Synopses & Reviews
The Indiana Rail Road Company is a story of extraordinary success among the scores of independent short line and regional railroads spawned in the wake of railroad deregulation. Christopher Rund chronicles the development of the company from its origins as part of America's first land grant railroad, the Illinois Central, through the political and financial juggling required by entrepreneur Tom Hoback to purchase the line when it fell into disrepair. Reborn as a robust, profitable carrier, the INRD has become a model for the new American regional railroad. This revised edition, with a new foreword by acclaimed author Fred Frailey and four new chapters, brings readers up to date on Tom Hoback's amazing railroad adventure.
Review
"Simultaneously a history of U.S. railroad industry and the biography of Hoback, this is an engrossing cultural and economic overview of how the aching railroad industry can be re-aligned as a viable backbone of the U.S. economy." --Nuvo Indiana University Press
About the Author
Christopher Rund is a senior marketing communications writer and Assistant Vice President of Corporate Services and Public Relations for The Indiana Rail Road Company.
Fred W. Frailey is author of Southern Pacific's Blue Streak Merchandise; Rolling Thunder; Zephyrs, Chiefs and Other Orphans; and Twilight of the Great Trains (IUP, 2010).
Eric Powell is a railroad historian and photographer whose work has appeared in Trains and Railfan and Railroad.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Fred W. Frailey
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Rise and Rationalization of the Mainline of Mid-America
2. A Time to Build
3. The Postmodernist Empire Builder
4. Life along the Railroad
5. Trestles and Tunnels
6. Run It Like a Business
7. Growing Pains
8. Rebuilding a Relic
9. It's About Results
10. Hiawatha in Hoosierland
11. The Right Time - Fred W.Frailey
12. Change is Inevitable
13. November 17, 2009: A Day in the Life of The Indiana Rail Road Company - Fred W. Frailey
Appendix: Up and Down the Line
Notes
Index