Historic Research

Teacher's Packet Oral Histories Articles Historic Research Students	Central Pacific end of track. Location: Iron Point, Nevada
Building Materials on the Pacific Railway  By John Sutton, Park Technician (1978) The Act of Congress, March 3, 1863, established the construction standards to be used on the Transcontinental Railroad. These specifications were followed as closely as possible and fortunately liberal conditions were written into the specifications. Roadbed The roadbed was to be no less than fourteen feet wide and raised two feet for drainage purposes; excavation in cuts could be no less than twenty feet wide. Grades and curves were to be no more than 2.2%. 1 Ballast Ballast for anchoring the tracks had to be a minimum of two feet thick. 2 Ballast generally consisted of local material. In deserts and mountains, it came from left over excavation. Ties Ties were 6" X 6" X 8' or 6" X 8" X 8'. 3 Joint ties were slightly wider at the rail face: ten inches rather than six or eight. 4 The specifications called for oak, then fine grade softwoods (pine), and lastly cottonwood. All cottonwood had to be treated with zinc chloride, a process called "Burnetizing" so they would last. Cottonwood, cedar and eastern oak ties were used on the UP in Nebraska where good wood was scarce. Once into the Black Hills of Wyoming, the UP was able to get a source of pine ties and they used them through to Promontory, cutting many in Wyoming and the Wasatch Range in Utah. UP ties were very rough hewn and squared. On the CP, redwood ties were utilized from Sacramento to the Sierra summit. From the Sierras to Promontory, rough sawn pine ties were used. Mills were constructed in the Sierra Mountains solely for the purpose of turning out ties. No two ties were exactly the same length. Hence, the end of the ties when laid were not in perfect alignment. Ties were laid about twelve per thirty foot rail. A typical number of 2,400 per mile is often cited in the sources. However, deviations occurred because of the topography: more ties to the mile in mountains than flats. Cost of the ties varied, but averaged slightly over $1.00 a piece on the CP. 5 Rails Rails were to be made of American iron. This stipulation caused a great shortage in rail, and a rise in cost, as American mills could not readily meet the demand. At the time, the Bessemer process was not in wide use for milling steel in large quantities. Hence, iron was used rather than stronger steel. Steel did replace iron on the road in the early 1870's. 6 The rails themselves weighed 55 to 65 pounds per linear yard, and were 28 to 30 feet in length. 7 Fifty-six pound rail was the kind used for the reconstruction in the park. Each rail, therefore, weighed about 550 pounds. Lighter rails were used on level terrain, while heavier rails were used in mountains. Two holes were located at each end to receive bolts for fishplates. These holes were oval slotted to allow for expansion. The rails were characteristically "pear shaped" in cross section, meaning a slanting shape from the rail face to the base rather than a sharp indention typical of modern rail. The cost of the rails averaged $150 per ton. 8 Couplings The first couplings used on the railroad were iron "chairs". They were used from Sacramento to Colfax, California on the CP. Chairs were similarly used on the first trackage of the UP. The chair was a "slip on" type of fastener much like the type used by model railroaders with the "lip" folding around the base of the rail. A chair weighed eight pounds. 10 Fishplates were adopted by the CP on the heavy curves in the Sierra Nevada mountains and proved to be superior to the chair. Their use was exclusive thereafter except for a few miles west of Winnemucca, Nevada. "Fishplates", "fish joints", of "fish joints", or "fishbars" were iron strips which bound the ends of the rails together. A fishplate was about 20" X 2" X 5/8", 11 with four evenly spaced oval holes to receive a 3/4" bolt. The bolt had a rounded head and an oval collar would lock in the hole and prevent the bolt from rotating when tightened. Oval hole in the rail allowed expansion. Nuts for the bolts were four sided and were uniformly mounted on the outside of the rail. The plates were beveled along its sides to fit more snugly against the rail. Spikes 1860's spikes are somewhat similar in appearance to today's spikes. They were milled iron about 5-1/2 inches long and 9/16 inches square. Their heads were more square than oval. 13 Grading Equipment Grading crews used picks, pickaroons, shovels, wheelbarrows, horse-drawn graders and dumpcarts. Many of the shovels used on UP were provided by Ames Shovel Company, Oakes and Oliver Ames, owners of the company, were also heavy financial supporters of the UP. Picks were two bladed with a wooden handle. A pickaroon is a pick with a smaller blade, usually only one bladed. Shovels were of two types, the "D" handled scooping kind, and the long handled digging kind. Wheelbarrows were made of wood or iron wheels. Slip-scraper were used to even out the bed on grading crews. They were used like the plow, harnessed to a horse or mule; consisting of a large scoop with two long, wooden handles. Dump carts were used to transport and dump loads of dirt or rock. They were used with one mule or horse. The cart was so designed so the frame would remain in position while the bed would tilt, dumping the load in the desired location. Explosives Huge quantities of black powder was used to blast rock as part of the grading work. When construction began, black powder cost $2.50 a keg, and peaked at $15.00 a keg during and soon after the Civil War. 15 On the CP, black powder was not very effective against granite, so nitroglycerine ("blasting oil") was used to reduce costs and provide better rock removal. Most blasting for the CP was done while crossing the Sierras. 1. Galloway, The First Transcontinental Railway, p.141. 2. Ibid. 3. Judah, Reports of the Chief Engineer, 1856-1863, p. 25. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid. 6. Ballard, Trails of the Iron Horse, p. 61. 7. Galloway, op. cit., p. 137. 8. Ibid., p. 141. 9. Sutton, Construction on the Central Pacific Railroad: An Interpretive Prospectus, Correspondence with H. B. Berkshire, April 13, 1978, p. 60. 10. Mayer and Vose, Makin' Tracks, p. 151. 11. Ibid. 13. GOSP Collection, Catalog Number 177. 14. Judah. op. cit., p. 14. 15. Ibid. BACK