50 Railroad Quotes for Embarking on a Journey

By Norbert Juma

Master quote curator and editor on a mission to inspire

Published July 16, 2023

Climb aboard the adventure train as we chug across the land of railroad quotes!

The railroad was a groundbreaking invention of the 19th century and forever transformed the way we travel and transport goods.

In other words, railroads have played a vital role when it comes to shaping the modern world.

With railroads, it is easy to connect with distant regions, which helped boost the overall economy of the world.

Check out our railroad quotes below to learn more!

Advantages of Railroads

Some key benefits of railroads are:

Connectivity
Economic Catalyst
Safe and Reliable
Efficient Transportation of Goods

Connectivity

The introduction of the railroad has revolutionized the way we used to travel.

It has changed the concept of traveling across huge distances.

With railroads, it is possible to reach regions that are hard to reach.

The extensive network of railroads not only links remote areas it also facilitates trade and cultural interactions.

Efficient Transportation of Goods

Railroads make it possible for us to transport large-capacity goods efficiently and within less anticipated time.

Railways is a mode of transport that proves to be cost-effective, as it allows transporting commodities in bulk.

These features make railway freight an indispensable option for a wide range of industries.

Economic Catalyst

Railroads are considered as the catalyst or driving force for economic growth.

They have served as an efficient way of transporting goods from one place to another.

Railroads connect manufacturing centers with resource-rich areas.

This allows transporting huge quantities of raw material to the industries.

As a result, the boost in production increases the overall economic growth of the industry.

Safe and Reliable

Railroads offer a reliable and safe mode of travel for passengers.

Railways are preferred for long-distance journeys.

Since the railway tracks are dedicated, the chances of traffic congestion are close to none.

Railroads aren’t affected by minor weather disruptions.

So, passengers can expect consistent schedules of train arrivals.

Top 10 Railroad Quotes

Let’s dive in with the top 10 railroad quotes.

1. “I bought a railroad during this period of time.” — Bill Janklow

2. “I never lived in an abandoned railroad station.” — Peter Dinklage

3. “I had a great job with the railroad, a good salary.” — Sturgill Simpson

4. “We will be in the railroad business, first and foremost.” — Philip Anschutz

5. “A railroad is like a lie. You have to keep building it to make it stand.” — Mark Twain

6. “If women can be railroad workers in Russia, why can’t they fly in space?” — Valentina Tereshkova

7. “When railroading time comes, you can railroad—but not before.” — Robert A. Heinlein

8. “It’s like turning the space program over to the Long Island Railroad.” — David R. Brower

9. “The Underground Railroad was a spy network for the North, and that story has never been told.” — Misha Green

10. “Nothing was more up-to-date when it was built or is more obsolete today than the railroad station.” — Ada Louise Huxtable

Railroad Quotes about Railroad Tracks

Here are quotes about the might iron tracks.

11. “I lay my head on the railroad track, waitin’ on the Double E.” — Warren Zevon

12. “I literally lived on the other side of the railroad tracks, but I learned that division doesn’t work.” — David Steward

13. “There’s a mural on my dining room wall of the railroad tracks at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.” — Jill Scott

14. “You cannot tie your fiance to the railroad track of self-reflection and personal improvement.” — Amy Dickinson

15. “The ability to rebound is in inverse proportion to the distance your house is from the nearest railroad tracks.” — Don Meyer

16. “When I was a little kid, I used to walk miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles of railroad tracks.” — Pam Houston

17. “I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say; I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger.” — Harriet Tubman

18. “Black people lived right by the railroad tracks, and the train would shake their houses at night. I would hear it as a boy, and I thought: I’m gonna make a song that sounds like that.” — Little Richard

19. “My first song was a hardcore knock-off of ‘Tangled Up in Blue.’ It was based on a story maybe I had heard before… The woman died in the end – she was sleeping on the railroad tracks.” — Tyler Childers

20. “Now I need to take a piece of wood and make it sound like the railroad track, but I also had to make it beautiful and lovable so that a person playing it would think of it in terms of his mistress, a bartender, his wife, a good psychiatrist – whatever.” — Les Paul

Railroad Quotes about Railroad People

Delve into the thoughts and reflections of individuals who are associated with railroads.

