Decline
The H&S was built across the hilly terrain of southern Iowa and the line suffered operationally from steep ruling grades, numerous curves and many trestles had to be built and maintained. Loss of timber trestles due to fire led to many of the line segments being put up for abandonment. The southern Iowa economy has generally lagged behind much of the remainder of Iowa and the Midwest, and the H&S suffered from a lack of industrial development along its line. The line's revenue base relied too much on coal, products of agriculture, and passenger operations for it to remain profitable once autos and trucks came to the area of southern Iowa.
Read more about this topic: Humeston And Shenandoah Railway
Famous quotes containing the word decline:
“We have our little theory on all human and divine things. Poetry, the workings of genius itself, which, in all times, with one or another meaning, has been called Inspiration, and held to be mysterious and inscrutable, is no longer without its scientific exposition. The building of the lofty rhyme is like any other masonry or bricklaying: we have theories of its rise, height, decline and fall—which latter, it would seem, is now near, among all people.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“Considered physiologically, everything ugly weakens and saddens man. It reminds him of decay, danger, impotence; it actually reduces his strength. The effect of ugliness can be measured with a dynamometer. Whenever anyone feels depressed, he senses the proximity of something “ugly.” His feeling of power, his will to power, his courage, his pride—they decline with ugliness, they rise with beauty.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The chief misery of the decline of the faculties, and a main cause of the irritability that often goes with it, is evidently the isolation, the lack of customary appreciation and influence, which only the rarest tact and thoughtfulness on the part of others can alleviate.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)