# How did they build a railroad forward from a single track?



## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

I have read several books about building the Transcontinental Railroad. They always seem to say the same thing but I always come away with the information not quite fitting together in my mind. I have even asked at several major railroad museums (including some that have displays about the Transcontinental Railroad) only to find out that the person at the exhibit did not really know either.

Here is the deal...

You have one track and on that track you have a long train with wood for the ties and rails for the track. If you have 10 rail-cars with ties and 10 rail-cars with rails how do you get the ties and rails off in the order needed and the empty rail-cars out of the way for the next loaded rail-cars?

Time and again they talk about crews pulling the rails forward. How does one pull rails forward if they are on the 10th car in line?

How does the next train full of ties and rails get in front of the train empty in front of it.

Please do not answer in generalities. The books are full of generalities. I am looking for a step by step way to use a single railroad line to get the ties and rails moved to the front where they are needed and that train (when empty) to move back out of the way for the next loaded train to move ahead.

Sidings make sense until you ask yourself just how many sidings would have to be built and removed for the next siding to be built and then the turnouts removed and replaced with straight track when this would have to be done virtually for every single rail-car load of ties and or rails.

I have toyed with the idea of building an "end of line" as part of my layout representing the building of the railroad. I may never do it but if I do I want to be sure that I first understand how they really did it.

Considering that the materials had to be moved hundreds of miles if not thousands of miles the task of moving all those trains in both directions must have been a monumental task.

I also realize that when possible they cut their ties locally but in many cases either there was no wood (in the desert) or the wood had to be treated somewhere before it could be used as ties.

Hopefully someone has a better understanding of the entire process than I do and it would be great if someone has photos of the step by step process. The books I have are all missing descriptions (that make sense to me) and or photos of the process.

Can anyone explain how it was done?

Thanks,

Jerry


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## SoCalStu (Dec 27, 2007)

How would you do it on a layout? If I did it on my layout I would need a siding to push full cars from (maybe not 10 at a time) and another one to drop the empty cars on before returning them.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

The cars were pushed to the end of the track by the engine and the lead one (end of the train/opposite end from engine) would be off loaded and then tipped up and off the tracks. Trucks might move with it, or may have to be lifted off the tracks manually and set aside. Then the next car was pushed to the end and the process repeated. Each car might have enough ties and rail to build a dozen or more sections. When the source of cars on the train had been depleated, the engine would pull forward and the cars re-assembled one by one on the end, to be pulled to the next siding where the train would be swapped for a loaded set and they'd do it all over again. Might take half a day to empty one train, so while the first was being reassembled and withdrawn, the gandy dancers would get lunch.


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Just watch a line being lifted as I have, and inverse and it is as Semper/T.C. states above.


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

What the Engines Said 

Opening of the Pacific Railroad 

WHAT was it the Engines said, 
Pilots touching,â€"head to head 
Facing on the single track, 
Half a world behind each back? 
This is what the Engines said, 5 
Unreported and unread. 

With a prefatory screech, 
In a florid Western speech, 
Said the engine from the West, 
"I am from Sierra's crest; 10 
And, if altitude 's a test, 
Why, I reckon, it 's confessed, 
That I 've done my level best." 

Said the Engine from the East, 
"They who work best talk the least. 15 
S'pose you whistle down your brakes; 
What you 've done is no great shakes,â€" 
Pretty fair,â€"but let our meeting 
Be a different kind of greeting. 
Let these folks with champagne stuffing, 20 
Not their Engines, do the puffing. 

"Listen! Where Atlantic beats 
Shores of snow and summer heats; 
Where the Indian autumn skies 
Paint the woods with wampum dies,â€" 25 
I have chased the flying sun, 
Seeing all he looked upon, 
Blessing all that he has blest, 
Nursing in my iron breast 
All his vivifying heat, 30 
All his clouds about my crest; 
And before my flying feet 
Every shadow must retreat." 

Said the Western Engine, "Phew!" 
And a long, low whistle blew. 35 
"Come, now, really that 's the oddest 
Talk for one so very modest. 
You brag of your East. You do? 
Why, I bring the East to you! 
All the Orient, all Cathay, 40 
Find through me the shortest way; 
And the sun you follow here 
Rises in my hemisphere. 
Really,â€"if one must be rude,â€" 
Length, my friend, ain't longitude." 45 
Said the Union: "Don't reflect, or 
I 'll run over some Director." 
Said the Central: "I 'm Pacific; 
But, when riled, I 'm quite terrific. 
Yet to-day we shall not quarrel, 50 
Just to show these folks this moral, 
How two Enginesâ€"in their visionâ€" 
Once have met without collision." 

