Northern Railway Research Articles

Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala, 1882-1923

Reviewed by: Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala, 1882-1923 Zach Sell (bio) Opie, Frederick Douglass . Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala, 1882-1923. Gainesville: UP of Florida, 2009. Within contemporary debates over capital's uneven development, the making of the global South has become a significant concern. Yet too often, the history and experiences of workers have been overlooked in such debates. Frederick Douglass Opie's Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala, 1882-1923 offers a needed counterpoint to this historical amnesia, exploring the movement of black laborers from the New South of the Southern United States, Jamaica, and elsewhere, to Guatemala's coastal departments of Zacapa and Izabal. Opie's previous work, Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America, is a cultural history of the culinary traditions of the Black Diaspora that stretched from the Atlantic slave trade through Civil Rights and Black Power. In Hog and Hominy, Opie situates soul food's history in relation to slavery and an "amalgamation" of Central and West African influence (xi-xii). He then demonstrates the ways that African Americans transformed the food in relation to different cultural contacts, historical moments, and geographical contexts. Though more confined in focus, Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala similarly expands upon the transnational dimensions of African American history and develops a perspective on African American agency that resonates with Hog and Hominy. Centrally, Opie argues, black laborers acted within constrained circumstances yet actively formulated a dynamic response that emerged from both unique historical experiences and transforming contemporary circumstances. Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala is organized chronologically and begins with a brief overview of black Guatemalan history. Opie then analyzes labor recruitment and the construction of the Northern Railroad, a major line in the Guatemalan railway system. Railroad construction, based upon contracts with United States companies, began in the late-nineteenth century, spanned multiple presidential regimes, and depended upon the recruitment of black laborers from the West Indies and Southern United States (12). Furthermore, railroads provided necessary infrastructure for the development of banana plantations operated by the Boston-based United Fruit Company (UFCO). On UFCO banana plantations, black workers formed the core of the labor force in the early-twentieth century (41). White management operated as a constitutive force in defining coercive and racialized relations of production on the railroads and banana plantations of Guatemala. As Opie notes, conditions of production resembled those of a "penal colony" at times (33). White managers actively struggled to arrange production through racial and national difference. In several instances, managers claimed that white workers could not labor in Guatemala's heat and at the same time insisted that black Jamaicans were preferable [End Page 833] over black Southerners (17, 34-35). Despite managerial preferences, black labor from the Southern United States remained a core component of Guatemala's labor force. Regardless of national origins, managers constructed a glass ceiling that ultimately prevented black workers from entering skilled positions. As Opie shows, it was clear to workers that white skin was a prerequisite for skilled and less arduous work positions (32). The Guatemalan state, through numerous presidential regime changes, was central to making black labor available for hire and to the struggle to discipline black immigrant laborers after their arrival. When the state intervened in conflicts between laborers, police used violent force against black workers. In addition, it was not uncommon for arrested laborers to be forced into prison labor. While the state jailed and arrested black laborers, it treated white foreign managers from the United Fruit Company and from the railroads with deferential respect (51). Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala clearly demonstrates that multinational capital and the Guatemalan state operated together and exerted significant force on black immigrant laborers. However, rather than being passive objects of history, Opie reveals how black laborers actively organized multidimensional forms of resistance to both white managers and, at times, Latin American workers who attempted to challenge their employment. Through an expansive consideration of agency, Opie's analysis demonstrates that black laborers acted to countervail the directives of management, the state, and fellow workers. Crucially for Opie's analysis, agency is not simply a metonym for resistance. Instead, Opie shows...

