The industrialized Union possessed an enormous advantage over the Confederacy — they had 20,000 miles of railroad track, more than double the Confederacy's 9,000 miles.

Historically, the battle for railroad supremacy was dominated by Cornelius Vanderbilt and the "Big Four" in the West, but J.P. Morgan eventually controlled the most "consolidated" power. By the early 1900s, Morgan had orchestrated the "Morganization" of the industry, reorganizing struggling lines into massive, stable networks. At his peak, Morgan-led syndicates controlled approximately one-sixth of all American rail lines. However, in terms of sheer miles of track under a single family's direct influence during the Gilded Age, the Vanderbilt family (New York Central) and Jay Gould (who at one point controlled 15% of the nation's tracks, including the Union Pacific) were the primary titans. In 2026, the legacy of these tycoons is seen in the "Class I" railroads like Union Pacific and BNSF, which continue to move the majority of North American freight across the infrastructure originally laid down by these 19th-century magnates.