Description:

Sandhouse Gang (Rail Group) presentation:

Robert E. Gallamore, The Gallamore Group; Former Director, NUTC Transportation Center

Once an icon of American industry, railroads fell into a long decline beginning around the turn of the twentieth century. Overburdened with regulation and often displaced by barge traffic on government-maintained waterways, trucking on interstate highways, and jet aviation, railroads measured their misfortune in lost market share, abandoned track, bankruptcies, and unemployment. Today, however, rail transportation is reviving, rescued by new sources of traffic and advanced technology, as well as less onerous bureaucracy.

Robert Gallamore will discuss his recently released book, “American Railroads:  Decline and Renaissance in the Twentieth Century” written with distinguished economist John R. Meyer (1927-2009).  The book is a comprehensive history and analysis of the American Railroad industry throughout the last century.  It covers the initial years of regulation by the Interstate Commerce Commission, antitrust prosecution of the James J. Hill and E. H. Harriman empires, Federal control of railroads during World War I, and the efforts to consolidate railroads into fewer and larger systems in the 1920s.  The book also follows the rise in rail traffic during World War II, the deteriorating conditions in the 1970s and the sweeping changes brought on by deregulation and the Staggers Act.