‘A Railway to the Moon’: The post-histories of a Sri Lankan railway line

AbstractThis paper takes as its subject the 1905 opening and 1990 closure of the Northern Railway Line, the major Sri Lankan railway which ran the length of the island from south to north. It argues that it can been seen as a social compact in which the life of the individual, the community, and the state became integrally intertwined. It focuses on two dimensions of what the Northern Railway Line enabled in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon): first, a physical and symbolic representation of stateness, and, secondly, the pursuit of mundane everyday life. These are embedded within Sri Lanka's landscapes and histories of colonial and post-colonial rule, and the ethnic conflict, riots, and war which inextricably shaped the railway's journeys and passengers. Railways are more often thought of as large-scale, high-tech artefacts rather than the smaller everyday technologies that are the themes of other papers in this special issue. However, this paper highlights the ways in which railways also make particular kinds of everyday life possible and how, in being woven into routine daily and weekly journeys, the Northern Railway Line came to intertwine the changing circumstances and histories of its mainly Tamil passengers within an increasingly ethnicized national landscape. In the aftermath of its closure, the railway has now come to symbolize a desire for a return to the normalcy of the past, an aspiration to an everyday experience that younger generations have never had, and which has, in consequence, become a potent force.. . . the Northern Railway Line to be opened tomorrow would be a great boon to the Jaffnese in and out of Jaffna. . . it has become possible to travel to Jaffna in a single day. . . At last the railway which was characterized as a ‘tantalising vision’ by a previous Governor and ‘a railway to the moon’, by a quondam Colonial Secretary, has become a fait accompli.1This line has been completely destroyed between Vavuniya and Kankesanthurai (KKS) a track length of 160km. . . The Northern Railway Line is the main line connecting Colombo with Jaffna. . . the third largest town in Sri Lanka prior to the conflict and the Northern Railway Line was in high demand from both passengers and freight. There is a great sentiment amongst the people of the north for restoration.2

Integer Programming to Optimize Tamping in Railway Tracks as Preventive Maintenance

In the area with railway engineering, scheduling preventive maintenance actions is an important issue for engineers and railway administrations because the optimization of maintenance actions at a preventive level allows maintenance costs to be reduced during the life cycle of the track, with the guarantee of its geometrical quality. This paper describes a model designed to optimize the tamping operations in ballasted tracks as preventive maintenance. The model, formulated as mixed 0–1 linear program, considers real technical aspects as constraints, which is a novel approach in the optimization of track maintenance over time. Global optimization is used to predict and to schedule tamping, taking into account four aspects: the evolution of the track degradation over time; the track layout; the dependency of the track quality recovery on the track quality at the moment of the maintenance operation; the track quality limits that depend on the maximum permissible train speed. Computational experience with two track stretches of the Portuguese Northern Railway Line is included to highlight the efficacy of the proposed methodology.

Taking Burlington Northern Railroad Private

Berkshire Hathaway took Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad private in November 2009 in a deal valued at $100 per share, which was approximately 31% higher than the railroad’s share price at the time. Surprisingly, the deal came under immediate criticism from sources relatively close to Warren Buffett, including his official biographer and the value investing professor at his alma mater. The criticism centered on the deal’s price and claimed, essentially, that Buffett uncharacteristically paid too much for Burlington. The author analyzes this deal by valuing Burlington at the time of its acquisition using the modern Graham and Dodd approach. In doing so, he found that it involves a situation that many private equity acquirers could face—namely, evaluating the purchase of a profitable and stable firm with seemingly low-risk expected improvements, which command a higher multiple. In the author’s valuation, he identifies Burlington’s expected improvements and assesses the risks generated by them in a way that could facilitate post-acquisition value realization, which may prove useful to private equity investors. <b>TOPICS:</b>Private equity, fundamental equity analysis, risk management, legal/regulatory/public policy

Taking Burlington Northern Railroad Private

Berkshire Hathaway took Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad private in November of 2009 in a deal valued at $100 per share, which was approximately 31% higher than the share price at the time. Surprisingly, the deal came under immediate criticism from sources relatively close to Warren Buffett including his official biographer and the value investing professor at his alma mater. The criticism centered on the deal’s price and claimed, essentially, that Buffett uncharacteristically paid too much for Burlington. We analyze this deal by valuing Burlington at the time of its acquisition using the modern Graham and Dodd approach. In doing so, we found it involves a situation that many private equity acquirers could face; namely, evaluating the purchase of a profitable and stable firm that presents with seemingly low risk improvements, which command a higher multiple. In our valuation, we identify Burlington’s expected improvements and we assess the risks generated by them in a way that could facilitate post-acquisition value realization, which may prove useful to private equity investors.

