Date: 1982-07-26
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

Mr. President. today I am introducing a joint resolution to designate the week of August 30 through September 4 as "National Railroad Week" and September 4 as "National Railroad Day." We Americans have long owed it to ourselves to set aside a time: To recognize an industry which has done so much to build our Nation. To recall its place in our history and in our folklore. To acknowledge its vital role today. And to examine its important prospects in our national future. To a remarkable degree. our country owes its greatness and its strength to our railroads. Reflect that only a century and a half ago we were a pastoral. small republic. Our people traveled. when they traveled at all. over dirt roads. on foot. by horseback or by carriage or wagon. We moved our goods by oxcart. canal barge or riverboat. Our young industries were restricted to the waterways and ports of the Eastern seaboard. The railroads changed all this. They started small. led by backyard inventors and a few visionary cntrepreneurs. A short coalcarrying line operated briefly in 1829. in Pennsylvania. In 1830. the singlehorsepower Tom Thumb raced a rail car drawn by a single horse in a demonstration in Marylafid. A few months later successful. if primitive. service started on a 137mile track laid in South Carolina. These were the beginnings. They spawned 90 years of explosive growth. Within only 5 years 200 rail lines were being built or planned. more than a thousand miles of track had been laid. and the U.S. mail had been carried by rail for the first time. Andrew Jackson had become our first President to ride a train. and when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. ran its tracks over the mountains to Wheeling and the Ohio River. the West was opened to development (18281850). There followed one of the most dramatic movements of peopicn. commerce and agriculture in world history. Vast reaches of virtually uninhabited land were occupied by settlers. cities sprang up and were linked by rail. factories. smelters and packing plants grew up at new industrial centers. Tracks reached the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. and on May 10. 1869. at a Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory in the Utah Territory the rails of the West were joined with those of the East to form the first continuous link of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. By early in this century. in the space of a single lifetime. rail lines interlaced the Nation coast to coast. The railroads not only had hauled us swiftly and literally into the "Industrial Age." they also had brought in and helped to settle millions of the immigrants who changed and invigorated the diverse society which has become America. And. in the course of it. created a legend which forms an indelible part of our national heritage. Railroad passenger stationsthey are being restored in some citiesgave us a new form of architecture. The names of railroad builders. men of vision and robber barons alike. look large in our financial history. Stories of the fabulous private cars in which these and other rich traveled in the style of Eastern potentates. punctuate the annals of high society. The railroads gave us Casey Jones. John Henry. Diamond Jim Brady. They gave us Westinghouse. Pullman. Chessie and Phoebe Snowhousehold names without numberas well as famous trais. the "Twentieth Century and 0 arland Limiteds." and the "Super Chief." to name only three. In war times. railroads have played essential roles. The Norths preponderance of rail lines to move troops and supplies helped to decide the outcome of the Civil War. In World War I virtually all troops and material moved across the Nation by rail. and in World War II. despite developing airlines and highway transportation. 90 percent of military shipments and 97 percent of troop movements within the country went by raiL In 1944. a record year. passenger travel by train reached 95.6 billion passenger miles. Even today. our military men put heavy reliance on the railroads in their planning for the contingencies of war. At the peak. in 1916. railroad lines in the United States totaled 254.000 miles. The figure today is 185.000. Railroads in recent years have lost some of their glamour. No longer does nearly every American boy want to grow up to become a locomotive engineer. No longer do trains move every kind of freightairplanes and motor vehicles have made large inroads on this as on passenger travel. And yet. the railroads continue to be vital to the Nation. They haul commuters to and from work in the hundreds of thousands. Although we have fallen far behind Europe and Japan. our longhaul and overnight passenger trainsthose that are leftremain popular. And. tonnages are greater than they have ever been in freight transportthe essential movement of bulky. heavy or specialized materials which make up the sinews of our economy. of finished products of all descriptionsoften packed In truck trailers and moved piggyback from city to city. or In containers and moved from port to port. Our railroads are constantly evolving. Railroad planners are engaged hbavily in research to meet the needs of the future. Perhaps the most significant challenge lies in the fact that trains can haul people and cargo using less energy than other forms of transport. with less air pollution. One senses a feeling of vitality in the industry. and a resolve to continue to grow and change to meet our needs as the 21st century approaches. Our railroads no longer monopolize the Nations transportation. but they are now and will continue to be its backbone. This year the citizens of the city of Grafton. W. Va.. are planning the First Annual West Virginia Railroad Heritage Festival to celebrate the role the railroad played in the city. the State. and the Nation. It is meet and right that West Virginia should honor the railroad. it was the first to benefit from Interstate rail service. In the future. West Virginia stands to gain even more as coal Is hauled from its hills in increasing quantities to the valley and ports for delivery nationally and abroad. By introducing legislation to commemorate the railroads. I hope that railroad companies. railroad men and all of our people. will take note of the dates. join in a national tribute to the Iron Horse as it was in years gone by. and toast the Railroad Age to come. Mr. President. I ask unanimous consent that the joint resolution be printed at this point in the RECORD.