Its a practical book focused on reverse-engineering your goals to determine what your next steps should be - i.e.

I took a liking to a few posts mentioning learning trades that are profitable like software engineering that could propel someone who works hard into a new income bracket.

Purchase price: $72,500 Cash invested: $12,000 Sale price: $99,800 Lived in this home as renter, free of rent to help Engineering Manager out with re-furb.

I went to school to be an Electrical Engineer and recently got my Masters degree and currently work in Technical Sales.

Many are going bankrupt from lack of new findings. 4) Search engines ---> TONS in 90's.

Work with the current owner on putting the land into the deal with you as the developer and then working with architects, engineers, etc... to first clean up the property and determine the highest and best use. 

I'm an engineer by training, so my thought process is see problem and find solution. 

., but even if it does, that doesn’t mean it’d be profitable today.I did a bit of googling over this thinking that the railroad was trying to keep the minerals, especially coal and iron, for themselves because a lot of steam engines burned coal and the engines and tracks were build from iron or steel (which is mostly iron).

Your first step there would be to get a structural engineer and other qualified contractors out to the property to give you an idea of what it would take to fix.

This is likely an over-engineering some more simple transaction, but thinking aloud here.