History Main / RailroadBaron

* Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford and Charles Crocker, the "Big Four" of the Central Pacific Railroad. They controlled California state politics in the late nineteenth century.

* John Pierpont Morgan, though better remembered for the banking house that still bears his name today, invested heavily in railroads, and did so much to reorganize and merge lines that the process became known as "Morganization." Morgan and Hill's Northern Securities railroad trust was the target of UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt's first major antitrust lawsuit.

* John Pierpont Morgan, though better remembered for the banking house that still bears his name today, invested heavily in railroads, and did so much to reorganize and merge lines that the process became known as "Morganization." Morgan's Northern Securities railroad trust was the target of UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt's first major antitrust lawsuit.

* J. Pierpont Morgan, though better remembered as a banker.

* 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.

* The Railroad Colonel (that's what the character is credited as) in the movie ''RustlersRhapsody''.

* Thomas Magruder, from the video game ''VideoGame/{{Gun}}''. BigBad, but is only using his railroads to find [[spoiler: an enormous gold deposit]] that would make him incredibly wealthy and powerful.
* The Fat Controller of ''ThomasTheTankEngine''.

* James J. Hill
* Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt (so called because he also owned a vast steamboat network as well). This is also why the sports teams of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanderbilt_University Vanderbilt University]] (which is named after him; he provided the then-huge million-dollar endowment) are called the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanderbilt_Commodores Commodores]]."
* Jay Gould
* Diamond Jim Fisk
* Up in [[CanadaEh Canada]], they have William Cornelius Van Horne, for whom there's a bit of a BrokenBase. Some see him as a voice of reason and restraint in the otherwise muddled CPR project (after earlier barons caused a bribery scandal with the drunken, womanizing prime minister) and for actually finishing the damn Canadian Pacific Railway; to others he's a villain for the CPR's treatment of immigrant workers (they had to spend most of their income on food and lodging at the worksite, and ridiculously dangerous tasks).
* J. Pierpont Morgan, though better remembered as a banker
* E. H. Harriman
* George Hudson is probably the best known example in British history. Starting life as a humble draper's assistant in York, he came to embody the 'Railway Mania' of the 19th century. At the height of his power and influence he lauded as the 'Railway King', was elected as Lord Mayor of York and MP for Sunderland, and was close friends with such luminaries as George Stephenson and the Duke of Wellington (Hudson's advice on railway investments made the latter a huge fortune). His somewhat iffy business practices (he relied heavily on bribery) led to his eventual disgrace and downfall, though he retained several influential friends who supported him in his final years. One of the models for the fictional Augustus Melmotte in ''The Way We Live Now''; interestingly, author Anthony Trollope was an acquaintance of Hudson's nemesis George Leeman, who led the investigation into Hudson's dealings.

* Tom Garner in ''The Power and the Glory'' (tragic hero)
* A SherlockHolmes novel by Larry Millett had one of the big (real-life) railroad barons in Minnesota as Holmes's ally and, possibly, client.
* Harvey Cheyne's father in ''CaptainsCourageous'' averts most of the stereotype. He is treated as an often ruthless man but a more or less sympathetic one.
* Dagny Taggart of ''AtlasShrugged'' 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 RailroadBaron; Ayn Rand probably modeled him on James J. Hill.

* Augustus Melmotte, the villain of AnthonyTrollope's novel ''The Way We Live Now''. Appears to have been based in part on real life railway promoter George Hudson (see below).

--->-- ''OnceUponATimeInTheWest''

* Morton in ''OnceUponATimeInTheWest'' (villain)

* 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 MadScientist, the fourth one is basically a Fu Manchu ripoff).

* While not literally a railroad baron, in the Discworld novel ''GoingPostal'', Reacher Glit is definitely a clacks baron (clacks is like a telegraph) and very much dresses and acts the part.

!!Fictional Examples

Historically, they were expected to be generous with their money once they got it (and some of them actually were); but even the generous used these methods to acquire the money that they later gave away.

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* The second series of ''BleakExpectations'' features Emmett Sternbeater, who dupes Pip into building an entire railway network to pursue Gently Benevolent.

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!!RealLife Examples

-->'''Morton:''' How does it feel sitting behind that desk, Frank?

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* While not literally a railroad baron, in the Discworld novel ''GoingPostal'', Reacher Glit is definitely a clacks baron (clacks is like a telegraph) and very much dresses and acts the part.

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* Parodied quite humorously by Creator/MelBrooks himself as the corrupt governor who stands to profit from directing the railroad through the town in ''"BlazingSaddles"''.

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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.

* Sir Harry Percival in ''CatBallou'' (villain)
* Morton in ''OnceUponATimeInTheWest'' (villain)
* A Railroad Baron is seen briefly in ''Film/TheWildBunch'' and portrayed as worse (somehow) than the eponymous Bunch themselves.

* Parodied quite humorously by MelBrooks himself as the corrupt governor who stands to profit from directing the railroad through the town in ''"BlazingSaddles"''.

* Tom Garner in ''The Power and the Glory'' (tragic hero)

* Harvey Cheyne's father in ''CaptainsCourageous'' averts most of the stereotype. He is treated as an often ruthless man but a more or less sympathetic one.

* 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 MadScientist, the fourth one is basically a Fu Manchu ripoff).

* The Fat Controller of ''{{Thomas The Tank Engine}}''.

* James J. Hill

* Jay Gould
* Diamond Jim Fisk

<<|WesternCharacters|>>

* Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt (so called because he also owned a vast steamboat network as well). This is also why the sports teams of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanderbilt_University Vanderbilt University]] (which is named after him) are called the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanderbilt_University_Commodores Commodores]]."

* Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt (so called because he also owned a vast steamboat network as well)

* A Railroad Baron is seen briefly in ''TheWildBunch'' and portrayed as worse (somehow) than the titular Bunch themselves.

* A Railroad Baron is seen briefly in ''The Wild Bunch'' and portrayed as worse (somehow) than the titular Bunch themselves.
* [=McCabe=] in ''[=McCabe=] & Mrs. Miller'' is attacked by agents of a crooked railway baron's company after refusing to sell land to them.
* 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 MadScientist, the fourth one is basically a Fu Manchu ripoff).

* Parodied quite humorously by MelBrooks himself as the corrupt governor who stands to profit from directing the railroad through the town in ''"BlazingSaddles"''.
* 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.

* The Railroad Colonel (that's what the character is credited as) in the movie ''[=~Rustlers' Rhapsody~=]''.

* Thomas Magruder, from the video game ''VideoGame/{{Gun}}''. BigBad, but is only using his railroads to find [[spoiler: an enormous gold deposit]] that would make him incredibly wealthy and powerful.

* Becoming one is kind of the whole point of ''Railroad Tycoon''. Some campaigns even have you playing as one of the real life examples below.

Because AristocratsAreEvil, even "honorary" ones, Railroad Barons will usually be treated as an antagonist in stories. They'll have a ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney attitude, hire the PinkertonDetective to deal with anyone who crosses them from {{Outlaw}} to union organizer, and arbitrarily change planned rail routes for maximum personal profit or to fulfill a vendetta. In short, an early type of CorruptCorporateExecutive.

* The Fat Controller of {{Thomas The Tank Engine}}.
* Thomas Magruder, from the video game {{Gun}}. BigBad, but is only using his railroads to find [[spoiler: an enormous gold deposit]] that would make him incredibly wealthy and powerful.