Travel for leisure and business became quicker, easier, and cheaper in the nineteenth century with the growth of railroads. Railroad companies were especially active in the commercialization of vacation. Resorts and amusement parks were developed by railroad companies along or at the end of lines and new lines were built to service existing resorts. The railroad enabled those living in rural areas to travel to local fairs or distant cities. Wealthy and middle class urban wives and children could spend the summer in the country or at a resort location while the father commuted to his job during the week and joined the family for the weekends. Promotional advertising by railroad companies stressed the ease of train travel, sometimes often with great exaggeration.
This special Louisville and Nashville train schedule, published in the Garrard County Central Record newspaper in July 1908, advertised a special schedule and prices to make visiting the local fair easier.