Anybody know of a good web site (or other reference) out there that graphically describes how all of the various railways and railroads have merged over the years – a “family tree” so to speak?
Try this site. http://www.spikesys.com/Trains/fmly_tre.html But I heard that you need to be careful with it as it dosn’t show ALL the railroad mergers/acquisition. There has been a thread like this a little while back. But I can’t find it.
The NMRA Bulletin did one of these 'who begat whom" tables on the Frisco but that’s the only one I ever saw!! I suppose if you wanted to do the research you could put one together yourself. I once sketched a basic example out for my old HO Scale Seaboard and Western Virginia Railway when I was working out a steam engine numbering system - but then mine was fictitious.
The NMRA Bulletin did one of these 'who begat whom" tables on the Frisco but that’s the only one I ever saw!! I suppose if you wanted to do the research you could put one together yourself. I once sketched a basic example out for my old HO Scale Seaboard and Western Virginia Railway when I was working out a steam engine numbering system - but then mine was fictitious. I switched to N Scale when I concluded that I didn’t really need a ‘begat’ table if all I was ever going to have was a hundred feet of track and a dozen and a half locomotives to run over it.
Kalmbach also published a book that gives the information on the fallen flags, I believe it is called “Historical Guide to US Railroads” or something close to that.
Just remember that the B&O is and was the first. All things were to come after. =)
Go to the Trains website. They published a Family Tree fro each of the 7 remaining Class 1’s. They used to make it easier to find these reference items. Use the Search Feature to find them & print them.
And now it’s CSX, Gee what a shame. Sorry CSXers.
What specifically are you looking for? There have been mergers and acquisitions almost as long as there have been railroads. Even the B&O became a conglomeration of subsidiaries. The PRR may have been the most complex of all. They also had a tendency to sell bits and pieces of each other, then buy them back, which further stirs the pot. Add in trackage rights, leases, joint facilities agreements etc, and you may never find your way to the bottom.
And it doesn’t apply to just the big companies, either. The lowly Maryland and Pennsylvania started as an amalgam of short narrow gauge companies, the oldest being the Peach Bottom Railroad, which was only a couple miles long.
The good news is, just about any railroad in the US has been exhaustively researched, and odds are there’s a book about any one of them you’d like to learn about. You probably need to narrow your search a bit, then decide what you really want to find out.
Lee
I don’t know how accurate this is but it looks good…
http://laurent.aublette.free.fr/en/intro_en.html
[8D]
Bottom of all pages - line entitled “For newcomers”, menu item “Railroading”.
Then choose “Railroad history” on the page that appears.
Direct link: http://www.trains.com/trn/default.aspx?c=ss&id=19
Smile,
Stein
Union Pacific is the ONLY rr that has it’s original name - and swallowed up a major portion of fallen flags - maybe in a few years it will be THE ONLY rr![:D]
Heaven help us!
Lee
I’m looking for any and all information I can find, basically just out of curiosity. Some day I may even get around to laying it all out graphically.
It’s much easier that way than trying to keep everything sorted in one’s head.
Thanks to all for all the good leads. Much appreciated!
c
And in 1999 the Ma&Pa was folded into York Rail (losing it’s identity) which in turn was bought by Genessee and Wyoming, Inc. in 2002.
Of course the original railroad had been abandoned (starting with the Maryland part in 1958) except for some track in York.
Enjoy
Paul