History Main / RailroadBaron

* Up in [[CanadaEh Canada]], major railroads like the Canadian Pacific Railway and later the Canadian National Railway started out as nation-building public works projects. The CPR, in particular, was explicitly meant as a way to link the west coast province of British Columbia with the other provinces and to ferry settlers out onto the Prairies as a way to strengthen Canadian and British claims to the land against American expansion. The CPR was also fraught with problems, everything from bribery scandals that caused the downfall of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's government to Louis Riel's resistances to Canadian expansion onto the Prairies, which were violently repressed in 1885, to difficulty in getting private capital, which nearly caused then-baron George Stephen to suffer a FreakOut, and the brutal treatment of immigrant, particularly Chinese, workers. CPR barons like William Cornelius Van Horne and Macdonald (who was a baron in a sense, since his government was directly involved in the CPR) have decidedly become {{Broken Base}}s in some circles today for these reasons.

* In the ''Comicbook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' WeirdWest {{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 [[Comicbook/WonderWoman Diana Prince]]. Lord eventually fights the Riders as Lord Havoc, in {{Steampunk}} PoweredArmour.

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.)

* George Russell, protagonist of ''Series/TheGildedAge'', 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.

* The entire point of ''VideoGame/RailwayEmpire'' is playing as one and competing against others. As your train company grows you have the opportunity to branch into running factories and raw material production sites such as farms and mines.

[[folder:Board Games]]
* All the players in ''1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons'', a railroad operations and share trading board game first published by Creator/AvalonHill in 1986 and based on the previous ''1829''. It heavily inspired ''Railroad Tycoon''.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In the ''Comicbook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' WeirdWest {{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 [[Comicbook/WonderWoman Diana Prince]]. Lord eventually fights the Riders as Lord Havoc, in {{Steampunk}} PoweredArmour.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In the ''Comicbook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' WeirdWest {{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 [[Comicbook/WonderWoman Diana Prince]]. Lord eventually fights the Riders as Lord Havoc, in {{Steampunk}} PoweredArmour.