In 2013, a Montreal, Maine & Atlantic(MMA) oil cargo train derailed in Downtown Lac Megantic starting a fire that before it was controlled left many people dead and economic loss. The catastrophe took place due to two main factors which are the lack of safety culture from MMA and the insufficient supervision of Transport Canada(TC). For instance, one factor that TC did not consider was the weaknesses in the oversight of the railway conditions. MMA has had issues regarding safety, that TC has been continuously reporting but not being sure those issues were effectively solved, such as the lack of quality in the crew arrangements and its training level. Another active factor was an improper repair of the mentioned train time ago, that ended up in the starting fire causing the procedures against fire were executed and initiating the…
3). Sometimes industries can be TOO successful for their own good. What caused the railroad meltdown of the 1890s? Who fixed it? What was the ultimate result for the industry?…
First off is Cornelius Vanderbilt, he built his business with the New York railways. He built the New York Central System by the 1850's, he also produced the largest steamboat fleet in the United States at that time. He created the New York Central from three smaller railroads which he purchased, the expanded from New York City to Buffalo. Eventually his railroads connected all the way through to Chicago in under four years of being in the business. Not only did he run a very large rail system but also became the first to use several different techniques. One was the Westinghouse Air Brakes, which would allow for faster and more reliable brakes as well as being able to ravel at higher speeds. Another idea pioneered was the four track system which would allow for two freight tracks, one for each direction, and two more tracks for passenger cars. The tactics he used were legal, the only thing he did was purchase smaller lines to help expand his railroads. These were not unethical moves just ways to help his business.…
The B&O Railroad has an unwavering historic importance. It is the oldest common carrier railroad of America. The businessmen, surveyors and engineers from Baltimore and the state of Maryland took initiative for the building of the B&O Railroad. It was built to increase the state’s economic prosperity. The state had rich resources of coal deposits, natural gas and oil in the midst of heavily forested mountains. It linked the agricultural Midwest to the commerce offered by Ohio River. Chartered on February 28, 1827, the work of construction started on July 4, 1828. The work was completed to Wheeling, West Virginia in 1852 on the Christmas Eve. As a result of which the first ever commercial long-distance tracks and the first passenger station located on the banks of the Ohio River were built.…
The South Carolina Exposition and Protest, also known as Calhoun's Exposition, was written in 1828 by John C. Calhoun, the Vice President of the United States under Andrew Jackson.…
Often called "The Father of the Underground Railroad", William Still helped as many as 800 slaves escape to freedom. He interviewed each person and kept careful records, including a brief biography and the destination for each, along with any alias adopted. He kept his records hidden but knew the accounts would be important in aiding the future reunion of family members who became separated under slavery, which he had learned when he aided his own brother Peter, whom he had previously never met before.…
This scenario is based upon my 17 years’ experience as a locomotive engineer on a major western railroad and upon the compilation of bits and pieces of data from public records and accounts of the accident. Engineer Michael Vincent was at the controls of the two-week-old General Electric “AMDCopyright © 1999 by the Case Research Journal, H. Richard Eisenbeis, Sue Hanks, and Bruce Barrett. All rights reserved.…
What was the Labor Movement? : This is when workers protest or strike against their bosses in order to raise their wages…
The creation of new machines soon began to change farming. Huge supplies of human beings were needed to test out these new machines that were backbreaking, unhealthful, and dangerous work. This shows how the United States only cared about social status, inventors were not to adjust or work the new machines, and therefore, people from a lower economic status, such as immigrants from Europe and China, would come to the United States and take the risks. An additional example of the change that occurred during this time period was the construction of the first transcontinental railroad which was built with blood, sweat, and politics ( Zinn, 254). Americans felt they were superior and submitted three thousand Irish and ten thousand Chinese to built the railroads for only about one or two dollars a day. Many workers died because of the heat and the war that was being held by the Indians that opposed the invasion of the territory ( Zinn,…
