This presentation provides an intriguing history of railroading in the United States viewed through the lens of biography. Drawing on inductees to the National Railroad Hall of Fame in Galesburg, Illinois, this illustrated lecture shows how and why the railroad network developed as it did, and how famous figures such as George Pullman, Abraham Lincoln, and J.P. Morgan reside alongside relative unknowns like Colonel John Stevens, Peter M. Arthur, Louis W. Menk, and Jervis Langdon Jr. in the pantheon of railroad greats.