Working on the Railroad

It was on Christmas Day,1830, that Nicholas Darrell stood upon the platform of the "Best Friend of Charleston," and operated the first mechanical passenger train carrying 141 passengers along 6-miles of track at the break neck speed of 20 miles per hour. That trip marked the birth of the modern railroad industry and Nicholas Darrell became a pioneer railroader. Since that Christmas journey the railroad has become an American institution with hundreds of thousands of men and women working throughout the centuries to keep the freight and people moving along the rails. This is the story of these railroaders - the jobs they perform and the conditions they endured from the birth of the industry up to the present day. All Aboard!