How many different railroad trains have we had in the history of the U.S.?

Question

Union Pacific,ect.

Answer 1

You must mean companies, at least I hope you do. To describe to you how many actual trains the U.S. has had would take up all of the rest of our lives....There have been hundreds and hundreds of railroad companies total since the mid-1800's, everything from "mom&pops", to large corporations. Google railroad history in U.S., I'll bet you can get a pretty good estimate there....

Answer 2

To answer your question thoroughly would take hours upon hours as there have been hundreds and hundreds of railroad companies chartered and built since the early 19th century.  Having said, the classic "fallen flag" railroads that most historians and those interested in railroading study include just over 100 with roughly 50 or so that are well known such as the Santa Fe, New York Central, Union Pacific as you mentioned (the Union Pacific and Kansas City Southern are the last active Class Is never to have their name changed since the "fallen flag" era), Baltimore & Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Southern just to name a few.

For a history of some of these railroads check out the site below.

Answer 3

Both Railroads, and Trains would be difficult to count !!

I did a search a few weeks ago to answer another question, and the number of railroads (active) in the US was in the 90's.  In the pre-WWII timeframe there were several hundred.

Locomotives would be almost as difficult to count.

Answer 4

you need to go to wikepedia for this one.

east coast, west coast and middle america

could be hundreds and small rr and then larger

great question but this needs you to research it.

Answer 5

This is a very hard question to answer.  If you look at the railroads that are out there today and count all the mergers and buyouts that it took to get where they are today. The number is in the thousands.

I have a book about the history of the BNSF and it consists of over 400 railroads combined.

Then you would have to look at Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Kansas City Southern, not to mention the Canadian railroads like Canadian National and Canadian Pacific which have taken over some of the US company's like the Soo Line, Illinois Central and Wisconsin Central.

Then you have all the regional's, short lines, local, and the ones that just work the yards.

I know this probably isn't a very good answer but if you were to research this it would take a long time.

Answer 6

Progressive railroading magazine put the number at a little over 1700.  This includes the class ones (currently 9) to the short line railroads.