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Railroad Baron
- 175 statements
- 33 feature instances
- 27 referencing feature instances
| Railroad Baron | type |
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Railroad Baron | |
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| Railroad Baron | comment |
The owner/president/majority stockholder of a large and successful railroad. In the latter half of the 19th Century, owning a major railroad was a great way to get and stay rich. Not just because of fees for carrying passengers and freight, but land grants giving the railroads large easements on either side of the tracks, which could then be rented out or sold. This trope is largely a North American phenomenon even though Great Britain and continental Europe saw their share of private railroads built with domestic capital. On the continent, many private lines were nationalized for national defense reasons or built by the government in the first place. In Latin America, capital for railroad ventures often came from the same North American (and sometimes European) rail barons as those in North America. They could - and did - do with governments of some "Banana Republics" as they pleased, so great was their power. In fiction, the Railroad Baron will be dressed ostentatiously, with a gold pocket watch, fat cigars and other expensive accessories. They didn't call it The Gilded Age for nothing. Most of them will be middle-aged or older, and an expansive paunch is common. (One theory is that this stylized image was a mirror of their enormous and overbearing economic presence. Another theory is that it's just that most of them were rather fat, in a time when most people were lean from expensive or inadequate food.) Because Aristocrats Are Evil, even "honorary" ones, Railroad Barons will usually be treated as an antagonist in stories. They'll have a Screw the Rules, I Have Money! attitude, hire the Pinkerton Detective to deal with anyone who crosses them from Outlaw to union organizer, try to drive the Determined Homesteader off of his property so he can buy it up cheap, and arbitrarily change planned rail routes for maximum personal profit or to fulfill a vendetta. In short, an early type of Corrupt Corporate Executive, closely associated with the term robber baron. If his villainy is particularly exaggerated, this archetype may also overlap with Dastardly Whiplash. Historically, they were expected to be generous with their money once they got it (and some of them actually were); but even the generous often used these methods to acquire the money that they later gave away. What did them in eventually was the mass availability of the "horseless carriage" and billions upon billions of government subsidies for it. About the only time you'll see a Railroad Baron being treated neutrally is in stories about the Transcontinental Railroad being joined up. Compare Cattle Baron. Examples |
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| Railroad Baron / int_19a96531 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_19a96531 | comment |
McCabe in McCabe & Mrs. Miller is attacked by agents of a crooked railway baron's company after refusing to sell land to them. | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_1a89d675 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_1a89d675 | comment |
Becoming one is the goal of Railroad Tycoon. Some campaigns even have you play as one of the Real Life barons. | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_1b5eb3b4 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_1b5eb3b4 | comment |
Raising Steam: Harry King becomes the Disc's first Railroad Baron, much to his delight, as it allows him to leave a legacy other than his night soil business. Unusually for the trope, he's a benevolent Honest Corporate Executive — by Ankh-Morpork standards, at least: he might be a gangster of sorts, but he does right by his employees and takes care to give fair compensation to the engineer who designs the rail system. | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_20191a57 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_20191a57 | comment |
The second series of Bleak Expectations features Emmett Sternbeater, who dupes Pip into building an entire railway network to pursue Gently Benevolent. Along the way, numerous idyllic English villages, orphanages and butterfly sanctuaries are levelled, and dozens of workers killed, all in the name of "progress". | |
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Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_38c57aa2 | comment |
Eberron: Kwanti d'Orien is a literal Baron and Patriarch of House Orien, which owns and operates the setting's Magitek Lightning Rail. Far from being Idle Rich, he's very active in the House and conscientious about keeping the Rail running smoothly. | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_453a04b0 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_453a04b0 | comment |
The Fairly Oddparents: In "Dad Back in Time", Timmy learns that once of his ancestors, Ebenezer Turner, was offered a chance of becoming a railroad baron but turned it down because he thought trains were just a fad. As a result, Ebenezer became the town crier and spent his life crying over the lost opportunity and Orville Buxaplenty became the town's local railroad baron. Timmy wishes Ebenezer had accepted the offer and it creates a timeline where Timmy's parents carelessly destroyed the town with their trains. | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_468bebb0 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_468bebb0 | comment |
