| Show railroads gird to meet competition seek traffic lost to buses planes and autos washington Rall railroads roads out to recapture passenger traffic lost to buses airplanes and private motor cars are emphasizing speed beauty and comfort in developing radically different types of train equipment geared to present day needs two AN estern lines have produced stream line trains one of mitch alch recently attained miles per hour on a test run hundreds of thousands of persons including the president of the united states displayed boyish enthusiasm in these lightly built buil motor driven trains wherever they have been on exhibition other enterprising railroads tire are trying to entice riders through electrification automatic train con arol air conditioning and the use of motor coaches andrall and rail mobiles says a bulletin from the national geographic society this summer american railroads are adding air cooled passenger and dining cars doubling the number now in operation night club cars A new england railroad Is building turtleback turtle back coaches with oversized bottoms and all moldings mol dings eliminated to cut air resistance night club cars with hostesses and music made their appearance on florida trains last v minter inter and pullmans composed entirely of individual bedrooms are now in general use one western road Is using green window glass in club cars making desert runs to cut down light glare and give a cooling effect indirect lighting reclining seats feats in day coaches and radios radio are also making their appearance the history of railroad transportation por tation in the united states Is a story of amazing development at the outbreak of the civil war ivar the country had less than miles of line of which only a bout about 2000 OW were west of the mississippi it was not until february 22 that sod was turned for the first transcontinental line on the pacific end at sacramento not until december 2 of the same year did work vork begin in the mississippi valley six years later after many delays and after miles of overlapping lines had bad been built an agreement was reached whereby the two companies joined forces and the gold spike which tied together the east and west was driven at promontory utah west of corinne on may 10 1809 the railroads indeed constitute the key that unlocked the treasure house of american resources the story of the nations rise to greatness and power Is an account of a succession of frontiers push back frontiers at the beginning the frontier stopped at the blue ridge mountains the turn turnpike pil e and the canal finally pierced these heights and let it move en ca to the alleghenies these became an isolating influence that held the pioneers in the eastern halt half of the mississippi valley al most a separate people from those on the atlantic seaboard until the th railroad builders faith removed these mountains 7 as far as the flow of commerce and communication was concerned in turn the mississippi river became the frontier what was the good of the land west of the father of waters if that stream remained ed even as late as the early eighties our people thought that it was useless to build railroads through western minnesota and the dakotas arguing that the region was a desert in hummer dummer nod and a wilderness of snow in winter it took custer Ou 8 campal campaign agn against the indians indiana to persuade the public that the northern pacific extension beyond the 2111 mississippi asis at st paul could be k kept ept open more than five months a year during the civil war the south had much less than a third of the nations railways these linked up distant communities rather than industrial centers comparatively few of them were strategic whereas the north bad rail connections admirably fitted for the movement of men and munitions pin in europe the history of railway construction tins has been that of roads laid down to meet the demands of traffic already there in tills this country tens of thousands of miles of line have been built through virgin territory which it was hoped vituld grow up to their facilities |
