Virginia Railroads in the Civil War

Johnson, Angus James

Verlag: University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1961

Light Brown cloth with gilt spine titles and front emblem; No Flaws or Blemishes but minimal shelf handling. The dust jacket has modest and even age-toning with a small rub at the top of the spine. 8vo; 9.5 inches tall; 336 pages with Chapter Notes, Bibliography and Index. Some in-text maps and charts. Compared to railroads of today, railroads in both the North and South were primitive and dangerous in 1861. Rails were made of iron, not steel, which became brittle and had to be replaced frequently. Some older tracks were made of wood topped with a thin layer of iron. Most tracks were laid out on the ground without gravel ballast, making the tracks unstable and trains subject to frequent derailments. Trains were slow, with freight trains averaging fifteen miles per hour and passenger trains twenty miles per hour. Rail journeys were further slowed by the need to stop frequently for wood and water for the locomotives. The concept of a coordinated rail system did not exist. Each railroad company was a separate entity and different companies used different track gauges-the width between the rails. Tracks of different gauges could not be connected, and each required different size locomotives and cars. Even where tracks were of the same gauge, fierce competition and rivalry between railroads meant that they often did not connect their lines. For instance, at the start of the Civil War, five different rail lines served the city of Richmond, one of the South's major railroad hubs, and none were connected. Near Fine in a Very Good Dust Jacket. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 15628

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Virginia Railroads in the Civil War
Verlag: University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill
Erscheinungsdatum: 1961
Zustand: Near Fine
Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Very Good
Auflage: First Edition, First Printing.