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Taggart Transcontinental Railroad (view source)
Revision as of 20:26, June 20, 2009
, 20:26, June 20, 2009no edit summary
The '''Taggart Transcontinental Railroad''', in [[Ayn Rand]]'s [[novel]] ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', was the [[railroad]] founded in the nineteenth century by Nathaniel Taggart and, during the period of the novel's action, run by [[James Taggart]] as President and [[Dagny Taggart]] as Vice-President in Charge of Operations. It was the one thing to which Dagny Taggart clung as the economy of the [[United States]] continued to crumble. The final collapse of the TTRR occurred when the [[Taggart Bridge]] across the [[Mississippi River]] was cut in half by the detonation of [[Project X]], after which Dagny Taggart finally joined the [[strike]] of the men of the mind called by [[John Galt]].
The '''Taggart Transcontinental Railroad''', in [[Ayn Rand]]'s [[novel]] ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', was the [[railroad]] founded in the nineteenth century by Nathaniel Taggart and, during the period of the novel's action, run by [[James Taggart]] as President and [[Dagny Taggart]] as Vice-President in Charge of Operations. It was the one thing to which Dagny Taggart clung as the economy of the [[United States]] continued to crumble. The final collapse of the TTRR occurred when the [[Taggart Bridge]] across the [[Mississippi River]] was cut in half by the detonation of [[Project X]], after which Dagny Taggart finally joined the [[strike]] of the men of the mind called by [[John Galt]].
{{spoiler}}
== Founding ==
The Taggart Transcontinental Railroad was founded in the middle of the nineteenth century by Nathaniel Taggart, who by all accounts given in the novel was a flamboyant and fearless tycoon and innovator. He was never quoted as saying anything quite as audacious as what a certain railroad man in [[South America]] is reported to have said:{{cquote|Anywhere a [[llama]] can go, I can take a train.}}
But Nathaniel Taggart seems to have approached the building of a railroad with that same spirit. He blasted and drilled an eight-mile-long [[tunnel]] through the [[Continental Divide]] near Winston, [[Colorado]]; the [[Taggart Tunnel]] would remain until it was demolished in 1929 in a tragic accident involving a passenger limited and a special train carrying [[ammunition]]. And he built what eventually became the only railway bridge across the [[Mississippi River]]: the [[Taggart Bridge]], that would become a symbol of connection between the eastern and western [[United States]].
Nathaniel Taggart also gained a reputation for ruthlessness. In the novel is attributed to him this quote which in real life is attributed to "Commodore" [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]] of the [[New York Central Railroad]]:{{cquote|The public be d****d.}} More ominously, when a certain [[United States Congress]]man attempted to block one of his initiatives with a law that Taggart saw as serving no higher purpose than to obstruct him, Taggart had the man murdered. The offending bill died with that politician. This last episode is important because his granddaughter [[Dagny Taggart]] would threaten to do something similar if any politicians tried to stop one of her own initiatives.
== Decline and Collapse ==
In 1917, Nathaniel Taggart's grandson [[James Taggart]] was in charge of the railroad, and James' sister [[Dagny Taggart]] was its Vice President in Charge of Operations. The management styles of Nathaniel Taggart's grandchildren could not have been more different. Dagny Taggart ran her department with the same flair for innovation and disregard for politicians' wishes that characterized Nathaniel Taggart's own administration. But Jim Taggart was as much politician as railroad executive, and sought to increase the profits of his company by forming political alliances rather than through productive labor.
=== The San Sebastian Line ===
As a railroad president, Jim Taggart was a disaster. For example, he build a railway line into [[Mexico]] in order to profit from the San Sebastian [[copper mine]]s, little realizing that the People's State of Mexico was sure to nationalize the line and the mines. Jim was satisfied with a document that "guaranteed" the property rights of the TTRR for two hundred years; that guarantee would soon prove worthless. The only reason why the TTRR did not lose more than it did was that Dagny Taggart reduced service on the line to one passenger train a day, and one freight train every other day, pulled by the most superannuated of [[locomotive]]s and using the most dilapidated rolling stock that the TTRR owned. When [[nationalization]] came, Jim Taggart took credit for these moves, though he had tried to browbeat Dagny into canceling them, without result. Jim and Dagny would learn later that the San Sebastian Mines themselves were as worthless as the Mexican government's "guarantees" had been—though Jim Taggart would probably never appreciate the reason for that.
=== The Rio Norte Line ===
The effort spent on the San Sebastian Line caused the Rio Norte Line in [[Colorado]] to deteriorate. Wrecks were a frequent occurrence, to the point at which a rival railroad, the Phoenix-Durango Railroad, started to take business away from the TTRR in Colorado.