Effects of strong geomagnetic storms on Northern railways in Russia

Seventeen severe magnetic storms occurred in the period 2000 through 2005. In addition there was a major magnetic storm in March 1989. During each of these storms there was an anomaly in the operation of the system of Signalization, Centralization and Blockage (SCB) in some divisions of the high-latitude (∼58 to 64°N) Russian railways. This anomaly was revealed as false traffic light signals about the occupation of the railways. These signals on the Northern railways appeared exactly during the main phases of the strongest part of the geomagnetic storms characterized by high geomagnetic indices Dst and Kp (Ap). Moreover, the durations of these anomalies coincided with the period of the greatest geomagnetic disturbances in a given event. Geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) during significant strengthening of geomagnetic activity are concluded as the obvious reasons for such kind of anomalies.

Archibald Sturrock and the Steam Tender Experiment

The impact is assessed of the career and family circumstances of Archibald Sturrock on his decision to experiment with the auxiliary or powered steam tender, for which he is best remembered. Earlier experiments with the steam tender in France and Scotland are reviewed, particularly the Caledonian Railway's experience in 1859–60. The contribution is examined of Charles Sacré and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway to the development of the steam tender on the Great Northern Railway and the reasons for the failure of the experiment are identified. The impact this had on Sturrock's decision to retire from the Great Northern Railway in December 1866 is assessed, and the effect of his experience on the development of Gresley's booster and the Poultney steam tender in the 1920s is considered.

Post-Burlington: What Employers and Employees Need to Know About Retaliation

Since the landmark decision in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White, numerous federal district courts and circuit courts of appeals in the United States have considered employees’ retaliation claims. This paper reviews several post-Burlington cases and provides employers with a roadmap as to what has been held to be retaliation under the law and what has not. Our contribution is an up-to-date analysis of retaliation cases, on a specific employment action basis, to provide guidance to employers of the types of activity that could support a claim of retaliation and to employees to alert them as to the types of activity that they should not have to endure in the workplace.

Development of Librarianship at the Northern Railway

Many aspects related to the history of railway development in Russia are still undeveloped yet. Such a side of life of native railways as librarianship development is undeservingly overlooked but mostly this kept the railway employees to maintain the high cultural level.

Dis-Jointed? Several Approaches to Divisibility After &lt;em&gt;Burlington Northern&lt;/em&gt;

In Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. v. United States, the Supreme Court held that a very thin trial court record provided a reasonable basis for apportionment of defendants' CERCLA liability under the prevailing legal standard borrowed from Section 433A of the Second Restatement of Torts. Predictions of the decision's effect on the availability of joint and several liability under CERCLA vary, predictably, in accordance with the the litigation interest of the predictor. In this article I argue that that even after Burlington Northern, federal courts are bound to assess the scope of CERCLA liability not only by applying traditional common law standards but by doing so with reference to the structure and purposes of CERCLA's liability scheme. Therefore, Burlington Northern's divisibility holding should have little effect in many typical CERCLA fact patterns. Moreover, even if Burlington Northern is interpreted to relax the proof requirements for defendants seeking apportionment, joint and several liability should still be available in many CERCLA cases under several legal theories. This article describes those theories and analyzes their relative merits.

Burlington Northern Railroad Company: Equipment Leasing

The director of equipment finance at Burlington Northern Railroad Company must decide if a leveraged-lease proposal is acceptable. The case emphasizes the importance of the lessee's tax status to the value of the lease and how the perception of residual value affects the valuation for both the lessee and lessor. To value the lease properly, the student must identify the relevant cash flows and the appropriate discount rates for those flows.