21. “For 50 years, my father worked for the railroad.” — Harold Evans

22. “I could go back to the railroad. I liked that job.” — Sturgill Simpson

23. “I was the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad.” — Harriet Tubman

24. “I was one man, and I tackled a big railroad. I did the best I could.” — O. Winston Link

25. “My father was a railroad man his entire life; 43 years for Southern Railroad.” — Nancy Grace

26. “I don’t think of myself as a movie star. I’m a movie worker. I come from a railroad family. I come from the corn.” — Bill Moseley

27. “My friend Anderson Cooper is the scion of one of America’s great shipping and railroad families, the Vanderbilts.” — Kathy Griffin

28. “My dad was a telegraph operator for the Cotton Belt Railroad. He worked seven nights a week from 4 until midnight, no vacation.” — Johnny Gimble

29. “I came from a poor family. My father was from Glasgow, Scotland; my mother’s brothers were brakemen on the railroad. We didn’t have anything but mush for breakfast.” — Mickey Rooney

30. “My father worked for the railroad, and whenever a train crashed, we would go as a family and steal food from the boxcars. One year we stole a case of butterscotch pudding that was for export to Israel. It took us years to get through.” — Chuck Palahniuk

Railroad Quotes by John Moody

American author and economist John Moody had exceptional knowledge of the railroad industry.

31. “The history of the Erie Railroad ever since 1901 has been a record of progress.” — John Moody

32. “The railroad originally was as completely dissociated from steam propulsion as was the ship.” — John Moody

33. “While no one railroad can completely duplicate another line, two or more may compete at particular points.” — John Moody

34. “With the reorganization of 1898 finished, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad entered a new period in its history.” — John Moody

35. “The United States, as we know it today, is largely the result of mechanical inventions, and in particular of agricultural machinery and the railroad.” — John Moody

36. “Great men are usually the products of their times, and one of the men developed by these times takes rank with the greatest railroad leaders in history.” — John Moody

37. “Consequently, many large railroad systems of heavy capitalization bid fair to run into difficulties on the first serious falling off in general business.” — John Moody

38. “When the scheme for the construction of a railroad from Baltimore to the waters of the Ohio River first began to take form, the United States had barely emerged from the Revolutionary period.” — John Moody

39. “Many of the railroad evils were inherent in the situation; they were explained by the fact that both managers and public were dealing with a new agency whose laws they did not completely understand.” — John Moody

40. “The close relationship between railroad expansion and the general development and prosperity of the country is nowhere brought more distinctly into relief than in connection with the construction of the Pacific railroads.” — John Moody

Fascinating Railroad Quotes

Explore this collection of railroad quotes, where each quote reveals a unique perspective on railroads.

41. “A private railroad car is not an acquired taste. One takes to it immediately.” — Eleanor Robson Belmont

42. “When my friends and I played cowboys and Indians, I was always the Chinese railroad worker.” — Robin Williams

43. “Wisdom cannot come by railroad or automobile or airplane, or be hurried up by telegraph or telephone.” — John Burroughs

44. “As a child, I found railroad stations exciting, mysterious, and even beautiful, as indeed they often were.” — Paul Johnson

45. “It’s hard to make something as large as a government change. It’s a little bit like building the transcontinental railroad.” — Tim O’Reilly

46. “For me, I’ve always been fascinated by tales of the Chinese railroad and the workers and the conditions of the workers who built the railroad.” — Lisa Joy

47. “A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.” — Theodore Roosevelt

48. “I try to jog in every city I visit, and I particularly enjoy harbor-front paths that let me ogle big ships, railroad bridges, and the ruins of factories and warehouses.” — Steven Pinker

49. “When I want an opinion, I’ll get it from my peers – from men of vision, like our great railroad builders… Stanford, Huntington, Dinsmore… fellows with imaginations broad enough to span the continent.” — Jonathan Raban

50. “As I got older, I lived right next to the Long Island Railroad, so in junior high and high school, I’d just jump on the train with friends and head to the city. We’d run away from the conductors, hide from them in the bathroom. It was just what you did.” — Chris Weidman