My idea for this is similar to those of
@TheMann, but with a major difference.
This would start with the Ripley Plan being revised like so, with the negotiation with a few railroads of course.
Boston & Maine: Bangor & Aroostook; Delaware & Hudson; Maine Central
New York, New Haven & Hartford: Lehigh & Hudson River; New York, Ontario & Western
New York Central: Rutland; Virginian
Pennsylvania: Long Island; Norfolk & Western; 50% of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Line; Toledo, Peoria & Western (east of Peoria); 50% of the Winston-Salem Southbound
Baltimore & Ohio: Buffalo & Susquehanna; Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh; Central Railroad of New Jersey; Chicago & Alton; Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville (Chicago- Indianapolis route); Delaware, Lackawanna & Western; Detroit & Toledo Shore Line; Lehigh & New England; Reading; 50% of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Line
Chesapeake & Ohio: Bessemer & Lake Erie; Chicago & Illinois Midland; Chicago, Attica & Southern; Detroit & Mackinac; Hocking Valley; Lehigh Valley; New York, Chicago & St. Louis; Pere Marquette
Wabash & Erie: Akron, Canton & Youngstown; Ann Arbor; Detroit, Toledo & Ironton; Erie; Pittsburgh & Shawmut; Pittsburgh & West Virginia; Pittsburgh, Shawmut & Northern; Wabash; Western Maryland; Wheeling & Lake Erie
Atlantic Coast Line: Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast; Chicago & Eastern Illinois; Clinchfield; Georgia Route; Gulf, Mobile & Northern; Louisville & Nashville; Mississippi Central; New Orleans Great Northern; 50% of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac; 50% of the Winston-Salem Southbound; 50% of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis (East of Nashville)
Southern: Chicago, Terre Hautte, and Southeastern; Columbus & Greenville; Florida East Coast; Mobile & Ohio; Norfolk Southern; Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis (west of Nashville); Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville (south of Monon, IN, and Michigan City branch); Tennessee Central (East of Nashville)
Illinois Central: Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay; Central of Georgia; Seaboard Air Line; 50% of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac; 50% of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis (East of Nashville); Tennessee Central (West of Nashville)
Great Northern: Chicago Central & Pacific; Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic; Great Northern; Minneapolis & St. Louis; Northern Pacific; Spokane, Portland & Seattle
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific: Butte, Anaconda & Pacific; Duluth & Iron Range; Duluth, Missabe & Northern; Escanaba & Lake Superior; Trackage rights on Spokane, Portland & Seattle to Portland.
Union Pacific: Central Pacific; Chicago & North Western; Kansas City Southern; Lake Superior & Ishpeming; Litchfield & Madison; 50% of the Louisiana & Arkansas; Missouri-Kansas-Texas
Missouri Pacific: Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; Colorado & Southern; Denver & Rio Grande Western; Denver & Salt Lake; Fort Smith & Western; Fort Worth & Denver; Green Bay & Western; Kansas, Oklahoma & Gulf; Oklahoma City-Ada-Atoka; Texas & Pacific; Western Pacific; 50% of the Trinity & Brazo Valley;
Southern Pacific: Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific; St. Louis Southwestern; 50% of the Trinity & Brazo Valley
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe: Chicago Great Western; Kansas City, Mexico & Orient; 50% of the Louisiana & Arkansas; Meridian & Bigbee; Midland Valley; Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern; Missouri & North Arkansas; St. Louis-San Francisco; Toledo, Peoria & Western (west of Peoria)
Canadian-American International: Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific; Grand Trunk Western; Minneapolis, St. Paul & Saute Ste. Marie; Wisconsin Central
In addition, Roosevelt grants a bunch of cash to the railroads to built new rail lines if they want, which they naturally take to. Whereas other use the right-of-ways of then recently shut down interurbans. Among these built are...
- A Pennsylvania line from Toledo to Ft. Wayne, and a reroute of the Butler Branch via the latter city.
- A RF&P line from Richmond to Norfolk largely paralleling the N&W.
- The Erie takes up most of the Indiana Railroad to better establish itself in the Midwest.
- The Santa Fe builds...
- To New Orleans from Oakdale
- A line from Temple, TX to Austin and San Antonio, with a line to Houston via the former city.
- A reroute of the New Mexico mainline from Las Vegas- Santa Fe- Albuquerque- Belen
- The Southern Pacific builds a line from Santa Ana to San Diego, and east from LA to Las Vegas
- The Nickel Plate takes up the Ohio Electric Company's Lima- Cincinnati line for use as a replacement for the Erie Route there.
- The Illinois Central and Central of Georgia build a Nashville- Chattanooga route via Shelbyville and Franklin, giving up their stake in the NC&StL in the process.
- The Louisville and Nashville replaces the eastern half of the NC&StL with a link from the old NC&StL at Nashville to their own line near Paris, TN.
- The New York Central builds a line from Cincinnati to Kanauga, OH to better link itself with the Virginian.
- The Baltimore and Ohio forms a contract with the NYC to build a line in Northern Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh to Williamsport to link itself better with the Reading. In return, the NYC gets trackage rights over the B&O lines from Cleveland and New York to DC.
- The Great Northern linking Madison and the Twin Cities via La Crosse and Eau Claire
- The Pere Marquette making their own line to Mackinaw City
In the 50s, Eisenhower funds the Interstate Highway System as in OTL, but also at the same time provides plenty of cash to renovate and upgrade the rail systems, and the ICC (along with its notorious regulatory inertia) is kicked back down to size. The Interstate Highway system is built, but the railways adapt fast. The railways starting to upgrade themselves where thy have the advantage- long distance travel.
Despite this, steam is still prominent on some railroads. Mainly in the coal-rich northeast, where many of the most technologically advanced steam engines ever built serve will into the 60s and early 70s. Even making their mark on more modern types of freight trains.
The oil crisis makes trucking look less attractive due to fluctuating fuel prices, and railways grab the advantage. Intermodal, truck trains and a new development in easily available fiberglass skids, along with railroad-trucking company agreements, removes a huge portion of truck freight from the roads, and electrified railways make the price of shipping lower still. Eventually when trucking does come to be, many roads create land ferries. Which are essentially trains where the truckers park their vehicles, then go sleep for the night until the next morning.
Passenger trains skid badly in the 1950s and 1960s, but the railroads eventually decide to go down the road of top-quality service and great accommodations instead. Virtually every railroad buys almost an entire new fleet of locomotives and cars in the 1970s, which results in a major growth in rail travel. The Auto Train concept catches on nationwide too, and expands beyond the original Lorton- Sanford route.
Express mail trains are even common at times. Including several UPS trains which are painted in a great brown, yellow, and green livery.
Electrification is the norm in most of the east and the west coast.