Even in areas where trains no longer run, their influence is recalled in the copious trace evidence that remains of their passing. (Lest one overstate the case, it should be noted that railroads are enjoying something of a renaissance in many areas, as they are able to transport goods in a safer, more environmentally friendly manner than many other modes of transportation.)
Railroads, like insurance companies, steamship companies and similar private concerns, once were allowed to issue their own currency (this was before federal regulation of banking was instituted by most modern industrial nations). This currency, which was almost exclusively banknotes (not coinage), frequently featured vignettes of a railroad company's rolling stock, making such notes quite attractive to a wide range of collectors (in the United States alone, over 800 varieties of these notes were issued during the 19th century):
Sovereign nations also have issued banknotes in commemoration of railroads' contributions to society, as well as numerous coins commemorating such contributions:
These numismatic collectibles often are collected alongside the stocks and bonds that were issued to capitalize railroad company operations (the collection of these latter items is termed scripophily). These stocks and bonds invariably feature attractive vignettes of railroad stock and/or operations:
Understandably, such collectibles have given rise to a number of books that seek to track, enumerate and contextualize such collectibles:
Railroads also have been commemorated on a wide range of stamps, which likewise has required publication of a number of books that seek to track, enumerate and contextualize these philatelic emissions:
What many folks may not know is that railroads themselves once offered postal services. In the United States, for example,
[t]he Railway Mail Service revolutionized the way mail was processed by sorting mail aboard moving trains. Railway mail service began in 1832, but grew slowly until the Civil War. In 1862, mail was sorted en route, as a train moved between two points. The idea proved to be exceptionally successful, and as the postal service decentralized its operations, it concentrated on sorting much of the growing volume of mail while it was being carried on the nation's rail lines....
Use of this service in the United States reached its peak during World War II, and thereafter experienced a gradual decline until officially terminated on 30 June 1977. As might be expected, surviving examples of mail which carries a railroad cancellation mark is highly collectible:
And yes, there are a bunch of books devoted specifically to this railroad collectible as well:
But none of these items has produced anywhere near the vast number of books that track, enumerate and contextualize what arguably is the greatest of all railroad collectibles....
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