Trains?
"The Last Spike" 1881.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Last_Spike_1869.jpg
Why not trains?
Think about it: one of the biggest stories of America is the continual drive across the continent. Walking alongside wagons, riding horses, or traveling by stagecoach moved migration west no faster than the pace of the horse or oxen; with the trek taking months. The advent of the railroad provided the means to move not only migrants, but supplies, household goods, food, and industry. With the ability of steam engines to power not just the transportation but also the means of production for a variety of business ventures, Americans were set to take over the continent.
But why trains? Using trains as a focus for an inquiry can generate questions that bounce from science (how does steam work to power engines?) to environment (does rail travel help or hinder environmental impact?) to economics (what is/was the advantage or rail travel for industry as well as the small business along the route?) to culture (what was the impact to native cultures both socially, economically and environmentally?) to the questions about the mystery and intrigue of rail travel through literature; and of course: history (what are the varying viewpoints of the social impact of rail across America?). We can touch on all the elements of the History Social Science Standards (C3) by looking at rail through varying lenses and then bringing those discoveries up to today.
Students can investigate train history from varying perspectives using the Circle of Viewpoints. Who benefits from a train line through your town? What does “benefit” mean in this context? What are the costs – economic, cultural and/or social – that accompany the train? Students taking on a particular perspective will easily find essential questions that can guide them through their inquiry.
Trains hold a fascination in our culture, from the romantic to the historic to the “how did they do that?” allure of science and discovery. There are train enthusiasts in nearly every state and train museums abound. Here are some resources that have an online presence that can be used in the classroom to create ‘big picture’ inquiry lessons covering all subject areas. Students not normally interested in these kinds of things (“trains? That’s baby stuff”) can find much to like here as they apply their own perspective and interest to the inquiry.
Fashion, social order, migration, energy, transportation, native responses and ramification to native cultures, political workings, and of course, economics are all a part of the story of the movement across the American West.
The following links are useful as starter pack sites to get everyone thinking and imagining.
To jumpstart your thinking – here’s a lesson from the New York Times Learning Network 
in which they use several primary sources to help students utilize differing perspectives.
Hathi Trust brings us the American Railroad Journal from which we can gather statistics, schedules, 
advertisements and stories.
The Railroad Picture Archives: 
allows you to search by locomotive, location, model, date and more. They have an interactive U.S. Railroad map. The images are sent in by contributors with a starting date of the year 2000. There is a section on heritage locomotives.
The Lib Guide from Christopher Newport University offers excellent resources that covers the building of railroads across the continent: This Guide is an excellent resource for information on the American West topics of all kinds.
Perfect for an inquiry in which the railroad is the focus by giving resources that place it within the larger “American West” topic.
The Library of Congress Web Guide for the Pacific Railway Act contains congressional publications from laws, bills, debates, journals of the time between 1774-1875.
Women in railroad history: Check out this primary source set.
Science! Don't forget science!!
The Brooklyn Historic Railway Association has an awesome site on the physics of steam locomotion. Dig deeper into the site for more great info.
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