He spent years chasing a train that vanished in 1893. It was always going to arrive eventually.
The boom in railroad construction during the 19th century saw many American cities and towns connected in ways hitherto unimagined, with travel times reduced from days to mere hours. Major lines stretched across the country, with smaller branches reaching out to more remote villages and settlements. The locomotive thundered its way over the land, replacing the canal and the horse as the transportation method of choice for both freight and passengers. The economic downturn of 1893 saw many railway companies go bankrupt and others bought and consolidated. The unprofitable lines, both major and branch, were either improved and incorporated into other lines or were decommissioned and left to rot as monuments to the ever-shifting tides of capitalism.
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