Jim Taggart's response was to influence the National Alliance of Railroads to promulgate "The Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule" to force the Phoenix-Durango to leave Colorado. Dagny's response was a crash program to save the Rio Norte Line, by laying rail of [[Henry Rearden#Rearden Metal|Rearden Metal]], a newly invented metal that, while lighter than [[steel]], was still stronger. Jim proved a very feckless manager in that affair, and at one point Dagny Taggart formed her own company to take over the Rio Norte Line and complete the construction on her own, so that the TTRR would not be at any financial risk. Dagny's efforts were successful, and the Rio Norte Line, briefly renamed the [[John Galt]] Line, opened to much fanfare.
=== The Destruction of Colorado ===
The John Galt LIne caused a boom in Colorado, which in this version of [[alternate history]] was the one State in the [[United States]] with the smallest government and the lowest level of [[tax]]ation and regulatory interference. But the machinations of the ruling clique in [[Washington, DC]], machinations in which Jim Taggart had a hand, destroyed the once-favorable economic conditions in Colorado. Ultimately, the Rio Norte Line had insufficient traffic to pay for its upkeep, and its Rearden Metal rails, which had held up remarkably well, were needed to replace worn-out rail on the TTRR's main transcontinental line. And so the Rio Norte Line was closed, and its track torn up. It would not be replaced until after the "strike of the men of the mind" was over.
=== The Frozen Bond Scandal ===
This would have been a scandal had the [[Mainstream Media|media]] not surrendered itself to the whims of the ruling party. Essentially, under [[Directive 10-289]], certain bonds issued to finance railroad construction were "frozen," which is to say, not payable. But a well-connected man might buy "frozen" bonds, for pennies on the dollar, and then prevail upon his Washington connections to "defreeze" them. At least one person who made money in this unethical manner is mentioned as a passenger who died in the [[Taggart Tunnel]] collapse.
=== The Frozen Trains ===
The more enduring consequence of Directive 10-289 were the "frozen trains." Quite often, the conductor, engineer, fireman, and other members of a train crew would stop a train in a rural region and simply walk away from it. The problem began with the Directive and continued until the end of the railroad later in 1929. Even the Taggart Comet, the TTRR's flagship passenger limited, was not immune to such "freezing." In fact, Dagny Taggart disappeared from one such "frozen train" for a month, before resurfacing at a small [[airport]] in Colorado on or near July 1.
=== The Railroad Unification Plan ===
In June of 1929, Jim Taggart made his most infamous achievement: the Railroad Unification Plan, under which all railroads would operate as a team, pool their revenues, and then receive payment in proportion to trackage owned, not necessarily for services rendered. Under this regime, TTRR's profits swelled, mainly because the TTRR was paid for owning miles of useless track that served no one. This cooperation did have its price, however. The TTRR received no remuneration from any other railroad for passage across the [[Taggart Bridge]], but that was a minor annoyance. Of greater consequence was that the Director of Unification ([[Cuffy Meigs]]) might cancel service at any time in order to lay on special trains to haul some of the strangest special cargoes imaginable, varying from [[grapefruit]] to [[soybean]]s.
=== The Minnesota Wheat Disaster ===
In the fall of 1929, hundreds of freight cars were diverted from [[Minnesota]], where they had been intended to pick up a cargo of [[wheat]], to [[Louisiana]], to pick up soybeans instead. The result was the worst famine that the United States of America ever suffered, and this no doubt contributed to the stresses that led, finally, to the collapse of American society into [[anarchy]]. The entire Minnesota wheat crop was lost, and several farmers died trying to carry their wheat to market on their own backs. Ironically, the soybean crop spoiled en route and was declared unfit for human consumption.
=== The Final Collapse ===
Finally, the day came in which American history, as Americans had known it, drew to a close. This was the day that Dagny Taggart had finally decided to join the strike of the men of the mind, and also to collaborate with [[Francisco d'Anconia]] and [[Ragnar Danneskjold]] in their attempt to rescue [[John Galt]], who had been arrested weeks before. That day was marked by three events, in rapid succesion:
# The embarrassment of the government by [[John Galt]], who famously told them, on national [[television]], to "get the *** out of [his] way."
# The detonation of [[Project X]] and with it the destruction of [[Iowa]]
# The demolition of the [[Taggart Bridge]]. This was a direct result of the Project X detonation, because it was at the limit of the Project's range.
Dagny Taggart declared that, for once, she did not know what to do about the disaster any more than did the breathless employees who brought her the news. When the story broke in [[New York City]], millions of people loaded their belongings onto the roofs of their cars and drove out any way that they could. This was the final trigger for the anarchy that marked the end of the strike, and of the government.
=== Aftermath ===
In the next spring, Dagny Taggart essentially rebuilt the entire Taggart Transcontinental system from scratch. Her first line was a line that probably never connected to any other part of the system: a three-mile railway line from the D'Anconia No. 1 copper mine to the floor of [[Galt's Gulch]]. Probably her first line after that was the re-establishment of service between New York and [[Philadelphia]].
{{endspoiler}}
{{nb Atlas}}
{{nb Atlas}}
[[Category:Literary Figures]]
[[Category:Literary Figures]]