Great Depression
The H&S fell on hard times as the Great Depression, the advent of the automobile, improved roads, public subsidies for those roads, and trucks came along in the late 1920s. Freight and passenger traffic declined and the H&S was abandoned in pieces starting with the line segment from Norwich to Clarinda, Iowa, during the height of the Great Depression (December 1935). Other segments abandoned were the Shenandoah to Norwich segment in April 1938; Clarinda to Merle Jct. in December 1945; and Cleafield to Humeston, also in December 1945. The last and final segment of the H&S to disappear was the trackage between Merle Jct. and Clearfield, Iowa, which was abandoned in 1983.
Read more about this topic: Humeston And Shenandoah Railway
Famous quotes containing the word depression:
“During depression the world disappears. Language itself. One has nothing to say. Nothing. No small talk, no anecdotes. Nothing can be risked on the board of talk. Because the inner voice is so urgent in its own discourse: How shall I live? How shall I manage the future? Why should I go on?”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)
“Geez, if I could get through to you, kiddo, that depression is not sobbing and crying and giving vent, it is plain and simple reduction of feeling. Reduction, see? Of all feeling. People who keep stiff upper lips find that it’s damn hard to smile.”
—Judith Guest (b. 1936)