The New Industrial Revolution and Railroad Boom US History: Spiconardi

Factors That Led To The Boom New Technology The Air Brake Invented by George Westinghouse, the air brake allowed all railcars to stop at once Prior to this, a train traveling 50 mph would have to start braking two miles before the station

Factors That Led To The Boom Gauges  the distance between to parallel rails Allowed American railroads to join together to create networks. Prior to this, certain trains could not travel on certain tracks

Gauge sizes throughout the world

Roman Chariot and its influence on the development of gauges

Factors That Led To The Boom Oil The development of oil into gasoline gave engines a new source of power

Factors That Led To The Boom Steel The Bessemer Process allowed steel to be made stronger at a much lower cost (85% decrease in costs).

Factors That Led To The Boom More Comfortable Travel Pullman Sleeping Cars Dining Cars Increased ridership

The Railroad Boom Two more transcontinental railroads built New Jobs Needed people to Produce steel Mine iron & coal for steel Drill oil Construct gauges Construct new tracks

The Railroad Boom Companies and Practices Elimination of Competition Consolidation  combine smaller railroad companies to create large railroad corporations Believed this would lead to more efficient operations of the railroads The Pennsylvania Railroad Co. was actually comprised of 73 smaller railroad companies

The Railroad Boom Rebates  a special discount given to a railroad company’s best customers If a shipper promised to exclusively use a railroad company, they would be granted the special low freight rate This allowed a shipper to undercut their competitors Smaller railroad companies and shipping companies would go out of business due to rebates Modern day rebate for an HP LaserJet printer

The Railroad Boom Pools  Railroad companies in the same market would agree to divide up business to avoid competition This led to price fixing Price fixing  Railroad companies would conspire to charge the same high shipping rates to customers

The Railroad Boom Cornelius Vanderbilt Railroad tycoon known as the Commodore Would buy massive amounts of stock in Railroad companies to take them over Controlled all the railroad lines into Manhattan New York Central and Hudson, Harlem, New Haven lines Known as a ruthless business man Wound up buying most of the rail lines between Buffalo and Chicago

Grand Central Depot