That is what the Engines said, 
Unreported and unread; 55 
Spoken slightly through the nose, 
With a whistle at the close.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Order of pics is off.... but here are a couple of ways... The first pic suggests temporary tracks fed supplies.
The last pic is the crew boarding train following the track as it is laid.

Middle 2 are two Hurley tracklayers.

John


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## kormsen (Oct 27, 2009)

nice pictures. 
but they don't present the normal operations. 
the planing, the tie laying and the rail laying normally were three independent operations. in the first two without trains involved. there are enough historic documents about trains of mule-carts bringing the ties. 
so there were only the rails to be brought to the railhead by train. 
these rails were much shorter than today (but i don't remember the exact number given) normally they were moved by four pairs of workers with giant pincers. 

and they had sidings. - every couple of hundreds of miles. 

that is at least, how the building of the union pacific and the central pacific were discribed.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Those are great pictures.


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## livesteam53 (Jan 4, 2008)

It's called Raw Manuel Labor to install


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

JJ, 
I love getting into archieves of rail histories and finding obscure photos. 
Contrary to Kormsen's statement the Hurleys do show the planning necessary, however all the supplies are on the train behind. The ties are conveyored to the front and the rails slide under the machines and are assisted by boom into place. 

On the CP's record all supplies were laid out in advance so they didn't need to fuss with empty cars. He is right that a rail gang would carry the rails forward. Grab it with tongs and hustle forward. Number of men depends on weight of the rails. Rails are rated by pounds per yard. 

Rail lengths depended on the cars carrying them from the foundry; 28', 30', 35' 40'.... as cars grew so did lengths, longer is always better as there are fewer joints of wear. 

John


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

In case anyone is wondering why I have not said anything it is because I wanted to leave the topic open to get as many (and varied) explanations and methods used as possible. I suspect different railroads would have used different methods.

I do appreciate everyone's comments and contributions.

