The Railroads of Southeast Missouri Volume 1

Before the automobile, the airplane, and the semi-trailer truck, a different mode of transportation ruled America. For more than 100 years, railroads crisscrossed the landscape, through mountains and over rivers, connecting people to far reaching parts of the bludgeoning country an allowing a new nation to rise through the industrial revolution as a superpower. But these wood and steel pathways connecting nearly every town in America weren’t built overnight.
Missouri railroad history starts long before the first track was laid west of the Mississippi River. 9,000 miles had been laid in the East prior, already showing signs that this was a way to unite and stimulate economic growth. Missouri would soon become the hub western expansion, leading population to increase fivefold in just twenty years.
Ralph Hughes puts his love of trains and old stories to good use in this new volume detailing the establishment of four Missouri railroads: The Missouri Pacific; The Saint Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway; The Union Pacific; and the Missouri Southern. Each include their own triumphs and tragedies.
Read the stories, view the 100 plus historical images, and relive one of the greatest revolutions to shape the way people traveled across America for more than a century… What would later become known as the golden age of transportation.
Enjoy the ride.