Word: railroaded
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...Railroad baron William Henry Vanderbilt's scornful dismissal of rail patrons ("The public be damned"), which has shadowed the industry for more than a century, at last seems laid to rest. "We are customer driven; we tailor-make our service for our customers," says James Hagen, chairman of Conrail, a firm that was fabricated out of the bankrupt remains of dozens of lines, including the legendary New York Central and the Pennsylvania. Conrail lost $412 million in 1977, the first full year after it was birthed. Last year it made $282 million. Hagen and his cohorts in the rail business...
...Railroad talk is Brobdingnagian by nature. The lines bind every corner of America and are pushing increasingly into Mexico and Canada as trade builds. Those 12 top freight lines alone own 1,189,660 cars and 18,964 locomotives, which together could make a train that would stretch halfway around the globe...
...done and gone, which happened to be the last years of the cattle drives. Now it's, oh, 15 years later, maybe 20. Here's the start of the sequel, Streets of Laredo: " 'Most train robbers ain't smart, which is a lucky thing for the railroads,' Call said. 'Five smart train robbers could bust every railroad in this country.' 'This young Mexican is smart,' Brookshire said, but before he could elaborate, the wind lifted his hat right off his head...
Another if: more levees, soaked and pounded by rushing waters for weeks, could give way as the crest approaches or even after it passes. Early last Friday morning the Missouri River poured over the top of a railroad embankment being used as a levee in St. Charles County, Missouri, northwest of St. Louis. Its waters mingled with those swirling south from the Mississippi 20 miles sooner than usual, forcing several hundred people to join the 7,000 who had already evacuated. Then, Friday night, the Mississippi broke though a sand levee at West Quincy, Missouri, forcing closing of the Bayview...
...helicopter that flew over the St. Louis area last week to survey the damage and scout places where it might later land to evacuate flood victims. The seemingly endless expanse of water made visual navigation difficult by submerging the landmarks pilots usually look for. Long stretches of highway and railroad tracks were invisible; river islands had disappeared; the river channels themselves could not be distinguished from the water that had spread onto once dry land. Mountains of strip-mined coal that usually glisten in the sun south of St. Louis poked only their very tips above the water...