Jerry


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

*The Story of the First Trans-Continental Railroad;*[/i] W.F. Bailey; 1906;
pp53-54
"The whole organization of the road is semi-military. The men who go ahead (surveyors and locators) are the advance guard, following them is the second line (the graders) cutting through the gorges, grading the road and building the bridges. Then comes the main body of the army, placing the ties, laying the track, spiking down the rails, perfecting the alignment, ballasting and dressing up and completing the road for immediate use. Along the line of the completed road are construction trains pushing 'to the front' with supplies. The advance limit of the rails is occupied by a train of long box-cars with bunks built within them, in which the men sleep at night and take their meals. Close behind this train come train loads of ties, rails, spikes, etc., which are thrown off to the side. A light car drawn by a single horse gallops up, is loaded with this material and then is off again to the front. Two men grasp the forward end of the rail and start ahead with it, the rest of the gang taking hold two by two, until it is clear of the car. At the word of command it is dropped into place, right side up, during which a similar operation has been going on with the rail for the other side,—thirty seconds to the rail for each gang, four rails to the minute. As soon as a car is unloaded, it is tipped over to permit another to pass it to the front and then it is righted again and hustled back for another load. 
"Close behind the track-layers comes the gaugers, then the spikers and bolters. Three strokes to the spike, ten spikes to the rail, four hundred rails to the mile. Quick work you say,—but the fellows on the Union Pacific are tremendously in earnest." 
*The Story of the First Trans-Continental Railroad;*[/i] W.F. Bailey; 1906;
pp54-55
Or as another writer has it, "We witnessed here the fabulous speed with which the line was built. Through the two or three hundred miles beyond were scattered ten to fifteen thousand men (?) in great gangs preparing the road-bed with plows, scrapers, shovels, picks, and carts, and among the rocks, with drills and powder were doing the grading as rapidly as men could stand and move with their tools. Long trains brought up to the end of the track, loads of ties and rails the former were transferred to teams and sent one or two miles ahead and put in place on the grade, then spikes and rails were reloaded on platform cars and pushed up to the last previously laid rail and with an automatic movement and celerity that was wonderful, practiced hands dropped the fresh rails one after another on the ties exactly in line. Hugh sledges sent the spikes home, —the car rolled on and the operation was repeated; while every few minutes the long heavy train behind sent out a puff of smoke from its locomotive and caught up with its load of material the advancing work. The only limit to the rapidity with which the track could thus be laid was the power of the road behind to bring forward material." 
The above description applies to the later period of construction, when the forces had become thoroughly organized and the work systematized. 
*The Union Pacific Railroad: A Study In Railway Politics, History, and Economics*[/i] John P. Davis A.M.; 1894;
pp142-143
The military coloring of the work of building the Union Pacific is well described in the following quotation from a newspaper of the day: 
"One can see all along the line of the now completed road the evidences of ingenious self protection and defense which our men learned during the war. The same curious huts and underground dwellings, which were a common sight along our army lines then, may now be seen burrowed into the sides of the hills or built up with ready adaptability in sheltered spots. The whole organization of the force engaged in the construction of the road is, in fact, semi-military. The men who go ahead, locating the road, are the advance guard. Following them is the second line, cutting through the gorges, grading the road and building bridges. Then comes the main line of the army, placing the sleepers, laying the track, spiking down the rails, perfecting the alignment, ballasting the rails, and dressing up and completing the road for immediate use. This army of workers has its base, to continue the figure, at Omaha, Chicago, and still further eastward, from whose markets are collected the materials for constructing the road. Along the line of the completed road are construction trains constantly pushing forward 'to the front' with supplies. The company's grounds and work shops at Omaha are the arsenal, where these purchases, amounting now to millions of dollars in value, are collected and held ready to be sent forward. The advanced limit of the rail is occupied by a train of long boxcars, with hammocks swung under them, beds spread on top of them, bunks built within them, in which the sturdy, broadshouldered pioneers of the great iron highway sleep at night and take their meals. Close behind this train come loads of ties and rails and spikes, etc., which are being thundered off upon the roadside to be ready for the track-layers. The road is graded a hundred miles in advance. The ties are laid roughly in place, then adjusted, gauged, and leveled. Then the track is laid. 
"Track-laying on the Union Pacific is a science, and we, pundits of the far East, stood upon that embankment, only about a thousand miles this side of sunset, and backed westward before that hurrying corps of sturdy operators with a mingled feeling of amusement, curiosity, and profound respect. On they came. A light car, drawn by a single horse, gallops up to the front with its load of rails. Two men seize the end of a rail and start forward, the rest of the gang taking hold by twos, until it is clear of the car. They come forward at a run. At the word of command the rail is dropped in its place, right side up with care, while the same process goes on at the other side of the car. Less than thirty seconds to a rail for each gang, and so four rails go down to the minute ! Quick work, you say, but the fellows on the Union Pacific are tremendously in earnest. The moment the car is empty it is tipped over on the side of the track to let the next loaded car pass it, and then it is tipped back again, and it is a sight to see it go flying back for another load, propelled by a horse at full gallop at the end of sixty or eighty feet of rope, ridden by a young Jehu, who drives furiously. Close behind the first gang come the gaugers, spikers, and bolters, and a lively time they make of it. It is a grand Anvil Chorus that those sturdy sledges are playing across the plains. It is in triple time, three strokes to the spike. There are ten spikes to a rail, four hundred rails to a mile, eighteen hundred miles to San Francisco. . . . Twenty-one million times are those sledges to be swung—twenty-one million times are they to come down with their sharp punctuation, before the great work of modern America is complete!" 
_1 It is regretted that direct credit can not be given for these paragraphs. They are quoted in an article on " Pacific Railroads," by W. A. Bell, on pages 572 and 573 of the Fortnightly Review for Mav, i869._ 
*How We Built The Union Pacific Railway:*[/i] Major General Grenville M. Dodge; 1866-1870;
pp15-
The organization for work on the plains away from civilization was as follows: Each of our surveying parties consisted of a chief, who was an experienced engineer, two assistants, also civil engineers, rodmen, flagmen and chainmen, generally graduated civil engineers, but without personal experience in the field, besides axe men, teamsters and herders. When the party was expected to live upon the game of the country a hunter was added. Each party would thus consist of from eighteen to twenty-two men, all armed. When operating in a hostile Indian country they were regularly drilled, though after the Civil War this was unnecessary, as most of them had been in the army. Each party entering a country occupied by hostile Indians was generally furnished with a military escort of from ten men to a company under a competent officer. The duty of this escort was to protect the party when in camp. In the field the escort usually occupied prominent hills commanding the territory in which the work was to be done, so as to head off sudden attacks by the Indians. Nothwithstanding this protection, the parties were often attacked, their chief, or some of their men killed or wounded, and their stock run off. 
In preliminary surveys in the open country a party would run from eight to twelve miles of line in a day. On location in an open country three or four miles would be covered, but in a mountainous country generally not to exceed a mile. All hands worked from daylight to dark, the country being reconnoitered ahead of them by the chief, who indicated the streams to follow, and the controlling points in summits and river crossings. The party of location that followed the preliminary surveys, had the maps and profiles of the line selected for location and devoted its energies to obtaining a line of the lowest grades and the least curvature that the country would admit. 
The location party in our work on the Union Pacific was followed -by the construction corps, grading generally 100 miles at a time. That distance was graded in about thirty days on the plains, as a rule, but in the mountains we sometimes had to open our grading several hundred miles ahead of our track in order to complete the grading by the time the track should reach it. All the supplies for this work had to be hauled from the end of the track, and the wagon transportation was enormous. At one time we were using at least 10,000 animals, and most of the time from 8,000 to 10,000 laborers. The bridge gangs always worked from five to twenty miles ahead of the track, and it was seldom that the track waited for a bridge. To supply one mile of track with material and supplies required about forty cars, as on the plains everything—¦ rails, ties, bridging, fastenings, all railway supplies, fuel for locomotives and trains, and supplies for men and animals on the entire work, had to be transported from the Missouri River. Therefore, as we moved westward, every hundred miles added- vastly to our transportation. Yet the work was so systematically planned and executed that I do not remember an instance in all the construction of the line of the work being delayed a single week for want of material. Each winter we planned the work for the next season. By the opening of spring, about April 1st, every part of the machinery was in working order, and in no year did we fail to accomplish our work. After 1866 the reports will show what we started out to do each year, and what we accomplished. 
The following extract from a letter written to me by General W. T. Sherman as to what we promised to do in 1867, which was only about one-half what we prepared to do and did accomplish in 1868, indicates how one year's experience helped us in the progress of the next. It also shows, what the country now seems in a great measure to have forgotten, that the Pacific Railroad, now regarded chiefly in the light of a 
transcontinental, commercial highway, was then looked upon as a military necessity and as the one thing positively essential to the binding together of the republic East and West: 
_"St. Louis. January 16. 1867."
"My Dear Dodge:"

