Road trip along the old Central Pacific grade

[Stagefright]

My friends Ron, Chuck and I just got back from a two-day trip through Eastern Nevada and Northern Utah. We are very interested in the building and history of the Transcontinental Railroad and, since we live right near it, we took some time exploring the old grade. We visited historic sites including Shafter NV, Cobre NV, and Lucin, Terrace and Promontory Utah.

I've posted the raw pictures on Google here.

It is our intention to produce an informal documentary of our journey, including audio commentary from Chuck. He is an amateur historian and an expert in the Transcontinental Railroad.

I expect this will be completed in a month or so and will be free to anyone who wants it. We haven't completely thought this through; we'll probably upload it to Youtube, so stay tuned. I'll update this thread as work progresses.

Darrel Stage
Ogden, Utah

 

[Pencil42]

Very interesting; thank you for sharing!!!
I enjoyed all the pictures of the bridges you found. What was the thing you were most excited to find?

Curtis

 

[Stagefright]

Very interesting; thank you for sharing!!!
I enjoyed all the pictures of the bridges you found. What was the thing you were most excited to find?

Curtis

There were many, many sights to behold; I guess the most amazing was the fact that the road was built at all. All the cuts and fills were done entirely by hand or with crude black powder explosive.

I spent many minutes in deep thought, contemplating the small bits of broken glass and other artifacts at our feet. Real people once owned and used these items. Whole communities lived and thrived where there is now absolutely nothing. Merchants, schools, churches...everyday life is now all but forgotten.

We found a piece of modern rail on the active SP grade. Here's a photo of that piece compared with rail used in 1869. The original CP rail was 68 pounds per yard; today's rail is about 140 pounds per yard...

 

[norfolksouthern37]

very very cool. i enjoyed the photos.


10 miles of track laid in one day... :|

 

[JCitron]

Hi Darrell,

This was quite a trip! It would be an interesting route for anyone interested in doing this in Trainz. Perhaps a video documentary could be made using both real video footage cut in, and perhaps overlayed, on to a Trainz video.

John

 

[magickmaker]

The Columbus and Greenville used sixty pound rail well into the 1990's. In fact I think in 1996 the last of the original rail was removed. I know they kept it on the spurs though. Even today, the railroad is limited at 15 mph over the length.

Derailments were so common, that in the sixties the RR bought a couple SD28's that were special built with very small fuel tanks. The remaining area was modified with a special flat area and railings to carry everything needed to rerail the locomotive or one of the cars. Jacks, bars, spare rails, ties, and everything you can expect to need.