Episode 149: Off Track (ad-free)

History has proven just how good humans are at improving things, from weapons and tools to medicine and education. But some advancements come at a price, while creating some horrifying folklore in the process.

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Further Reading

1. “Largest Collection Of Ancient Surgical Tools Was Found Here, Not At Pompeii,” Forbes, Feb 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2018/02/28/largest-collection-of-ancient-surgical-tools-was-found-here-not-at-pompeii/#233459c0317f.
2. “American Railroads in the 20th Century,” Smithsonian Institute, https://americanhistory.si.edu/america-on-the-move/essays/american-railroads.
3. “The Beginnings of American Railroads and Mapping,” Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/collections/railroad-maps-1828-to-1900/articles-and-essays/history-of-railroads-and-maps/the-beginnings-of-american-railroads-and-mapping.
4. “Bostian Bridge Train Wreck,” NCPedia, 2006, https://ncpedia.org/bostian-bridge-train-wreck.
5. “Casey Jones,” Biography, April 2019, https://www.biography.com/personality/casey-jones.
6. Cleveland Moffett, “Stories from the Archives of the Pinkerton Detective Agency,” in McClure’s Magazine, vol. 4, 549-554, S.S. McClure Company, 1985.
7. “Community Dreams,” Smithsonian Institute, https://americanhistory.si.edu/america-on-the-move/community-dreams.
8. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, February 12, 1887.
9. “The Ghost Train of Bostian’s Bridge,” NCPedia, December 2010, https://ncpedia.org/culture/legends/bostian-ghost-train.
10. “Ghost Trains,” Virginia Lamkin, Seeks Ghosts, 22 December 2013, https://seeksghosts.blogspot.com/2013/12/ghost-trains.html.
11. “Ghost Trains: A Haunting Look Behind the Legends,” The Occult Museum, http://www.theoccultmuseum.com/ghost-trains-haunting-look-behind-legends.
12. “Ghost Trains: Real or Legend?,” The Ghost Diaries, February 2016, http://theghostdiaries.com/ghost-trains-real-or-legend.
13. “The Haunted Railroad Bridge,” Vermonter, https://vermonter.com/haunted-railroad-bridge.
14. “A History of American Protest Music: This Is the Hammer That Killed John Henry,” Tom Maxwell, Longreads, 4 October 2017, https://longreads.com/2017/10/04/a-history-of-american-protest-music-this-is-the-hammer-that-killed-john-henry.
15. J. A. Ferguson, “The Wrong Rail in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time,” Vermont History Journal, Vol. 81 (2013): 52.
16. “Lincoln’s Phantom Train,” A Grave Interest, 26 April 2013, http://agraveinterest.blogspot.com/2013/04/lincolns-phantom-train.html.
17. “Lincoln’s Phantom Train,” Virginia Lamkin, Seeks Ghosts, 4 November 2014, https://seeksghosts.blogspot.com/2014/11/lincolns-phantom-train.html.
18. “North Carolina Ghost Train, Bostian Bridge 1891,” LeAnne Carey, The Pamlico Porch, 8 October 2018, https://www.thepamlicoporch.com/blog/2018/10/8/north-carolina-ghost-train-bostian-bridge-1891-statesville-nc.
19. Paul Adams, The Little Book of Ghosts (The History Press, 2014). 
20. “Railroad History: A Timeline,” American Rails, https://www.american-rails.com/history.html.
21. “Railroads in the 20th Century, the 1900s,” American Rails, https://www.american-rails.com/1900s.html.
22. “The Reno brothers carry out the first train robbery in U.S. history,” History, 2 October 2019, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-u-s-train-robbery.
23. Scott Reynolds Nelson, Steel Drivin’ Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend (Oxford University Press, 4 August 2008), p. 224.
24. “Transportation in America before 1876,” Smithsonian Institute, https://americanhistory.si.edu/america-on-the-move/transportation-1876.