List of people associated with rail transport

Famous railroaders

• Casey Jones - Illinois Central engineer whose death in a 1900 train wreck was made famous in song and legend
• Jeme Tien Yow - distinguished Chinese railroad engineer often called the Father of China's railroad.
• Albert Lacombe made a railroad through Blackfoot territory.

  Railroad Tycoons & Businessmen

• Erastus Corning - Formed the nucleus of what would become the great New York Central Railroad
• Charles Crocker - One of the Big Four co-founders of the Central Pacific Railroad
• Eugene V. Debs - Labor organizer, founding member of Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and participant in the infamous Pullman Strike
• Daniel Drew - Robber baron involved in the stock manipulation of the Erie Railroad with Fisk and Gould
• James Fisk - Robber baron involved in the stock manipulation of the Erie Railroad with Gould and Drew
• Jay Gould - Robber baron involved in the stock manipulation of the Erie Railroad with Fisk and Drew
• Edward H. Harriman - President of the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific, and directed the unification of both railroads
• James J. Hill - Founder of the Great Northern Railway, builder of first transcontinental railroad without federal subsidies or land grants
• Cyrus K. Holliday - Founder of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
• Mark Hopkins - One of the Big Four co-founders of the Central Pacific Railroad
• Collis P. Huntington - One of the Big Four co-founders of the Central Pacific Railroad, founder of Huntington, West Virginia while helping construct the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
• George Pullman - Inventor of the Pullman sleeper and founder of the Pullman Company
• Leland Stanford - One of the Big Four co-founders of the Central Pacific Railroad, president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, governor of California, and founder of Stanford University
• Arthur Stilwell - Founder of the Kansas City Southern Railway, as well as several cities, among them Port Arthur, TX which is named after Stilwell.
• Cornelius Vanderbilt - After spending the first 70 years of his life building a successful ferry business, controlled and expanded the New York Central Railroad into an empire and ordered construction of the first Grand Central Terminal.

  Inventors and innovators

• Grenville M. Dodge - Chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad and helped construct the first American transcontinental railroad.
• Fred Harvey - Revolutionized passenger train onboard services, making travel by train more comfortable.
• Theodore Judah - Chief engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad and passionate supporter of the first American transcontinental railroad
• Otto Kuhler - industrial designer
• Raymond Loewy - industrial designer
• Anatole Mallet - Inventor of the articulated locomotive, commonly called the Mallet locomotive
• Charles Minot - General Superintendent of the Erie Railroad, first to use the telegraph to dispatch trains in 1851
• Wilhelm von Pressel - designer of the Baghdad Railway
• George Stephenson - the "Father of British Steam Railways", inventor of the Rocket steam locomotive, and pioneer of the 4 ft 8 ½ inch rail gauge
• Richard Trevithick - Credited with the 1804 invention of the steam locomotive
• George Westinghouse - Inventor of the air brake
• Girard Scott Ferguson Union Pacific Signal Design Manager, Inventor of the micron electronic timer

  Others

• Jesse James - American outlaw, portraying a Robin Hood of sorts, standing up against railroad corporations in defense of the small farmers.
• Richard Beeching a household name as chairman of British Rail famous for Beeching cuts.