What was the process of building the railroads in the Old West?
Categories: Ask the Marshall
By: Marshall Trimble 08/01/2008
Q
What was the process of building the railroads in the Old West?
Kim Zeeb
Denver, Colorado
A
First, surveyors marked out the line, then construction trains of 20 or more cars hauled equipment and workers to the site. These trains were veritable “cities on wheels” that provided crews with sleeping quarters, dining cars, a telegraph office and a store car. An observer complained they had everything but bathing facilities. A different kind of train, called “Hell on Wheels,” hauled booze and shady ladies to the construction sites to take care of more base needs.
Grading crews with plows, scrapers, picks and shovels leveled the roadbed. Mule whackers hauled ties to the roadbed. An engineer leveled the ties. A gauge, called a “chair,” positioned the rails at the proper space. Five “iron men” dropped a 500- to 700-lb. rail on the ties. Head spikers checked the width of the rails and drove in 10 spikes per rail. Back spikers and screwers finished spiking the rails and screwing up the fishplates to secure the rail joints. A worker would “dance” on the handle of a shovel, levering up a tie so ballast could be put under it. The shovel, made by the G&D Tool Co., supposedly provided the name “Gandy Dancer” to the men who laid track. Then fillers would come along and bed the ties with tampers. Track liners would check the alignment of the rails and finish bedding the ties with dirt or stone ballast. Crews usually laid five or more miles a day.
To learn more, read Stephen Ambrose’s Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869.
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