The more things change...

[Fluesheet]

Labor was dirt cheap - that's why so much of it was used. It was so cheap, that railroads avoided mechanization which was more costly.

I guess it's all relative. The quoted section that started this thread (and later discussion in the same section of the book that the quote was pulled from) suggests that the railroads were actively engaging mechanization wherever it was feasible.

I say relative because obviously what constitutes "cheap" then vs. now is different, and even heavy mechanization then would probably seem pretty pitiful to a modern viewer!

Matt