orsi (2005)
- Brian Solomon, Union Pacific Railroad (2000); short, very well illustrated
- Robert Fogel, The Union Pacific Railroad: A Case in Premature Enterprise (1960) classic study by Nobel-Prize winning economist
- Union Pacific
- Union Pacific
- Wabash RR scandals 1888 article
U. State/Regional Histories
- Links
- Northeast
- Maine
- "The 'Railroad Scheme' of Massachusetts," scholarly article by Edward C. Kirkland in The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 5, No. 2. (Nov., 1945), pp. 145-171. in JSTOR
- Massachusetts in 1829 fascinating early report
- Albany NY region
- Pennsylvania post 1950
- Midwest
- Encyclopedia of Chicago wonderful guide to history of RR center (2004)
- Interurbans scholarly articles on 1900-1930 era in Midwest
- Union stations
- Interurban RR Indiana
- Michigan
- "Interurbans in the Automobile Age: The Case of the Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside"
scholarly 1994 article by Douglas Shaw. During the 1900's-30's, electric interurban railways connected almost all Ohio towns and cities of populations over five thousand. Such lines as the Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Railway initially filled a useful niche, transporting seasonal tourist traffic as well as agricultural and mining products. As trucks and automobiles became more popular, however, the sale of excess electricity became a more important source of income. By 1940 most interurban railways had folded, as motorized transportation on paved highways was found to be more flexible and convenient. [Am Hist & Life] - The Ohio railroad guide; illustrated and descriptive. 1852
- Railroads in Ohio. Fast freight lines, etc. Abuses practised and remedies proposed. Report of special committee of the Ohio Legislature. 1867
- The street surface railway franchises of New York city by Harry James Carman (1919). best scholarly study, 1840s-1900
- Wisconsin Central started 1987
- South
- South
- Appalachia
- Mary Verhoeff, Kentucky mountains, transportation and commerce, 1750 to 1911: a study in the economic history of a coal field (1911) covers trails, wagon roads and turnpikes, but no railroads
- West
- The Transcontinental Railroad Recommended Primary sources from the Linda Hall research library in Kansas City
- The Story of the Western Railroads by Robert Edgar Riegel ((1926) recommended
- They Built the West: An Epic of Rails and Cities by Glenn Chesney Quiett - (1934)
- The Man Who Found the Money: John Stewart Kennedy and the Financing of the Western Railroads by Leonard Bushkoff and Saul Engelbourg (1996)
- Land grants
- Daggett, Stuart. Chapters on the History of the Southern Pacific'' (1922) detailed history
- California: San Diego
- Central Pacific Museum [California] recommended
- James J. Hill & Great Northern
- Kansas Railroads: Cutler's 1883 history
- Nebraska railroads by Robert Cutler, in Andreas, 1882
- Oregon
- Santa Fe: The Railroad That Built an Empire BY James Marshall (1945)
- Texas
- Texas comprehensive scholarly guide to all Texas RR and entrepreneurs recommended
- Rusling, The great West and Pacific coast; or, Fifteen thousand miles by stage-coach, ambulance, horseback, railroad, and steamer--across the continent and along the Pacific slope ... among Indians, Mormons, miners and Mexicans full text of 1877 book
V. Recent developments
- "Class I Railroad Statistics" (2015) annual from Association of American Railroads
- Henrickson, Kevin E., and Wesley W. Wilson. "Agricultural Transportation by Rail: Consolidation, Competition and Fuel Prices." Choices 30.3 (2015).
- Larson, Paul D. "Deregulation of and mergers among American and Canadian railroads: A study of four decades." 6 (2013): 11-18.
- Mayo, John W., David EM Sappington, and Georgetown Railroad Colloquium. "Regulation in a ‘Deregulated’Industry: Railroads in the Post-Staggers Era." (Georgetown Working Paper, 2015).
- Stone, Richard D., and Michael Landry. "The railroad capacity crisis: After cutting to the bone and more, trains are back." Essays in Economic & Business History 26.1 (2012).
- Tolliver, Denver, John Bitzan, and Doug Benson. "Railroad operational performance in the United States." Journal of the Transportation Research Forum. Vol. 49. No. 3. 2012.
Copyright (c) 2016 Richard Jensen. This Guide was prepared with support from the National Endowment for Humanities, the Center for Global Partnership of the Japan Foundation, the University of Illinois, RPI, the Gilder-Lehrman Foundation, the Luce Foundation, and the Robert H. Michel Civic Education Grants sponsored by The Dirksen Congressional Center. Scholars are invited to post the complete Guide to campus WWW sites and distribute it to students.
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