Education - Part 3
Railroad Infrastructure
Railroad infrastructure refers to the path or roadway over which rolling stock (locomotives, railroad cars and other equipment) travel as well as the rolling stock themselves. But it also includes buildings (terminals, maintenance facilities, offices, storage facilities), rail yards, bridges, tunnels and other things needed for successful operation.
Interestingly, many of these things must also be addressed by model railroad enthusiasts. We shall touch on these matters throughout this section.
Interestingly, many of these things must also be addressed by model railroad enthusiasts. We shall touch on these matters throughout this section.
What is a Train?
A train, for our purposes, is a set of one or more railroad cars (locomotives, goods cars, passenger cars, etc.) coupled together so as to move as a unit over the railroad tracks.
Trains can be categorized in various ways. For example, unit trains carry a single good (e.g., coal, crude oil, iron ore, wheat, cattle, gravel) to a single destination, whereas a wagonload train carries a variety of goods bound for a variety of destinations.
Motive power can also be used to categorize trains. We will discuss steam, diesel-electric and electric trains. There are also funiculars, rack, maglev and monorail trains, as well as passenger, freight and specialized trains. Of course, there are revenue-producing trains and non-revenue trains (e.g., maintenance-of-way trains). We will discuss some of these in due course.
Territory and Routes
Before a train can be seen operating along a rail line, a great deal of work must be done. For instance, a railroad organization must establish the territory within which it plans to operate. Country or countries would be the first level of operating territory. The amount of work required to establish an international railroad operation is substantial. What is the home base of the organization? What legal hurdles must be overcome? How would standards, rules and regulations affect operations. Are there time zone issues? How about taxation? You get the idea.
Perhaps it would be better (initially) to establish a territory such as the Mississippi River Valley. Or a territory that links two major cities. Railroad organizations have carved out territories similar to these. But in many cases, a much more limited territory can be established that makes economic sense. Consider the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road (P&R). This railroad founded in 1843 began with a route from Pottsville, PA through Reading and onward to Philadelphia following closely the Schuylkill River valley for roughly 93 miles (150 km). This was a double track route over which anthracite coal was hauled to the P&R port facility in the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia, PA. From this relatively modest beginning, the P&R developed into one of the world's largest corporations (see Railroad Company History for more about Reading Lines).
Routes
Once a territory has been defined, routes may be planned. For example, the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company (later, LVRR) was incorporated in 1847, having received authorization to operate in the state of Pennsylvania. From the name of the company you can imagine the thinking that underlay its business plan. In 1853 its name changed to Lehigh Valley Railroad (LVRR). Its initial operation (excluding passenger service) was the transport of anthracite coal from the area around today's Jim Thorpe, PA to terminals on the Delaware River where it would be transported by boat to various destinations (the distance from Easton to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania is some 40 miles following the Lehigh River). Eventually, LVRR expanded to operate a rail network that ran from Buffalo, NY to New York City through Ithaca, NY, Scranton, PA, Easton, PA and Jersey City, NJ across the Hudson River from NYC. For a variety of reasons, LVRR ceased operations in 1976 through merger (see Railroad Company History).
Layout
Once a territory is established, the layout of the railroad must be designed and built. This involves both the planned routes as well as various buildings and other facilities that will be needed for effective operation.
Perhaps a few examples will help to clarify this matter.
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built a line from Baltimore to Moundsville, WV and onward to Wheeling, WV between 1828 and 1853. Several factors slowed progress, including crossing the Potomac River, dealing with mountainous territory, and the question whether to use horse power or steam power to move trains.
Many other railroads were developed during this period, including Delaware & Hudson, Mohawk & Hudson, Camden & Amboy, Pennsylvania, Erie Railroad and several others, thus linking selected towns or mines and ports. The overarching objective was improvement of commerce.
Beginning before the U.S. Civil War (ca. 1845), efforts had been made to create a railroad that connected the growing eastern network of rails with rails west of the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. There were several drivers of these efforts, including the admission of new states to the union as pro- or anti-slavery; gold and silver fields to be plundered in California and Nevada Territory; the opening up of the west to settlement, farming, ranching and mining. It quickly became obvious to observers that railroads were a boon to nation building and financial growth. State and federal governments encouraged railroads to expand by offering financial and other incentives conditioned on expanding rail networks and facilitating movement of both goods and passengers around a country.
