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From: Bill Oliver <>
Subject: [NEBRHeritage-L] Stories at Eleven [10 CST/8 PST] 04 March 2001, Vol 5, #9
Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2001 23:54:49 -0500

Stories at Eleven [10 CST/8 PST] 04 March 2001, Vol 5, #9
Good Evening EagleLarks, "Good Lifers", and all Ships at
Sea:

Researching the "rails" article last week left me with
several left over items, such as the gyroscopically
controlled monorail that was actually built in the 1920s in
Britain. I know the principle of gyros in ships, having
served in the Navy. And, many of us have spun the bicycle
wheel between our hands. Also, that a train called the
"Potomac EAGLE" exists in West Virginia. And an ad for
travel in New Mexico boasts "Move Your Caboose!" — "Leave
rush hour behind and get back on track in New Mexico."

The building of the Transcontinental Railroad produced an
unrivaled rivalry between the Central Pacific and the Union
Pacific railroads. In their race these rival railroads had
seen men lay from four miles of track per day to six to
eight, and finally to ten miles of track in one day.

It was in 1868 that the Union Pacific construction boss saw
his men lay four and a half miles of track in a day.
Charles Crocker took the much heralded feat as a challenge
and told his overseer that the record had to be beaten.
They prepared the material and the men and six miles [and a
few feet] were spiked down in a single day.

Jack Casement, of the Central Pacific, starting at 3:00 a.m.
and keeping at the job through midnight laid eight and a
half miles of track.

Mr Crocker just could not be out done. He cunningly waited
until the two lines were close enough that there could not
be room enough to be beaten to make the final effort. As he
waited, he planned.

When on April 27, 1869, the Central Pacific had only
fourteen miles to go and the Union Pacific nine miles Mr
Crocker made bet with Thomas Durant, Vice-president of the
Union Pacific, that the Central Pacific would lay ten miles
of track in one day.

That day, men born in America, men who were former slaves,
immigrants from Europe and more than three thousand
Orientals, along with Hispanic men and some men with First
Nation blood came together to do what had never been done
before.!

Sunrise — 7:15 a.m. — the Orientals went to work clearing 16
cars. Irishmen carrying track weighing 560 pounds each
would be rushed to their place. Spikes would then be placed
in position to be spiked and drivers would set them in.
Then bolt threaders tied the rails together. The
straighteners did their bit, followed finally by the
tampers.

>From the Orientals to the tampers they stretched, maybe, two
miles, advancing a mile an hour. By the noon meal at one
thirty, six miles of track had been laid. Though a second
crew was in the wings, the original crew wanted to finish
the job. By 7 p.m., ten miles and fifty-six feet of track
had been extended east. A feat never done before, and never
matched.

And to demonstrate the quality of track laid, an engineer,
Jim Campbell ran a locomotive over the new track at forty
miles per hour.

At the driving of the final spike, this country of ours was
not only held together North and South, but East and West.

Wado,

Bill
--

Dick Taylor's OldTime Nebraska:

http://www.ukans.edu/~kansite/OldtimeNebraska/
http://www.ukans.edu/~kansite/OldtimeNebraska/stories@11/

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• [NEBRHeritage-L] Stories at Eleven [10 CST/8 PST] 04 March 2001, Vol 5, #9 by Bill Oliver <>