History Main / RailroadBaron

* In the [[Manga/OutlawStar Outlaw Star]] fanfic ''[[FanFic/AFistfulOfDragonite 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.

[[folder:Film]]

* [=McCabe=] in ''Film/McCabeAndMrsMiller'' is attacked by agents of a crooked railway baron's company after refusing to sell land to them.
* Parodied quite humorously by Creator/MelBrooks himself as the corrupt governor who stands to profit from directing the railroad through the town in ''"Film/BlazingSaddles"''.
** It was, in fact, done by State Attorney General Hedy Lamarr.
-->'''That's ''Hedley''!!'''
* The Railroad Colonel (that's what the character is credited as) in the movie ''Film/RustlersRhapsody''.
* Creator/LionelBarrymore in ''Film/DuelInTheSun'' is an early example.
* Tom Garner in ''Film/ThePowerAndTheGlory'' (1933) is an even earlier example. His thirst for power eventually ruins his marriage and his life.
* The BigBad in Film/TheLoneRanger2013 is both aspiring to become one in order to amass (even greater) wealth and power, and using his current wealth and power to become a railroad baron ([[spoiler:he starts the film as a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive board member of a railroad company]] with a sideline in illicit silver mining and extortion, and stages a boardroom coup to gain sole control of the company and a majority cut of the profits]])

* A ''Literature/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 ''Literature/CaptainsCourageous'' averts most of the stereotype. He is treated as an often ruthless man but a more or less sympathetic one.

* The Fat Controller in ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' (Sir Topham Hatt in ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'') fits the stereotypical appearance as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin 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.
* Augustus Melmotte, the villain of Creator/AnthonyTrollope's novel ''Literature/TheWayWeLiveNow''. Appears to have been based in part on real life railway promoter George Hudson (see below).

* The god of railroads briefly shows up in this form in ''Literature/AmericanGods'' 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.

* This trope is the reason why some of the properties in ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'' are railroads.
* ''TabletopGame/{{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 IdleRich, he's very active in the House and conscientious about keeping the Rail running smoothly.

* 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.
* Baron Rorgueil in ''VideoGame/AviaryAttorney''.

* Cheryl/Carol in ''WesternAnimation/{{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 [[BigApplesauce Midtown Manhattan]], and "several Cornelii".

* The Fat Controller in ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' (Sir Topham Hatt in ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'') fits the stereotypical appearance as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin 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.

* Dagny Taggart of ''Literature/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.

* The Fat Controller of ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine''.

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, try to drive the DeterminedHomesteader 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 CorruptCorporateExecutive, closely associated with the term [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_%28industrialist%29 robber baron]].

* Morton in ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest'' (villain)

* 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 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.

* 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).

** While not literally a railroad baron, in the novel ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', Reacher Gilt is definitely a clacks baron (clacks is like a telegraph) and very much dresses and acts the part. He's also a CorruptCorporateExecutive who plans to bankrupt the system, make off with the money, and leave his employees destitute. [[spoiler:Then Moist von Lipwig happens to him.]]
** ''Discworld/RaisingSteam'': 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 HonestCorporateExecutive -- 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.

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.

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".

In fiction, the RailroadBaron 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.)

** While not literally a railroad baron, in the novel ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', Reacher Gilt is definitely a clacks baron (clacks is like a telegraph) and very much dresses and acts the part.
** ''Discworld/RaisingSteam'': Harry King becomes the Disc's first RailroadBaron, much to his delight, as it allows him to leave a legacy other than his night soil business.

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, try to drive the DeterminedHomesteader 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 CorruptCorporateExecutive.

[[quoteright:350:[[Series/HellOnWheels http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_19.png]]]]

* This trope is the reason why some of the properties in {{Monopoly}} are railroads.

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.

* Becoming one is the goal of ''RailroadTycoon''. Some campaigns even have you play as one of the RealLife barons.

* Creator/LionelBarrymore in ''Duel in the Sun'' is an early example.

* The Fat Controller of ''ThomasTheTankEngine''.

* The Fat Controller in ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' (Sir Topham Hatt in ''ThomasTheTankEngine'') fits the stereotypical appearance as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin 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.

* The Fat Controller in TheRailwaySeries (Sir Topham Hatt in ''ThomasTheTankEngine'') fits the stereotypical appearance as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin 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.