Okay, this is almost as funny as the hand on the trooper’s knee.
How is laying track an “idea”? That is manual labor.
The train was invented by private individuals (The invention of the steam engine and locomotive [1784] are usually attributed to James Watt. The train, as a vehicle of transportation, was invented in 1822 by an English inventor named George Stephenson. Answers.com)
And it wasn’t Federal government rewards that incentivized the railroads — it was promises of huge tracts of land by the States. On land ownership maps around here, there are still hundreds of small “remnant” tracts owned by the “BBB&C RR” all over the place...