Broadening the Definition of Unlawful Retaliation Under Title VII

Title VII retaliation cases have become a larger part of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) caseload, and this development should be a growing concern for business. By addressing the question of exactly when a prohibited retaliatory action has been taken against an employee, the United States Supreme Court’s June 2006 decision in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Sheila White ended a significant disagreement among the various appellate courts on the issue. The Supreme Court answered two specific questions regarding retaliation for raising a claim of sexual discrimination. First, the Court decided that the retaliatory conduct need not take place within the employment setting; and, second, it held that a materially adverse action requires only that a reasonable employee would be deterred from making, filing, or supporting a claim of workplace discrimination to the EEOC, the courts, or the employer. Employers need to revise and update their internal policies and procedures to ensure that their firms comply with these new standards.

Burlington Northern Railroad Company: Equipment Leasing

Burlington Northern Railroad Company: Equipment Leasing

‘Diplomatic Forces of the New Railroad’

In this paper, a comparison is offered of the activities of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Great Northern Railway to secure access to a Pacific terminus at Vancouver and Seattle, respectively. The paper's focus on the actions of company managers sets it apart from accounts of the terminus activities of other lines on the Pacific coast of North America. Its method, an examination of terminus entry conflict through the lens of a select group of company officers that highlights the role of the railroad local lawyer, melds traditional perspectives on railroad management with organizational approaches of other researchers. Its conclusion, that both railroads sustained significant setbacks in the process, departs from the received interpretation in histories of the concerns.

Crew Management in Indian Railways: A Case of Delhi Division

Information Systems are used in most organizations to provide solutions to certain problems. Irrespective of whether they are developed in-house or procured, information systems tend to evolve. The Crew Management System, at the Delhi Division of Northern Railway, is one such example. This case is used to bring out the problems faced by large, traditional and bureaucratic organizations in handling and setting up information systems. While most Information System (IS) solutions require a complete overhaul of the organizational structures and working systems, the best way to implement an IS in such organizations is parallel introduction and evolutionary approach. It aims to bring to the fore, the implementation and operational difficulties associated with IS and how organizations need to adopt an evolutionary approach to building information systems.

Burlington Northern Railroad Company: Equipment Leasing

The director of equipment finance at Burlington Northern Railroad Company must decide whether a leveraged-lease proposal is acceptable. This case emphasizes the importance of the lessee's tax status to the value of the lease and how the perception of residual value affects the valuation for both the lessee and the lessor. To value the lease properly, the student must identify the relevant cash flows and the appropriate discount rates for those flows.

Profiting from the Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West

Profiting from the Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West

Are Maintenance Practices for Railroad Tracks Effective?

The Association of American Railroads wished to determine the effect of a maintenance practice known as grinding on the occurrence of rail fatigue defects and on the subsequent total traffic usage before a track must be replaced. Because a designed experiment was not practical, an analysis of historical data from the Canadian Northern Railroad is presented. In the analysis, certain covariate data are available, specifically the amount of grinding and some physical characteristics of the rail; other important covariate data are not available, however. A model for the number of defects as a function of traffic usage is developed based on a modulated Poisson point process. The model incorporates the effect of the available covariates and a mixture of Dirichlet processes set-up for the scale parameters of the individual rail sections that allows an assessment of the overall effect of the unavailable covariates. The model is then used to determine an optimal replacement period for a whole rail track. The analysis demonstrates that grinding reduces the expected number of defects and increases the optimal replacement interval.

Review of Profiting from the Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West by Claire Strom:Profiting from the Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West

Review of Profiting from the Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West by Claire Strom:Profiting from the Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West

Profiting from the Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West

Book Review| January 01 2005 Profiting from the Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West Profiting from the Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West. Claire Strom. C. Fred Williams C. Fred Williams Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Agricultural History (2005) 79 (1): 109–110. https://doi.org/10.1215/00021482-79.1.109 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation C. Fred Williams; Profiting from the Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West. Agricultural History 1 January 2005; 79 (1): 109–110. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00021482-79.1.109 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsAgricultural History Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2005 Agricultural History Society2005 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.