XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science   
   From: robban@clubtelco.com   
      
   On 5/02/2014 1:40 am, Doc O'Leary wrote:   
   > In article ,   
   >   "sna"  wrote:   
   >   
   >> But those were both settled before the train showed up.   
   >   
   > The issue is not settlement, but the fallacy that trains don't make   
   > sense until *after* the population density rises to a certain level.   
   > The reality is that, at least historically, trains *allowed* for the   
   > density to rise (or fall) much more quickly than other available   
   > transportation methods.  The same is true even today where cities   
   > "rediscover" commuter rail, or even park-and-ride stations for busses.   
   >   
   >> And with Australia, while the train certainly made the movement   
   >> of wheat viable, those areas were settled well before the train   
   >> showed up. The rivers were in fact used for the movement of   
   >> wool and supplys the other way before the train showed up   
   >> too and bullock and even camels were used before trains too.   
   >   
   > Again, the issue is about supporting dense populations, not J. Clarke   
   > level idiotic straw men.  The logistics for that require solutions that   
   > scale, and trains happen to scale very well.  When you want to deliver   
   > fresh food to a million people, you need to be able to plan an arrival   
   > timetable that is as reliable as possible.  I don't know to what extent   
   > that was possible before trains.   
   >   
      
   Another point is the "invention" of touring for pleasure. The   
   early-1800s saw the beginnings of the tourist guide or handbook, to the   
   point where Murry and later Baedeker became everyday words by the   
   mid-1800s. People flocked to places that had been unreachable before the   
   train except by arduous means.   
      
   Quote (from "On the Map", Simon Garfield)   
   In the US, the closest home-grown guides to Murray and Baedeker were   
   those produced by D. Appleton & Co. in New York. Appleton was a   
   successful general trade publisher of encyclopaedias and fiction [snip],   
   but it wasn't slow to realise the impact of railway and steamboat travel   
   on its readers' vacationing habits.. Its "Southern and Western Travelers   
   Guide" from 1851, for example, took in the tourist attractions Virginia   
   Springs and the Mammoth cave in Kentucky, and included maps of the Ohio   
   and Mississippi rivers, plans of Cincinnati, Charleston and New Orleans,   
   and three folding engraved maps of the Western, North Western and South   
   Western States. The latter were beautifully hand-coloured, and as   
   artefacts of the opening up of the West are now valuable items in   
   themselves.   
      
   --   
   Robert Bannister - 1940-71 SE England   
                       1972-now W Australia   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)