Railroads after a Confederate Victory

GameBawesome

GameBawesome

To give a great oversimplification, after the Civil War or between 1870s to 1890s, the United States entered an industrial era, where new railways expanded across the nation, creating a new and more connected network across teh nation
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With a POD I've been using for most of my CSA Victory asks: In a POD where the Confederate States of America won independence around 1862, with international recognition from Britain and France, and war-wariness from Copperheads and Civilians of the North. In the post war borders, the CSA gains its seceded territories, and Confederate Arizona, and the Indian Territory gains independence, as both sides wasn't willing to give it up in the peace treaty, so they pulled a Uruguay. However, the CSA does not get any of the border-states, including Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, West Virginia (Who gets more territory to protect DC)
1632682870370.png


With that all out of the way, and with the nation divided into mainly two parts, how would this possibly effect railroads in the coming decades?
 
durante

durante

GameBawesome said:
To give a great oversimplification, after the Civil War or between 1870s to 1890s, the United States entered an industrial era, where new railways expanded across the nation, creating a new and more connected network across teh nation
View attachment 802395

With a POD I've been using for most of my CSA Victory asks: In a POD where the Confederate States of America won independence around 1862, with international recognition from Britain and France, and war-wariness from Copperheads and Civilians of the North. In the post war borders, the CSA gains its seceded territories, and Confederate Arizona, and the Indian Territory gains independence, as both sides wasn't willing to give it up in the peace treaty, so they pulled a Uruguay. However, the CSA does not get any of the border-states, including Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, West Virginia (Who gets more territory to protect DC)
View attachment 802396

With that all out of the way, and with the nation divided into mainly two parts, how would this possibly effect railroads in the coming decades?
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CSA would probably want a transcontinental that doesnt terminate in the USA, so a Savannah-Tijuana line seems likely. Timing could be from the time of the UP or from the time of the Canadian Pacific (1870s & 1880s).

Railways would be a source of foreign capital investment and could serve to link the CSA to European markets.

Interesting to see which positions become predominately African-American in the CSA. Conductors and (Locomotive) Engineers will probably be jealously guarded for whites, but track workers have a good chance of being a predominately AA position.
 
Gabingston

Gabingston

durante said:
Interesting to see which positions become predominately African-American in the CSA. Conductors and (Locomotive) Engineers will probably be jealously guarded for whites, but track workers have a good chance of being a predominately AA position.
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Most of the track layers would probably be slaves, I'm guessing.
 

jmc247

Gabingston said:
Most of the track layers would probably be slaves, I'm guessing.
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A 19th century Florida railroad crew.

antibellum.webp


But, yes one of the things that stands out looking over the northern and southern wartime rolls pertaining to how they dealt with logistics is the South gave slaves the menial tasks while they gave FPC's (free persons of color) and FMC's (free men of color) the more skilled tasks.

Miller-Paul-1.jpg[img]
 
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Orangeduke38

One issue would be the unification of railroads on 1 gauge since I believe there were several in use throughout the South at this point.
 

jmc247

Orangeduke38 said:
One issue would be the unification of railroads on 1 gauge since I believe there were several in use throughout the South at this point.
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Many of the states resisted Davis's attempts to bring federal oversight to the railroad system. When Davis tried to federalize some of Georgia's state railroad assets for reasons of wartime necessity the governor of Georgia threatened armed conflict over the supposed violation of state sovereignty.
 
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Dude-a-Buck

Would a railway project be legal under the Confederate constitution? It's my understanding that the document prohibition many types of infrastructure projects.
 
Ex Nihilo

Ex Nihilo

Dude-a-Buck said:
Would a railway project be legal under the Confederate constitution? It's my understanding that the document prohibition many types of infrastructure projects.
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Yes. Article 1, Section 8, Subsection 3 which read as follows:
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes; but neither this, nor any other clause contained in the Constitution, shall ever be construed to delegate the power to Congress to appropriate money for any internal improvement intended to facilitate commerce; except for the purpose of furnishing lights, beacons, and buoys, and other aids to navigation upon the coasts, and the improvement of harbors and the removing of obstructions in river navigation; in all which cases such duties shall be laid on the navigation facilitated thereby as may be necessary to pay the costs and expenses thereof.
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BELFAST

BELFAST

Railroads in the CSA would rely on the private sector or the states to build new railroads, not the government of Richmond.
internal improvements was one of the issues that the southern states complained about it the antebellum period.
Railroads are not as needed in the CSA due to the number of navigatable rivers there. Railroads were mostly used to like to the nearest river transport.
Even today river transport is much cheaper for bulk cargo than railroads.
Northern states might have less money to spend without the hard currency generated by southern cash crop exports.
 
BELFAST

BELFAST

Dude-a-Buck said:
So now we come to the question, do the Confederates amend this portion of the constitution or do they just give up on a national railway system?
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Probably not.
The railroads were seen as being very wasteful in the southern states with a lot of corruption(land speculation) and overcharging by the companies that built them.
 
AlternateEagle

AlternateEagle

Would American railroad companies or magnates want to invest in the south, or would the US CSA border be heavily defended? Would the southerners block yankee business to the south?
 
BELFAST

BELFAST

AlternateEagle said:
Would American railroad companies or magnates want to invest in the south, or would the US CSA border be heavily defended? Would the southerners block yankee business to the south?
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The British might invest in railroads in the south if there was profit to be made and they could supply the equipment without tariffs.
 

Daylight Savings

BELFAST said:
The British might invest in railroads in the south if there was profit to be made and they could supply the equipment without tariffs.
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But would there be an interest? Railroads would mostly foster internal growth and aid in industrialization. Britain and France are interested in the CSA's cash crops and as stated above the planters looked to rivers for that.
 
BELFAST

BELFAST

Daylight Savings said:
But would there be an interest? Railroads would mostly foster internal growth and aid in industrialization. Britain and France are interested in the CSA's cash crops and as stated above the planters looked to rivers for that.
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Industrialisation on a large scale might have to wait for air conditioning. much of the south was too hot in the summer for factories or large numbers of people to want to live there.
Higher temperatures are good for cash crops in the south but worse for industry.
 
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Henry1066

Banned
I some times wonder if this idears would work better as an fantasy story because it's too close to reality

Is why the show runners of game of thrones Dan bennyhoff and DB West couldn't get there show confederate made

Being an alternative timeline where the confederacy won
 
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