Discworld: While not literally a railroad baron, in the novel Going Postal, Reacher Gilt is definitely a clacks baron (clacks is like a telegraph) and very much dresses and acts the part. He's also a Corrupt Corporate Executive who plans to bankrupt the system, make off with the money, and leave his employees destitute. Then Moist von Lipwig happens to him. Raising Steam: Harry King becomes the Disc's first Railroad Baron, much to his delight, as it allows him to leave a legacy other than his night soil business. Unusually for the trope, he's a benevolent Honest Corporate Executive — by Ankh-Morpork standards, at least: he might be a gangster of sorts, but he does right by his employees and takes care to give fair compensation to the engineer who designs the rail system. |
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| Railroad Baron / int_4c8121de | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_4c8121de | comment |
The entire point of Railway Empire is playing as one and competing against others. Players make money transporting customers and mail between cities and raw materials from places such as farms and mines to cities where they are processed into manufactured goods. As your train company grows you have the opportunity to branch into buying factories and raw material production sites. The available characters are: Roger Smith, the most conventional example of the trope. Jonathan Johnson, A former army general. Don Lorenzo, a mob boss. Doc Murphy, a mad scientist. Beatrix von Pomp, a posh lady. Tricia Jones, a country girl. |
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| Railroad Baron / int_4f407fe5 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_4f407fe5 | comment |
In the Justice League of America Weird West Elseworld Justice Riders, Maxwell Lord is a ruthless railroad baron who uses alien technology to create robot railworkers, and employs Felix Faust to wipe out any town that's in his way. Unfortunately for him, one of these towns is the home of Sheriff Diana Prince. Lord eventually fights the Riders as Lord Havoc, in Steampunk Powered Armour. | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_66716b89 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_66716b89 | comment |
Tom Garner in The Power and the Glory (1933) is an even earlier example. His thirst for power eventually ruins his marriage and his life. | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_6e884bf9 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_6e884bf9 | comment |
A Wing Dings blackout on Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines posits that Dick Dastardly owns a railroad. As he and Zilly sit atop one of the cars, Zilly asks about an upcoming bridge. | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_74365738 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_74365738 | comment |
While not literally a railroad baron, in the novel Going Postal, Reacher Gilt is definitely a clacks baron (clacks is like a telegraph) and very much dresses and acts the part. He's also a Corrupt Corporate Executive who plans to bankrupt the system, make off with the money, and leave his employees destitute. Then Moist von Lipwig happens to him. | |
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Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_7460586f | comment |
Cheryl/Carol in Archer is an heiress of the Tunt family, an expy of the Vanderbilts (see below) in owning a large railway system, a mansion and opulent hotel in Midtown Manhattan, and "several Cornelii". | |
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Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_82a2b161 | comment |
Sir Harry Percival in Cat Ballou (villain) | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_84ff036b | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_84ff036b | comment |
The Old Gods of Appalachia podcast has a few, but none quite embodies this like the figure known as the Railroad Man. Normally appearing as a slimy, if approachable company exec who simply states he's "from the railroad," he appears as a fairly normal agent of progress and industry spreading his business. However, unlike the Witches of the Green and the Old Things of the Inner Dark, the Railroad Man follows Neil Gaiman rules; he literally came from the railroad, or rather, the creation of it, with all the blood, sacrifice, and human lives lost in the name of progress and the wealth that it represents. | |
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Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_90a8d77c | comment |
George Russell, protagonist of The Gilded Age, is a classic robber baron. He uses his vast wealth to bully and overpower smaller enterprises and thereby grow even richer. Much of what he does is legal for his time period but would get outlawed in later decades, such as insider trading with political collusion. | |
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Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_94773662 | comment |
Morton in Once Upon a Time in the West (villain), though The Dragon Frank is portrayed as far worse, murdering a family that Morton only wants intimidated. He is portrayed with at least some sympathy, given that he's a Visionary Villain who views his transcontinental railroad as a worthy cause, and ends up dying before he sees it completed. | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_98bab0e5 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_98bab0e5 | comment |
Baron Rorgueil in Aviary Attorney. | |
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Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_9a3d06ff | comment |