Black slavery in the South created a bond among white Southerners and cast them in a common mold. Slavery was also the source of the South 's large agricultural wealth, which led to white people controlling a large black minority. Slavery also caused white Southerners to realize what might happen to them should they not protect their own personal liberties, which ironically included the liberty to enslave African Americans. Because slavery was so embedded in Southern life and customs, white leadership reacted to attacks on slavery after 1830 with an ever more defiant defense of the institution, which reinforced a growing sense among white Southerners that their values eventually divided them from their fellow citizens in the Union. The South of 1860 was uniformly committed to a single cash crop, cotton. During its reign, however, regional differences emerged between the Lower South, where the linkage between cotton and slavery as strong, and the Upper South, where slavery was relatively less important and the economy more diversified. Plantations were the leading economic institution in the Lower South. Planters were the most prestigious social group, and, though less than five percent of white families were in the planter class; they controlled more than forty percent of the slaves, cotton, and total agricultural wealth. Most had inherited or married into their wealth, but they could stay at the top of the South 's class structure only by continuing to profit from slave labor. Planters had the best land. The ownership of twenty or more slaves enabled planters to use a gang system to do both routine and specialized agricultural work, and also permitted a regimented pace of work that would have been impossible to impose in free agricultural workers. Teams of field hands were supervised by white overseers and black drivers, slaves selected for their management skills and agricultural knowledge.…
Gilded Age Years after the Civil War, the economy of American undertook a drastic transformation. This renovation went from wealth being measured palpable possessions- buildings, livestock, paper currency, property, and securities, to expanding dramatically into modern industries. One of the largest to do this was the U.S. Steel discovery which triggered new industries such as oil refining and electric light and power. A key role in this transformation of the American economy was the development of the railroad which was decades after the Civil War.…
A large proportion of whites in the South supported slavery even though less than a quarter of these whites actually owned slaves. They felt that slavery was a necessary evil and that it was an important southern institution. The slave population in 1800 was just under 900,000 slaves and of that only 36,000 of these slaves were in the northern states. In 1860 this number grew to almost 4 million slaves were in the southern states. Many important statesmen such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington regarded slavery as a necessity even though it was evil. Individuals and groups of people of all sects defended slavery.…
The debate over slavery and states ' rights had become so intense by 1860 that the South was ready to break away altogether, and they did not want to cooperate with the North. They felt they were being exploited and taken advantage of by the North. The economy, culture, and various ways of life had developed differently throughout the U.S., creating a feeling of disunity. Resolving disputes threw compromise no longer seemed possible. They had no reason to compromise and work out their disputes because the South wanted to form a confederacy of their own. This all began to deteriorate because of the dramatic economic, social, and political issues, such as the Compromise of 1850, Fugitive Slave Act, political leaders, succession attempts, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act gradually became unfeasible nearing 1860.…
Industrial accidents in America were greater than that of any other industrial country during the labor movement. The accidents that occurred in these factories injured five…
The Transcontinental Railroad was a significant event in American History. This railroad was the work of two railroad companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, which built their lines as fast as they could until they met in Utah in 1869. Once this complex building project was completed, the United States was now connected from coast to coast by railroad tracks and led to an era of westward expansion. What few people realize is that this turning point in American history could not have happened if it were not for the immigrant groups who helped to build this remarkable railroad. Irish immigrants mainly built the Union Pacific and Chinese immigrants mainly built the Central Pacific. Before the transcontinental railroad was completed, travel overland by carriage cost about one thousand dollars and took five or six months. It also involved crossing Rocky Mountains and dry desert. Work on the first transcontinental railroad began after President Abraham Lincoln approved the Pacific Railway Act of 1862. This was a landmark law that approved the federal government to financially back the construction of a transcontinental railroad. Due to the American Civil War however the work was delayed for several years. Finally around 1866 the building of the railroad had started. It was a race between the Union Pacific and Central Pacific. The transcontinental railroad was finished on May 10th 1869, at Promontory Point, Utah. This was a turning point in American History because it greatly affected the opening of the West. This linked the East and West coasts by rail, and allowed for the West to be rapidly settled by Americans seeking opportunity and a new life in a new place. It connected the coasts from "sea to shinning sea," and had a significant impact on travel and the transportation of goods and people. In 1852, there was only five miles of track west of Mississippi. By 1890, it had increased to 72,000 miles of track. Railroads provided…