American railroad history is filled with accounts of misadventure. Steam boilers blew up. Bridges collapsed under the weight of heavy engines. Locomotives crashed head-on because of signal failures. Passenger cars derailed, often with dire results. Lightly built wooden coaches splintered on impact, and the debris often ignited from the coals in the iron stoves used for heating._x000D_In the mid-nineteenth century American railroading was burgeoning--a growth too fast for safe operations. Despite the grim statistics of 19th and early 20th century train wrecks that resulted, one cannot help but find the photographs and public prints of the day interesting. When you pick up this wonderous book, you will have a hard time putting it down AUTHOR: With Train Wrecks, Robert Reed presents a major historic work, amply illustrated to present the full impact of this developmental period of rail transport.
