This is more-so a bit of a musing for something I've thought and bundled a bit, but it always feels very surprising there isn't necessarily more like, discussion on the railroads and such considering the sheer aspect of like mergers, dissolution, emergence, and collapse that they all had, not to mention that in some cases how personality driven they were. And not to mention in terms of the matter of the US, how much the railroads also tied into heavily with regards to politics throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century and then into post-World War II and what happened there as you saw the shifts of industry and suburbanization, the changes of transportation modes, and how that kind of led on from there.
Like for instance, the matter of in terms of maybe more of a 'minor' AH thing with regards to the railroads from a US perspective but if the CNW had still opted to pursue their own extension to the Pacific rather than being a 'granger' road and how that could've impacted things, especially considering how any such opening like the MILW would've been impacted by the opening of the Panama Canal (and the kind of impact that had on expected goods moving west to east)