Rock Island Requiem

Author : Gregory L. Schneider
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
ISBN 13 : 0700629629
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rock Island Requiem written by Gregory L. Schneider and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2020-02-05 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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

Author : H. Roger Grant
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253052688
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Mighty Fine Road written by H. Roger Grant and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Grant has once again hit a home run . . . a detailed but readable history of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, a major Midwestern railroad.” —Carlos A. Schwantes, St. Louis Mercantile Library Professor Emeritus The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad’s history is one of big booms and bigger busts. When it became the first railroad to reach and then cross the Mississippi River in 1856, it emerged as a leading American railroad company. But after aggressive expansion and a subsequent change in management, the company struggled and eventually declared bankruptcy in 1915. What followed was a cycle of resurrections and bankruptcies; a grueling, ten-year, ultimately unsuccessful battle to merge with the Union Pacific; and the Rock Island’s final liquidation in 1981. But today, long after its glory days and eventual demise, the “Mighty Fine Road” has left behind a living legacy of major and feeder lines throughout the country. In his latest work, railroad historian H. Roger Grant offers an accessible, gorgeously illustrated, and comprehensive history of this iconic American railroad. “This handsome, well-illustrated book merits the attention of any reader interested in the history of Iowa. And just as important, the book reminds us of the importance of railroads to the history and vitality of American society. All aboard!” —Iowa City Press-Citizen “A Mighty Fine Road lays out the amazing, yet heartbreaking history of the railroad I loved. The historical opportunities and disappointments of the Rock Island is clearly explained in Grant’s book, with visionaries keeping the dream moving forward, yet damaged and constrained by greed and lack of vision with the next management regime.” —Dan Sabin, President, Iowa Northern Railway Company

Author : Michael E. Hibblen
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1439659893
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas written by Michael E. Hibblen and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2017-04-03 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nearly 80 years, the Rock Island was a major railroad in Arkansas providing passenger and freight services. A decline in rail travel after World War II and an increase in trucks hauling freight over government-subsidized interstates were among factors that left the railroad struggling. Efforts to merge with other railroads were stalled for years by federal regulators. The Rock Island filed for bankruptcy in 1975 and attempted a reorganization, but creditors wanted the assets liquidated, with a judge shutting it down in 1980. Most of the tracks that traversed the state were taken up, but a few relics, like the Little Rock passenger station and the Arkansas River bridge, remain as monuments to this once great railroad.

Author : David H. Stratton
Publisher : University of New Mexico Press
ISBN 13 : 0826363407
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Tucumcari Tonite! written by David H. Stratton and published by University of New Mexico Press. This book was released on 2022-04-01 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tucumcari, New Mexico, was founded in 1901 by the Rock Island Railroad and soon had major railroad lines converging there from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Memphis as well as a northern branch line from the Dawson coalfields. The federal highway system established Route 66, the “Main Street of America,” through the middle of town in 1926. Tucumcari flourished as a tourist mecca, welcoming travelers with its blazing displays of neon lights. But mergers, reorganizations, and financial problems of the railroads, as well as the creation of the interstate highway system that bypassed small places, brought a sharp decline to the once-prosperous town. Tucumcari Tonite! blends in-depth research and personal and family experiences to re-create a “memoir” of Tucumcari. Drawing on newspapers and government documents as well as business records, personal interviews, and archival holdings, Stratton weaves a poignant tale of a western town’s rise and decline—providing a prime example of the destructive forces that have been inflicted on small towns in the West and all across America.

Author : H. Roger Grant
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253018072
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Railroaders without Borders written by H. Roger Grant and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-22 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over 25 years, the creatively led Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) has rejuvenated a series of down-and-out and even defunct railroads. Launched in 1987 by Henry Posner III, this investment and management company has demonstrated that it is possible both to have a conscience and to earn a profit in today's railroad industry. With ventures on four continents, RDC has created an admirable record of long-term commitments, respect for local cultures, and protection of the public interest. H. Roger Grant presents a firsthand look at this unique business operation and its triumphs and disappointments.

Author : Gregory L. Schneider
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 0814797997
Total Pages : 465 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Conservatism in America Since 1930 written by Gregory L. Schneider and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2003-06 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents forty essays, speeches, and other documents on conservatism or by conservatives, spanning 1930 to the turn of the century, including works by Seward Collins, Barry Goldwater, William F. Buckley, Jr., Irving Kristol, Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, and others.

Author : Gregory L. Schneider
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780742542853
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Conservative Century written by Gregory L. Schneider and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2009 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This concise history focuses on the development of American conservatism in the twentieth century up to the present.

Author : H. Roger Grant
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253032903
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book John W. Barriger III written by H. Roger Grant and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-14 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Readers will find in his biography an extraordinary tale of the travails of twentieth-century railroading through the career of this one man.” —The Annals of Iowa After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, John W. Barriger III (1899–1976) started his career on the Pennsylvania Railroad as a rodman, shop hand, and then assistant yardmaster. His enthusiasm, tenacity, and lifelong passion for the industry propelled him professionally, culminating in leadership roles at Monon Railroad, Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and the Boston and Maine Railroad. His legendary capability to save railroad corporations in peril earned him the nickname “doctor of sick railroads,” and his impact was also felt far from the train tracks, as he successfully guided New Deal relief efforts for the Railroad Division of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation during the Depression and served in the Office of Defense Transportation during World War II. Featuring numerous personal photographs and interviews, John W. Barriger III is an intimate account of a railroad magnate and his role in transforming the transportation industry. “Thanks to Roger Grant’s latest book, Barriger and his amazing legacy endures, waiting to be rediscovered by a new generation of readers. Trust me, you’ll learn a lot.” —Classic Trains “H. Roger Grant’s biography, John W. Barriger III, offers a new and much needed perspective on this prominent individual. Grant brings together an overview of Barriger’s career developments with an appropriate balance of insights into his early life and introduction to railroads.” —Journal of Transport History

Author : Simon Cordery
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253019125
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Iron Road in the Prairie State written by Simon Cordery and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-20 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1836, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas agreed on one thing: Illinois needed railroads. Over the next fifty years, the state became the nation's railroad hub, with Chicago at its center. Speculators, greed, growth, and regulation followed as the railroad industry consumed unprecedented amounts of capital and labor. A nationwide market resulted, and the Windy City became the site of opportunities and challenges that remain to this day. In this first-of-its-kind history, full of entertaining anecdotes and colorful characters, Simon Cordery describes the explosive growth of Illinois railroads and its impact on America. Cordery shows how railroading in Illinois influenced railroad financing, the creation of a national economy, and government regulation of business. Cordery's masterful chronicle of rail development in Illinois from 1837 to 2010 reveals how the state's expanding railroads became the foundation of the nation's rail network.

Author : William B. Cronin
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801874352
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Disappearing Islands of the Chesapeake written by William B. Cronin and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2005-06-17 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An appendix documents the many small islands that have dropped entirely from view since the seventeenth century.