A boy traces the development of railroad engines from coal to steam to diesel as he recounts his family's experience of driving trains over the years.

The Great Iron Trail brilliantly recounts how the blood, sweat, tears and dollars of the dreamers, explorers, inventors, iron men, graders and financiers combined to build America's first transcontinental railroad. Only a century ago, the United States consisted of two littoral encampments on the East and West coasts. The perilous sailing trip around Cape Horn took from four to six months; the plague-ridden shortcut across the Panama Isthmus required...

Describes the development of the railroad in North America and its influence on the settling of the West during the nineteenth century.

"When an accident leaves Cassandra Barton incapacitated, she spends her time compiling a book of stories about the men working on the Santa Fe Railroad. But worry grows as revolutionaries set out to destroy the railroad. As the danger intensifies, Cassie and her longtime friend Brandon must rely on their faith to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way"-- San Marcial, New Mexico. Cassandra Barton has found joy in her work as a seamstress, but...

Combines an account of Robert Louis Stevenson's experiences as he traveled from New York to California by train in 1879 and a description of the building and operation of railroads in nineteenth-century America.