Railroad Man

Full scale bronze ( 6' 10" ), Atchison Railroaders Plaza, Atchison, Kansas, 2008

The statue depicts one of the men who worked to actually built the railroads out of Atchison, Kansas. The working men, many of Irish origin, supplied the physical labor to build one of the railroads that opened the West and changed the American landscape forever. The figure is modeled after the great-grandfather of Michael Haverty, now Chairman & CEO of the Kansas City Southern, who began his own railroad career with the Missouri Pacific Railroad to make four generations. Haverty's great-grandfather worked as a gandy dancer, a railroad laborer, building the rail lines and as a tribute to his rich family railroad history and the fantastic rise from working man to Chairman & CEO of one of the USA's largest railroads the history of the Haverty Family is a true tale of railroad and American history. The greater than life-size bronze was dedicated May 10, 2008 in front of the last remaining building of the original AT&SF Railroad left in Atchison, Kansas.

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