Railroad shopmen

Railroad shopmen were employees of railroad companies charged with the construction, repair, and maintenance of the company's . At the turn of the 20th Century, approximately one-fifth of railroad employees worked as shopmen, a broad group which came to include machinists, carpenters, boilermakers, electricians, sheet metal workers, and other related trades. In 1922 some 400,000 American railroad shopmen collectively went on strike in a massive work stoppage remembered to history as the 1922 National Railroad Shopmen's Strike.

Beginning in the late 1820s, the technology of steam locomotion began to emerge as a commercially viable means of transportation in Europe and North America. The laying of train track and the production of locomotive engines, coaches, railroad cars, and other rolling stock became a major growth industry, attracting financial investors an entrepreneurs intent upon establishing lucrative railways for the transport of raw materials, finished goods, and passengers from place to place. The production and maintenance of this railway became a major portion of business operations of these emerging transportation firms and dedicated employees collectively known as "railroad shopmen" were hired for the performance of these tasks.

The network of railways grew rapidly during the second half of the 19th Century. By 1880 there were approximately 400,000 people (almost exclusively male) employed in the railroad industry of the United States — about 1 worker out of every 40. While the largest part of these were involved in the construction and maintenance of roadbeds and rails, the second largest group of these employees were the shopmen charged with the construction and service of rolling stock. Approximately 20% of railroad employees in this period worked as shopmen, according to the investigation of one leading scholar.

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