Railroad history

Railroads unite. Across time and space the railroad has tied together diverse peoples and places with literal and figurative bonds.

This past February 6th marked the 73rd anniversary of New Jersey's deadliest train wreck. On that misty evening in 1951, 85 people perished and hundreds were injured when the Pennsylvania Railroad express passenger train known as "The Broker" derailed entering a temporary runaround track at the NJ Turnpike construction site in Woodbridge Township.

Railroads unite. Across time and space the railroad has tied together diverse peoples and places with literal and figurative bonds.

Railroads unite. Across time and space the railroad has tied together diverse peoples and places with literal and figurative bonds.

Railroads unite. Across time and space the railroad has tied together diverse peoples and places with literal and figurative bonds.

Railroads unite. Across time and space the railroad has tied together diverse peoples and places with literal and figurative bonds.

Dear Colleagues,

I've just posted the following essay criticizing the recent open letter from labor historians to President Biden. I welcome comments. 

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/12/05/vtjr-d05.html

Thomas Mackaman
Associate Professor of History
King's College
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Dear colleagues. 

I am starting a community-engaged research project on Latino railroad workers on the Midwest. This is a project that we at the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Office of Latino/Latin American Studies are doing with/for the Union Pacific Railroad Museum. Our objective is to collect between 20 and 25 oral histories with former railroad workers from the Midwest/Great Plains regardless of whether they worked for Union Pacific or not. We have found extraordinarily little bibliography on this topic. Can anyone point us to some resources? 

Hi Cristian,

Here are a couple IL-based public history sources. I believe there are some extant oral histories of railroad workers in this region as well. My grandfather (now deceased) was also a Bracero railroad worker in Ohio and the region.

https://www.wtvp.org/local-programs/boxcar-people/

Thanks Martha!