The Men Who Loved Trains

The Men Who Loved Trains
Author: Rush Loving
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2006-05-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0253000645

An award-winning account of a crisis in railroad history: “This absorbing book takes you on an entertaining ride.” —Chicago Tribune A saga about one of the oldest and most romantic enterprises in the land—America’s railroads—The Men Who Loved Trains introduces the chieftains who have run the railroads, both those who set about grabbing power and big salaries for themselves, and others who truly loved the industry. As a journalist and associate editor of Fortune magazine who covered the demise of Penn Central and the creation of Conrail, Rush Loving often had a front-row seat to the foibles and follies of this group of men. He uncovers intrigue, greed, lust for power, boardroom battles, and takeover wars and turns them into a page-turning story. He recounts how the chairman of CSX Corporation, who later became George W. Bush’s Treasury secretary, managed to make millions for himself while his company drifted in chaos. Yet there were also those who loved trains and railroading—and who played key roles in reshaping transportation in the northeastern United States. This book will delight not only the rail fan, but anyone interested in American business and history. Includes photographs

The Men who Loved Trains

The Men who Loved Trains
Author: Rush Loving
Publisher:
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2006
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

A saga about one of the oldest and most romantic enterprises in the land -- America's railroads -- The Men Who Loved Trains introduces some of the most dynamic businessmen in America. Here are the chieftains who have run the railroads, including those who set about grabbing power and big salaries for themselves, and others who truly loved the industry. As a journalist and associate editor of Fortune magazine who covered the demise of Penn Central and the creation of Conrail, Rush Loving often had a front row seat to the foibles and follies of this group of men. He uncovers intrigue, greed, lust for power, boardroom battles, and takeover wars and turns them into a page-turning story for readers. Included is the story of how the chairman of CSX Corporation, who later became George W. Bush's Treasury secretary, was inept as a manager but managed to make millions for himself while his company drifted in chaos. Men such as he were shy of scruples, yet there were also those who loved trains and railroading, and who played key roles in reshaping transportation in the northeastern United States. This book will delight not only the rail fan, but anyone interested in American business and history.

Goliath

Goliath
Author: Matt Stoller
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2020-10-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1501182897

“Every thinking American must read” (The Washington Book Review) this startling and “insightful” (The New York Times) look at how concentrated financial power and consumerism has transformed American politics, and business. Going back to our country’s founding, Americans once had a coherent and clear understanding of political tyranny, one crafted by Thomas Jefferson and updated for the industrial age by Louis Brandeis. A concentration of power—whether by government or banks—was understood as autocratic and dangerous to individual liberty and democracy. In the 1930s, people observed that the Great Depression was caused by financial concentration in the hands of a few whose misuse of their power induced a financial collapse. They drew on this tradition to craft the New Deal. In Goliath, Matt Stoller explains how authoritarianism and populism have returned to American politics for the first time in eighty years, as the outcome of the 2016 election shook our faith in democratic institutions. It has brought to the fore dangerous forces that many modern Americans never even knew existed. Today’s bitter recriminations and panic represent more than just fear of the future, they reflect a basic confusion about what is happening and the historical backstory that brought us to this moment. The true effects of populism, a shrinking middle class, and concentrated financial wealth are only just beginning to manifest themselves under the current administrations. The lessons of Stoller’s study will only grow more relevant as time passes. “An engaging call to arms,” (Kirkus Reviews) Stoller illustrates here in rich detail how we arrived at this tenuous moment, and the steps we must take to create a new democracy.

Visionary Railroader

Visionary Railroader
Author: H. Roger Grant
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2008-09-17
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0253352169

Visionary Railroader chronicles the life of a key figure in the history of rail travel in the United States. As president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Jervis Langdon Jr. had the opportunity to put progressive concepts into practice. In 1964, Langdon took charge of the Rock Island, and by the time he left in 1970, he had spearheaded major improvements for this struggling carrier. The same year, he became lead trustee for the bankrupt Penn Central and three years later assumed the presidency. From his role in passing the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 to his work on creating the quasi-public Conrail, Visionary Railroader examines the impact of Langdon's active life with clear text, unique representations of media of the day, and select family photos.

Rock Island Requiem

Rock Island Requiem
Author: Gregory L. Schneider
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2020-02-05
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 0700629629

