Greg Schneider, professor of history, has been chosen as the winner of the George H. and Constance M. Hilton book award by the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society for his book “Rock Island Requiem: The Collapse of a Mighty Fine Line.”

“I never thought I’d do a book on it… I’m an American historian,” Schneider said. “I’ve published on histories of conservatism in the past in America. Now I’m moving into railroads. This was the first book on railroads so it’s nice to win a prize for it.”

The book, published in September 2013, is a 392-page work of nonfiction, meant for United States historians, students, graduate students and those interested in railroads and railroad history.

“At some universities, research is a professor’s primary responsibility – KU, K-State would be examples – and here, it’s teaching,” said Michael Smith, chair of the department of history. “But a quarter of our work is still supposed to be dedicated to research. Dr. Schneider is one of (the professors) that does that very well…  It’s a real balancing act to do both but when you do then you can bring some of the insights to your students.”

A review in Trains magazine calls the book an “impressive volume (that) chronicles the long, sad decline of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and illustrates how federal regulation dating back to the early 20th century had become counterproductive by the 1960s.”

“All the graduate students, from the time I’ve been here, are always struck at how fast he is able to publish and the quality,” said Harry Spencer, graduate history student and Schneider’s graduate teaching assistant. “He spends a lot of his time off, and the summers especially, going through archives. He’s very passionate about his work.”

Schneider wrote the book because a lot of people know the name of the Rock Island Railway only from pop culture, as it is a song sung by Johnny Cash and others.

“The story of this railroad’s end was a huge story in national politics in the 1970s as well as in the labor unions and other things, so I wanted to tell this kind of story about why the railroad declined – why it went bankrupt, why it couldn’t be saved and why in the end they decided to liquidate the railroad and get rid of it,” Schneider said.

Rock Island was a Midwestern railroad, mostly hauling commodities like corn and wheat. After the Second World War, highways improved and railways were sidelined, in a way.

“The problem with railroads is they’re fixed, and they can only go where the lines go. And sometime it takes longer for a railroad to get a car to the place where they’re shipping goods and back… You know you can move it faster with a truck,” Schneider said.

Schneider, who grew up in Chicago, witnessed the collapse of the railroad firsthand as a teenager and actually wrote about it as a high school student. Then, in 2009, he received several grants and was able to do extensive research for the book, visiting about 18 archives across the country.

The award was received in St. Louis at a conference for the National Railway Historical Society and the Museum of Transportation on Sept. 27.