The Most Hated Man In The Southern States is about the rise and fall John Ephraim Haynes, a Southern railroad entrepreneur who builds the most powerful and lucrative rail line in the American South just before the Civil War — and whose actions during said war earn him his title and ultimately destroy his business. | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_a451444d | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_a451444d | comment |
Thomas Magruder, from the video game Gun. Big Bad, but is only using his railroads to find an enormous gold deposit that would make him incredibly wealthy and powerful. | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_b11e29d2 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
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In the Outlaw Star fanfic A Fistful of Dragonite Fred Luo is cast as a kindly one, the target of assassins who, once rescued, is quite happy to share some of his wealth with the protagonists. | |
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Railroad Baron | |
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Harvey Cheyne's father in Captains Courageous averts most of the stereotype. He is treated as an often ruthless man but a more or less sympathetic one. | |
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Railroad Baron | |
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My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic features trains a lot. The story The Iron Horse: Everything's Better With Robots! depicts a minotaur named Cornelius Vanderbull as the owner of the largest railroad company in Equestria. | |
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Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_cd899ed6 | comment |
One of these is the antagonist of the Grand Finale of Little House on the Prairie, and he gets a Near-Villain Victory by purchasing the land Walnut Grove is built on right out from under its citizens. The reason this is a "near victory" is because he was expecting the people of Walnut Grove to stay on the town (and so he would be able to make them his employees) or allow themselves to be kicked out by the U.S. Army (so he could populate Walnut Grove with his employees)... but instead the people of Walnut Grove decide to thumb up their noses to the baron by blowing the whole town sky-high and leaving with whatever they can pack into a few carriages. The baron gets even more egg on his face when the Army refuses to arrest the citizens for the fact (they owned the houses, the baron only owned the land) and people from other towns threaten to do the same if the baron buys their land. | |
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Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_d006497f | comment |
A Railroad Baron is seen briefly in The Wild Bunch and portrayed as worse (somehow) than the eponymous Bunch themselves. | |
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Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_d4d8ce5f | comment |
Most of the railway owners in the Deadlands roleplaying setting are pure evil (one of them uses a zombie workforce, the other one uses evil witches as enforcers, the third one is a Mad Scientist, the fourth one is basically a Fu Manchu ripoff). | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_dd3fe595 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_dd3fe595 | comment |
Dagny Taggart of Atlas Shrugged is pretty much the inverse of every stereotype of the Railroad Baron. Her railroad's founder, Nathaniel Taggart, is the idealized version of the stereotypical Railroad Baron; Ayn Rand probably modeled him on James J. Hill. Dagny's brother, James Taggart, almost fits this trope. However, due to his incompetence, Dagny (for the most part) runs the company, while he seeks political influence. |
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Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_ddd4b174 | comment |
This trope is the reason why some of the properties in Monopoly are railroads. | |
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Railroad Baron | |
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The god of railroads briefly shows up in this form in American Gods before the final battle. He doesn't look too healthy, as it's stated earlier that the railroads used to have their own gods who are now forgotten what with the advent of gods of the cars and airplanes. | |
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Railroad Baron | |
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Leviticus Cornwall, one of the main antagonists from Red Dead Redemption 2. | |
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| Railroad Baron / int_dfafaa10 | type |
Railroad Baron | |
| Railroad Baron / int_dfafaa10 | comment |
The Fat Controller in The Railway Series (Sir Topham Hatt in Thomas & Friends) fits the stereotypical appearance as a stout man in a top-hat but, while stern and businesslike, is also sympathetic to his engines and certainly not evil. In addition, Sodor's railways are probably nationalised (in the two books written before the nationalisation of UK railways, he was the Fat Director), so he doesn't have the financial motives of most rail barons. | |
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Railroad Baron | |
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The Railroad Colonel (that's what the character is credited as) in the movie Rustlers' Rhapsody. | |
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A Sherlock Holmes novel by Larry Millett had one of the big (real-life) railroad barons in Minnesota as Holmes's ally and, possibly, client. | |
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