# Debunking railroad myths **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2002, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-railroad-myths/99557 "2002-03-22T17:09:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-railroad-myths/99557/21 "2002-03-24T04:00:17Z")
Railroads also helped to bring about standard time zones in the US. Before trains it wasn’t that important that people in one area of the country all use the same exact time - or to have set places where the time changed by 1 hour. Once trains started traveling from state to state it became important to set up the time zones we still have now. The lines have shifted a little since they were created but for the most part they are in the same places. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-railroad-myths/99557/22 "2002-03-24T04:03:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diceman \* > \*\*Not finding any evidence to support something doesn’t mean a thing _if you never looked in the first place!_ :wally \*\* I wasn’t the OP, I was just trying to get the discussion back to the original topic. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-railroad-myths/99557/23 "2002-03-24T04:38:26Z")
Did I miss in this thread where anyone posted a link to Cecil’s column about [railroad gauge and Roman chariot ruts?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000218.html) ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-railroad-myths/99557/24 "2002-03-24T05:57:21Z")
Sorry, I should have done that in the OP. Though, to be fair, I wasn’t really asking about that. I was taking as given that the “Roman ruts” were bunk, and asking about switching between gauges, labor unrest, that whole angle. Sorry if I wasn’t clear. But it’s always good to remember what The Master has to say on any subject. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-railroad-myths/99557/25 "2002-03-24T16:58:07Z")
**Jillgat** : I posted the [Snopes link](http://www.snopes2.com/history/american/gauge.htm) but as the OP says, he wasn’t thinking about that. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-railroad-myths/99557/26 "2002-03-24T21:13:55Z")
Now, maybe **Exapno Mapcase** would be so good as to let us know whether, from his extensive reading on the subject, the question of the original post can be answered: Did President Lincoln have to put down labor unrest related to standardization of railroad gauges? Did any such labor unrest occur after President Lincoln? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-railroad-myths/99557/27 "2002-03-24T23:13:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DSYoungEsq \* > \*\*Now, maybe **Exapno Mapcase** would be so good as to let us know whether, from his extensive reading on the subject, the question of the original post can be answered: > > Did President Lincoln have to put down labor unrest related to standardization of railroad gauges? Did any such labor unrest occur after President Lincoln? \*\* My guess is that this is a misreading of a real incident that took place on April 19, 1861. This was a week or so after Fort Sumter and Lincoln had appealed to the states for 75,000 volunteers. He was worried because both Maryland and Virginia were slave states with a great many southern sympathizers. Without troops, Washington D.C. was an easy and obvious target. The 6th and 8th Massachusetts Regiments had been hastily assembled and sent on their way. Now to quote from _Sinews of War_: > [@](#): > > Railroads at that time were in a state of transition between private short-line companies and multistate rail networks. This led to anomalies; notably there was no connecting track between the President Street terminus of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad in Baltimore’s northern section and the Camden Street terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, located in the city’s southwestern district. Through trains from Philadelphia to Washington were thus required to be crowbarred onto municipal trolley tracks and then hauled by horse teams through the center of the city to Camden Street, where the process was reversed. A Baltimore and Ohio engine would then be attached, and the trip to Washington resumed. > > Thus, after the 6th Massachusetts reached the President Street Station on that fateful day, the men remained in their railcars as these were pulled though town. Along their route a hostile crowd formed, shouting insults and throwing occasional rocks and paving stones at the horse-drawn cars. In spite of these demonstrations, eight cars, carrying five companies, passed without serious incident. In the ninth car, several soldiers were injured as the stoning intensified. The tenth car was stopped and the trolley tracks were blocked, The occupants of the car had to run for their lives. Things got much worse after that. Eventually a full-scale riot broke out and the panicking inexperienced soldiers shot into the crowd. Finally, the soldiers made it through with fixed bayonets. There were many total casualties on both sides. Worse, from Lincoln’s point of view, troops could no longer be sent safely through Baltimore and alternate and very inconvenient by-routes had to be found. Maryland was eventually pacified, and not very nicely, by federal troops. My delicate ear caught a hint of sarcasm in **DSYoungEsq’s** post. Or maybe not. So let me say this mildly: Yes, my reading is extensive. While the Internet is the greatest tool ever discovered for the quick look-up of facts, my feeling is that if you want knowledge you still need to read a book. If you want understanding, you need to read large bunches of books. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-railroad-myths/99557/28 "2002-03-24T23:22:53Z")
Oh, and before I’m accused of still not responding to the OP, let me just say that I don’t remember any specific labor incident stemming from standardization forcing unskilled workers out of their jobs. It sounds wrong to me: the army provided ample opportunity for unskilled workers, the north was generally going through a war boom and those who did enter the service left lots of open jobs in their wake, most standardization took place after the war, and the remark that it was early in Lincoln’s presidency makes the Maryland incident too much of a coincidence to ignore. But it’s certainly not impossible that such a thing took place at some later time. Labor strife was rife throughout the century and whenever technological unemployment occurred people naturally took to the streets. I’d like to see an actual cite if anyone has one, but since nobody has come up with a better answer for the OP I think that it’s a half-remembered version of Maryland. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2002, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-railroad-myths/99557/29 "2002-03-25T11:04:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Reeder \* > \*\*If I’m not mistaken Russia uses narrow guage tracks. And trains travelling to and from Europe have to change carriages. \*\* I’m afraid you are mistaken. Russia has wide gauge tracks (as has Finlad). ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2002, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-railroad-myths/99557/30 "2002-03-25T13:30:04Z")
If Lincoln had anything to do with the standardization of railroad track gauges he did an incredibly poor job of it: My great grandfather worked on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad (a “narrow-gauge railroad”)as late as 1900. There couldn’t have been any standardization if there were both “narrow gauge” and “regular.” ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2002, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-railroad-myths/99557/31 "2002-03-25T16:54:33Z")
Exapno Mapcase – Thanks for the info. It’s possible that is the incident I’m half-remembering, though to be honest it doesn’t ring any bells. I could have sworn I heard about labor unrest surrounding sandardization – perhaps well after the Civil War, when the Army was no longer sopping up unskilled labor. The bit about “a violent strike put down by President X” may indeed be a fabrication on my part. Or perhaps I am conflating reading about standardization with reading about conscription riots. That seems more plausible to me. In any event, thanks to all for your helpful comments and input. – Beruang [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-railroad-myths/99557.md?page=1)