"1 have just read with intense interest your letter of the 14th, and, though you wanted it kept to myself, 1 believe you will sanction my sending it to General Grant for his individual perusal, to be returned to me. It is almost a miracle to grasp your purpose to finish to Fort Sanders (288 miles) this year, but you have done so much that I mistrust my own judgment and accept yours. I regard this road of yours as the solution of the Indian affairs and the Mormon question, and, therefore, give you all the aid 1 possibly can, but the demand for soldiers everywhere and the slowness of enlistment, especially among the blacks, limit our ability to respond. Each officer exaggerates his own troubles and appeals for men. I now have General Terry on the upper Missouri, General Augur with you, and General Hancock just below, all enterprising young men, fit for counsel or for the field. I will endeavor to arrange so that hereafter all shall act on common principles and with a common purpose, and the first step, of course, is to arrange for the accumulation of the necessary men and materials at the right points, for which your railroad is the very thing. So far as interest in your section is concerned, you may rest easy that both Grant and I feel deeply concerned in the safety of your great national enterprise."_ 
It was not until after November, 1867, when we had been at work two years, that we got railroad communication with the East at Council Bluffs, Iowa, the initial point of the Union Pacific Railway by the completion of the Northwestern Railway. Till then the Missouri River had been the sole route over which supplies could be had. It was available only about three months of the year, and our construction was limited by the quantities of rail and equipment that could be brought to us by boat in that time. In twelve months of work after we had rail communication, we located, built and equipped 587 miles of road, working only from one end, transporting everything connected with it, an average distance of 800 miles west of the Missouri River. This feat has not yet been surpassed. In accomplishing it we crossed the divide of the continent and two ranges of mountains, one of which was the Wasatch, where^ in the winter of 1868-69 we had to blast the earth the same as the rocks. 
*How We Built The Union Pacific Railway:*[/i] Major General Grenville M. Dodge; 1866-1870;
pp28-29
"We made our plans to build to Salt Lake, 480 miles, in 1868, and to endeavor to meet the Central Pacific at Humboldt Wells, 21!) miles west of Ogden, in the spring of 1869. I had extended our surveys during the years 1867 and 1868 to the California State line, and laid my plans before the company, and the necessary preparations were made to commence work as soon as frost was out of the ground, say about April 1st. Material bad been collected in sufficient quantities at the end of the track to prevent any delay. During the winter ties and bridge timber had been cut and prepared in the mountains to bring to the line at convenient points, and the engineering forces were started to their positions before cold weather was over that they might be ready to begin their work as soon as the temperature would permit. I remember that the parties going to Salt Lake crossed the Wasatch Mountains on sledges, and that the snow covered the tops of the telegraph poles. We all knew and appreciated that the task we had laid out would require the greatest energy on the part of all hands. About April 1st, therefore, I went onto the plains myself and started our construction forces, remaining the whole summer between Laramie and the Humboldt Mountains. I was surprised at the rapidity with which the work was carried forward. Winter caught us in the Wasatch Mountains, but we kept on grading our road and laying our track in the snow and ice at a tremendous cost. I estimated for the company that the extra cost of thus forcing the work during that summer and winter was over $10,000,000, but the instructions I received were to go on, no matter what the cost. Spring found us with the track at Ogden, and by May 1st we had reached Promontory, 534 miles west of our starting point twelve months before. Work on our line was opened to Humboldt Wells, making in the year a grading of 754 miles of line." 
*How We Built The Union Pacific Railway:*[/i] Major General Grenville M. Dodge; 1866-1870;