Celebrated in history and song, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company—the Rock Island Line—was a powerful Midwestern railroad that once traversed thirteen states with its fast freights and Rocket passenger trains but eventually succumbed to government regulation and a changing economy. Gregory Schneider chronicles the Rock Island’s painful decline and along the way reveals some of the key problems within the American railroad industry during the post–World War II era. Schneider takes readers back to a time when railroads still clung to a storied past to offer new insight into the devastating impact of economic policymaking during the 1960s and 1970s. Schneider recounts the largest railroad liquidation in American history—as well as one of the most successful reorganizations in American business—to depict the demise and ultimate collapse of Rock Island as part of a broader account of hard times in the railroad industry beginning in the 1970s. Schneider weaves a complex story of how business, politics, government bureaucracy, and individual greed helped to limit the economic possibilities of the railroad industry and catapult the Rock Island Railroad into oblivion. Weakened by a troubled economy, the Rock fell victim to inept management and labor union intransigence; but Schneider also reveals how government regulations and price controls prevented innovation, hindered capital acquisition, and favored other forms of transportation that lie beyond the scope of regulation. Railroads were even hurt by taxation of property and real estate while competitors were able to use government-subsidized highways and airports without having to pay taxes to fund them. Now that America has gone on to witness the collapse of such mammoth firms as Enron and Lehman Brothers, not to mention the bankruptcy and bailout of General Motors, the story of the Rock provides an instructive lesson in how a major American enterprise was allowed to fall victim to forces often beyond its control—while the bailout of the Penn Central, at the expense of smaller lines like Rock Island, helped initiate the era of “too big to fail.” For economic historians and railroad buffs alike, Rock Island Requiem is a well-researche

The Boy Who Loved Trains

The Boy Who Loved Trains
Author: Deepak Sapra
Publisher: Readomania
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2018-06-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

As a young officer posted in India’s Eastern Railway, Jeet Arora is responsible for running trains on one of the densest train routes in the country. In doing so, he encounters pretty girls and thugs, shares space with buffaloes and goats and finds himself in the midst of oil spills and fires. As he stumbles across several unexpected. Hilarious and entertaining adventures, can he keep trains and his sanity, on track?

For the Love of Trains

For the Love of Trains
Author: Ray Hamilton
Publisher: Summersdale
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2018-05-10
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 1786856905

More than just a means of transport, trains connect communities, evoke memories and promise adventures galore. This fact-packed miscellany tracks their development from the earliest locomotives to today’s superfast trains, stopping off along the way to explore great railway journeys, iconic stations and memorable depictions in the arts.

Poetry Train America

Poetry Train America
Author: John E WordSlinger
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 672
Release: 2013-06-09
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1304119785

A colorful combination of storytelling, poets, poetry, and railways presented using America's fifty states as a backdrop. 3 men who travel the U.S.A. in the year of 2012... To write a written documentary on Poets and the Railroad in our times... When they sleep they get taken back in time to the 19th Century, when the roads were built, and they have such great experiences, and meet key Poets, and figures... Upon waking they have conversations about Poets from the 20th Century, and RxR events... Then it goes into their written documentary on Poetry and Poets now... Main Characters that Andy and Red and Train Marshal Charlie journey within their Dreams, and they are Alphonso G. Newcomer, Mad Bear, Jung Hem Sing, Mr. Welchberry, Patrick O'Hara, Jimmy New Orleans, and many more

The Last Narrow Gauge Train Robbery

The Last Narrow Gauge Train Robbery
Author: Robert K. Swisher Jr.
Publisher: Sunstone Press
Total Pages: 98
Release: 2012-03-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1611390729

They could be your next-door neighbors--Bill Masterson, Ronnie Wild, Riley Page and Frank Cummings--ex-hippies now living outwardly responsible and respectable lives. But these model citizens still yearn for the old days of freedom. Finally they find a way to break out of the mold and do something daring and different: robbing the tourist-crowded narrow gauge train. This completely modern western is filled with humor and sly glances at today’s society. ROBERT K. SWISHER JR. has been a ranch foreman and a mountain guide. An individual who knows the outdoors and western history, he has successfully combined these interests in stories, poems and novels. He is also the author of “The Land,” “Fatal Destiny,” “Only Magic,” “Last Day In Paradise” and “Love Lies Bleeding,” all from Sunstone Press. Of “The Land,” “Publishers Weekly” said: “If there were a category of historical romances written for men, this moving novel would fit the bill.”

A Train to Love

A Train to Love
Author: Barbara Cartland
Publisher: Barbara Cartland EBooks ltd
Total Pages: 157
Release: 2015-03-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1782136592

The beautiful Lola Fenton lives happily in a small cottage in the depths of Worcestershire, but she is suddenly orphaned when her father and mother are killed in a railway crash. Her uncle, the Earl of Kencombe, comes to the funeral and then tells her that, as she has no money, she will have to come and live with him. He obviously has no wish for her to do so, but feels that it is his duty as her legal Guardian. Her mother, Lady Cecilia Combe, had run away with her father and was ostracised by her family for doing so as he had been employed to be a Tutor to her brother. Lola feels that she cannot face the future with people who will continually be telling her how badly her mother had behaved and she therefore goes to London and visits an employment agency. As she is so lovely and so young it seems unlikely that there will be anything to suit her. However, the Marquis of Halaton has been desperately trying to find someone who could repair the curtains in his famous Elizabethan house and Lola, who has been taught by her mother, becomes his embroideress. How the Marquis, who has invented a special electrical engine for trains, persuades Lola into pretending to be his wife in order to overcome a tricky situation with an Italian financier. How she travels by train to Italy with the Marquis, how she is kidnapped and held to ransom by Macedonian partisans and how she finds the sublime love that her father and mother had for each other is all told in this intriguing romantic tale by BARBARA CARTLAND.