Yes, but is a tax on the researchers. Bubbles are productive in research, as they are almost everywhere else. The real problem of railroad manias is that while they are great for building infrastructure, as the growth is not planned waste a huge portion of human capital when the bubble ends.
This is seen in deflationary systems and inflationary systems alike. When homeostasis breaks the whole system undergoes a shock, that in the economy is seen as Depression and in research is researchers abandoning academia.