pp38-39
The entire track and a large part of the grading on the Union Pacific Railway was done by the Casement Brothers, General Jack Casement and Dan Casement. General Casement had been a prominent brigade and division commander in the Western army. Their force consisted of 100 teams and 1,000 men, living at the end of the track in boarding cars and tents, and moved forward with it every few days. It was the best organized, best equipped and best disciplined track force I have ever seen. I think every chief of the different units of the force had been an officer of the army, and entered on this work the moment they were mustered out. They could lay from one to three miles of track per day, as they had material, and one day laid eight and a half miles. Their rapidity in track laying, as far as I know, has never been excelled. I used it several times as a fighting force, and it took no longer to put it into fighting line than it did to form it for its daily work. They not only had to lay and surface the track, but had to bring forward to the front from each base all the material and supplies for the track and for all workmen in advance of the track. Bases were organized for the delivery of material generally from one to two hundred miles apart, according to the facilities for operation. These bases were as follows: First, Fremont; second, Fort Kearney; third, North Platte; fourth, Julesburg; fifth, Sidney; sixth, Cheyenne; seventh, Laramie; eighth, Benton (the last crossing of the North Platte); ninth, Green River; tenth, Evanston; eleventh, Ogden, and finally Promontory. 
At these bases large towns were established, which moved forward with the bases, and many miles of sidings were put in for switching purposes,, unloading tracks, etc. At these prominent points I have seen as many as a thousand teams waiting for their loads to haul forward to the front for the railway force, the Government and for the limited population then living in that country. I have seen these terminal towns starting first with a few hundred people until at Cheyenne, at the base of the mountains, where we wintered in 1867-68, there were 10,000 people. From that point they decreased until at Green River there were not over 1,000. After we crossed the first range of mountains we moved our bases so rapidly they could not afford to move with us.


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## jgallaway81 (Jan 5, 2009)

Also, a point on ties... at that time I'd highly doubt they worried about treating the ties. They most likely cut a tree down, stripped off the bark and cut it into tie lengths.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Posted By jgallaway81 on 16 Jun 2010 08:07 PM 
Also, a point on ties... at that time I'd highly doubt they worried about treating the ties. They most likely cut a tree down, stripped off the bark and cut it into tie lengths. 

I remember reading that with in a very short period of time they had to replace the orginal ties becasue they rotted quickly. 


The excerps posted are real interesting reading. 

Thanks for posting them


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I wish a moderator would fix the above photos to reduce the width of the posting so I could read this without the excessive horizontal scrolling.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Funny all pics were resized to the standard 800x600 (I'm not sure of the numbers, but it's a standard setting) pixels. 
I don't know why they're too big for you. I see an inch of border when looking at the Hurleys.... 

John


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 16 Jun 2010 10:38 PM 
I wish a moderator would fix the above photos to reduce the width of the posting so I could read this without the excessive horizontal scrolling. C.T.

Are you sure that you don't have the magnification in your browser somewhere other than 100%, because the width of the widest picture is only 751 pixels.


