railroads

Some of those organizations existed to push back against big business, especially railroads, back when railroads had a monopoly on shipments to small towns.

Well, to be fair, the history of railroads in the US is kinda crackheaded.

This is like when the railroads' lunch was eaten by the tractor trailer because the railroads thought they were rail companies, when in fact they were transportation companies.

Later during the military dictatorship, the government again saw the point of railroads, and started investing in them again.

More specifically, ones before the advent of railroads and cars, where trade was geographically limited to the immediate surroundings.

Talking about the shunting yard algorithm, it's funny how often trains and railroads have inspired programming concepts.

And if life isn't complex enough, the NEC has 3 different electrification systems and a few short line railroads.

Since railroads depend heavily on communications, they maintain their own poles/trenches and cables etc.

The railroad route is still used today for railroads and highways, it only makes sense that the cables follow the same economics.

Like the one in the US forcing railroads to pay someone with a red flag to walk in front of the train.

Now, railroads are almost entirely commercial with very few passenger stops in small towns.

The land was basically unsettlable until the introduction of better plows, deep wells for irrigation, and the railroads to allow for efficient import/export.

"Railroads will only encourage the common people to move about needlessly." - Lord Wellington.

Railroads, print publishing, and air travel come to mind.

Railroads of this era (of any gauge), worked because at the time labor was so cheap, every 50-100 miles you could have people unload the cars and put them in another freight car, even a different gauge.