Rail Road History - RRGS.org

 
 
 

home

 

  The Union Pacific Railway

  The Central Pacific Railway

 

The Levenworth, Pawnee
and Western


  The Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe


  The Chicago and North
Western line


  The Chicago, Milwaukee,
St. Paul and Pacific


  The Northern Pacific Railway

  The Illinois Central Railroad
  

 

  Railroads played a huge role in American history. This was even truer in the settlement of the west, where entire communities were established as "railroad towns". In some of these, nearly every family was engaged in some aspect of railroading, or in supplying the families who were.

As lasting as the impression of the railroads has been, however, one crucial portion of the legacy has been fading from site. The stories of the men and women who built and ran the mighty iron roads have been all but forgotten. Records have been casually shredded during mergers, stored away unavailable to the descendants, allowed to languish in storehouses until illegible, or buried with the men and women themselves. To the founders of this Society, this was simply appalling.

And so the work began. The Railroad Genealogical Society was established and dedicated to the task of locating, compiling and preserving every record pertaining to the employees of America's historic railroads.