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## kormsen (Oct 27, 2009)

if totalwrecker would edit that post, and woud just hit enter twice between the first two pics, the problem might be solved.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By kormsen on 17 Jun 2010 09:59 AM 
if totalwrecker would edit that post, and Would just hit enter twice between the first two pics, the problem might be solved. Kormsen

I went in and checked it, you were correct the first two were on the same line. Although in my browser window they've always displayed one-on-top-the-other not side-by-side, hope that fixes the problem.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Thanks for the fix, I didn't know they were on the same line. I do try to double space between the pics. I think I know how it happened and have changed my habits since. After posting a pic, the add a pic icon was north of my vision, I left clicked to lock the scroll wheel, doing so moved the cursor marker and thus my pics were out of order. Getting them in the wrong order has happened before without causing this. 
Sorry guys, I do try to play by the rules. 

What's the window of opportunity for editing? 

John


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Totalwrecker on 17 Jun 2010 11:15 AM 
_{snip...}_ What's the window of opportunity for editing? John, the last time I checked the edit timeout was three (3) hours after posting.

Was just thinking, maybe the following may help when composing a reply. There is a 'Fit to Window' button







on the editor's tool-bar (i.e. second from the far right, 1st Class only). If you click that the editor screen will enlarge to fill the complete browser window. That way when you scroll in the editor's content area the tool-bar buttons will stay in view. Remember that to 'Submit' the reply for posting you'll need to click the button again so you can see the rest of the editor page again. You can also toggle the 'Fit to Window' On and Off using the keyboard {F12} key too.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By jgallaway81 on 16 Jun 2010 08:07 PM 
Also, a point on ties... at that time I'd highly doubt they worried about treating the ties. They most likely cut a tree down, stripped off the bark and cut it into tie lengths. As for the treatment of ties for preservation when building the Union Pacific Railroad westward from Omaha. 

Burnetizing Works of the U.P.R.R. at Omaha[/b]

*BURNETIZE:* To impregnate canvas timber or cordage with Sir William Burnett's fluid a solution of chloride of zinc.

*PROCEEDINGS
of the
AMERICAN Society
of
CIVIL ENGINEERS
Vol. XXV
January to December 1899*

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The Artificial Preservation of Railroad Ties by The Use of Zinc Chloride
By Walter W. Curtis, M. Am. Soc. C. E.
To Be Presented May 17th, 1899.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Some interesting reading on the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, available through Google Books & The Internet Archive.

Trans-Continental Excursion of Railroad Agents - 1870 [/b]

Progress of the Union Pacific Railroad:
West From Omaha, Nebraska - 1868[/b]

A report on the Condition, Capacity, & resources
of the
Union Pacific & Central Pacific Railways - 1869 [/b]

How We Built the Union Pacific Railway - 1866`1870 [/b]

Union Pacific Railroad Excursion
In The Fall of 1866 - (c1867) [/b]

A Reminiscence of the Union Pacific Railroad - 1873 [/b]

Building the Pacific Railway - 1919 [/b]


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## kormsen (Oct 27, 2009)

the fifth link is no advertising, but an online book. it really is worth reading. 
(in its irony it reminds me a bit of Mark Twain) 
.


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

The following contains the information I had been looking for. Many books stated that the rails were carried forward but what I had been missing was how the ties were put in place in front of the rails. Handling the rails was easy to understand. It was the handling of the ties that I was not clear about. I did not see how the ties and the rails could have both been brought by rail to the end of track.

Thanks for answering my question.

Jerry



The advance limit of the rails is occupied by a train of long box-cars with bunks built within them, in which the men sleep at night and take their meals. Close behind this train come train loads of ties, rails, spikes, etc., which are thrown off to the side. A light car drawn by a single horse gallops up, is loaded with this material and then is off again to the front. Two men grasp the forward end of the rail and start ahead with it, the rest of the gang taking hold two by two, until it is clear of the car. At the word of command it is dropped into place, right side up, during which a similar operation has been going on with the rail for the other side,—thirty seconds to the rail for each gang, four rails to the minute. As soon as a car is unloaded, it is tipped over to permit another to pass it to the front and then it is righted again and hustled back for another load.

Long trains brought up to the end of the track, loads of *ties* and rails *the former were transferred to teams and sent one or two miles ahead and put in place *on the grade, then spikes and rails were reloaded on platform cars and pushed up to the last previously laid rail and with an automatic movement and celerity that was wonderful, practiced hands dropped the fresh rails one after another on the ties exactly in line.


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