Ridin’ the Rails

There was a time in the Old West when the arrival of the railroad was as exciting as it got—the coming of the train was much anticipated and joyfully celebrated. Without it, your community was reached only by horseback, a crowded stagecoach or a lumbering farm wagon. Travel to and from was long and tedious, and everything seemed so far away. But when your town was finally linked to a national network by steel rails, you now counted; you could depend on growth, life got easier, new good