Rival Rails
The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad

There are people who say government should not interfere, should stay out of the way. Well, this book tells the story of how the U.S. government, taxpayers, surveyed various routes for railroads. And then gave land to railroad companies to compensate them for building those rail roads. Which is as c......more

I suspect that to do full justice to the forging of rail connections throughout the Southwest would require several volumes, but this does seem a good overview treatment of the subject. For example, there is a tiny vignette about a joke that went around that the engineer could pass his tobacco plug......more

The maps are small and all too often the key part is hidng in the centre crease, and the photos have almost all been published elsewhere better. Still, I give this book full marks for readability and making a difficult subject entertaining and understandable. I am a hard core railway enthusiast but......more

The audio book opens with a reading of numerous charts which read rather dryly. The book is loaded with facts about the history of the development of the U.S. rail network, not just the Tran-Pacific railroad. If you are a real railroad buff, then go ahead and read this book, otherwise, I would avoid......more

Rival Rails sheds light on the process of the building of America's railroads from the early 1800s through the mid-1900s with the focus on the late 1800s through the early 1900s. The typical American history survey course tends to mention the building of the first transcontinental railroad by the Ce......more