The Golden Age

of American Railroading began around the turn of the century and lasted with the interruption of World War I when the rails were nationalized until the Great Depression. It was the era when grandeur rode the rails. It was the years that the great name trains attained their glamour. The steam locomotive was in its prime and was king-whether they were new stars of the silent screen, a family on the way to visit grandma or a carload of coal America was on the move, the trains were moving it, and the steam engine was pulling it!