The Train system in the economic
Although we had a glance of the rail road and trains in our books I decided to take a further look into the economic benefits because of my grandfather, who has passed, and his love of trains. So to start in 1828 the rail road was developed and started to expand across the US first from the north then to the south. The rail road was closely modeled after the English rail line meaning all of the lines were inter connected together.
The exception was the south, instead of intertwining their rail lines they disconnected them making it nearly impossible to stay on one line for very long. This decision seriously hurt them in the civil war. Whenever the south needed supplies they would have to go through many different train lines to get any of it making it impossible to get any supplies. So they used canals and water ways to ship their goods from place to place. But even the water road was unusable due to blockades by the north. Soon they started to take apart the rail road to make new guns and to scavenge parts for other supplies they deeply needed. The north took part the rail ways mainly to stop the south from getting the supplies they desperately needed. This was one of the reasons the north won.
After the civil war the nation got to work putting their economy back together. They also started to put damaged rail road lines back together mainly in the north. Newly designed Train cars were developed to help with different types of transportation. One of those special cars was the passenger car; this revolutionized the way that people got from place to place. The rail road could go through any weather and on any day to places that most water ways and canals could not. It was also more comfortable for the passengers then going in a wagon because of the accommodations that were not available. Wagons did not have room to move around, or food car, or even a sleeping car. So passengers never had to stop traveling so someone could stretch their legs or eat, making the trip shorter and easier on the passengers. Not to mention in a wagon you were riding on rocky bumpy roads were as in a train it was nice and even. It was also safer then canals and water ways. It was less likely for a train to get into an accident that a boat to cap size in the river. Even though the rail ways were very popular for many reasons, many were often not financed by government founding or financing, infect most were financed by Privet Company’s or by investors. Mainly because the government didn’t actually think that it was going to work as well as it did.
Of course passengers weren’t the only thing that was affected positively by the rail ways. The transportation of goods such as but not limited to wheat and cotton were also helped by the trains. Thanks to the rail ways more food was able to get from place to place. It cost less money and time to get things to other cities and states making it cheaper. It took fewer products to supply the demand thanks to the reliability of the trains and the speed of them. It also cost less to insure the items in transport, the water ways became less and less in demand. Even with most of the demand in trains there were still those who chose to use the canals and water ways that were closest to them. But for the most part both people and goods relied on trains to get them safely to their destination.
Rail roads like many businesses had invested into Wall Street and at first it helped the business grow bigger and stronger. However after the great depression the rail road slowly died. Because of the lack of funding thanks to the depression it became harder for the rail road to pay back investors and soon their employs. After cut in pay check a large strike ensued the biggest strike in the history of trains. This seriously hurt the train system and they never quite recovered to their former glory. Soon the automobiles took over for the best way to travel making the train only useful for transporting goods.