Hot answers tagged railroads
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The railroad certainly received its share of harassment. Livestock was continuously rustled by tribal raiders, who also boldly shot up work crews and terrorized isolated station towns. Particularly vulnerable were route surveyors, who struck out on their own ahead of the work crews -- and sometimes paid for it with their lives. Twice, Native Americans ...
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As MichaelF pointed out, it is physically possible to travel across the US on a train - there are more than enough rail lines, though today they're all for freight. As for using Amtrak lines, for the most part Amtrak does not run on rail lines that it owns. The only track that Amtrak owns outright(as far as I remember) is the Northeast Corridor, between ...
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I was surprised to find out that, yes there were troubles with labor shortages. From Public Broadcasting Station "American Experience" article on the "Workers of the Central Pacific Railroad",
In early 1865 the Central Pacific had work enough for 4,000 men. Yet contractor Charles Crocker barely managed to hold onto 800 laborers at any given time. Most ...
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