By 1860, the slavery issue had gained supremacy. Once southern states seceded from the union (1861), Congress was able to move ahead on the concept of a “Pacific Railroad”. In 1862, Congress passed “An Act to aid in the Construction of a Railroad and Telegraph Line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for Postal, Military, and Other Purposes” (The Act).
Referred to as the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, it was signed into law by Abraham Lincoln 1862 July 1. Among many other things, this act created "The Union Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company”, known today as the Union Pacific Railroad (reporting mark, UP). This railroad would build trackage and telegraph lines westward on a line “from a point on the one hundredth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, between the south margin of the valley of the Republican River and the north margin of the valley of the Platte River, in the Territory of Nebraska, to the western boundary of Nevada Territory”.
This established the territory for the line. Today, the 100° west meridian falls just west of Cozad, NE and I-80 would approximate the north boundary, while the 100° west meridian falls just east of Holbrook, NE and the approximate south boundary lies just south of the Republican River at that point. Present-day railroad lines run along both the northerly route and the southerly route as delineated in the Act of 1862.
The Act of 1862 also invited four other established railroads to participate in the building of the “Pacific Railroad”, namely Central Pacific Railroad Company of California (CPRR) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Pacific_Railroad), incorporated 1861 (to build across California); Leavenworth, Pawnee, and Western Railroad Company of Kansas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_Pacific_Railway) federally chartered in 1855 to build from the mouth of the Kansas River to the point (~100° west) in Nebraska to meet the westward line; Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_and_St._Joseph_Railroad) founded in 1846 (to build through Atchison, KS to connect with the LP&W), and the Pacific Railroad Company of Missouri (to link with LP&W at Kansas City).
Funding for the lines specified in the Act of 1862 consisted of five parts: 1) capital stock issued by the Union Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company of one hundred thousand shares of one thousand dollars each with no more than 200 shares held by any one shareholder; 2) right of way through “public lands” to a width of 200 feet either side of the right of way both for construction materials (such as earth, stone, timber, etc.) and for location of stations, repair facilities, storage, switches, side track, turntables, water stations, etc.; 3) a grant of five (5) odd-numbered sections of “public lands” along both sides of the line per mile of line not to exceed 10 miles from the line (with some caveats); 4) upon certified completion of 40 consecutive miles of the railroad and telegraph, the U. S. government will issue 16 bonds of $1000 each, for each mile of the 40 miles of railroad completed, due in 30 years and bearing interest of 6%/year payable semiannually. In essence, the United States makes loans to the railroads engaged in building the railway specified in the Act, thus constituting a first mortgage on the line and telegraph; 5) for the 150 miles eastward, beginning at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the 150 miles westward, beginning at the base of the Rocky Mountains, the government will issue 48 bonds of $1000 each for each mile of the certified 20 miles of railroad completed and for the portion of the line between these two 150 mile sections the government will issue 32 bonds of $1000 each for each mile of the certified 20 miles of railroad completed, provided that no more than 50,000 of such bonds may be issued. It is noteworthy that all loans were paid with interest.
The Act of 1862 also specified the track upon the entire line of railroad and branches shall be of uniform width and the grades and curves of the line and branches shall not exceed the maximum grades and curves of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The act also specified U.S.-made rails.
When the line called for in the Act of 1862 (amended in 1863, to require Standard Gauge (4’8 ½”), amended 1864 to authorize UP and CPRR to issue their own “First Mortgage” bonds (with limits) and again in 1865 to confirm Western Pacific Railroad as one of the authorized builders)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Railroad_Acts#1863_Act) was completed on May 10, 1869, it was about 1,911-miles (3,075 km) long and represented a phenomenal achievement, but it was not transcontinental.
That status was achieved in 1870 when the Denver Pacific Railway & Telegraph Co. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_Pacific_Railway_and_Telegraph_Company) connected Denver with UP at Cheyenne and linked up with Kansas Pacific (Leavenworth, Pawnee, and Western Railroad Company of Kansas) at Comanche Crossing (now Strasburg), CO. The Kansas Pacific had a link east when Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad crossed the Missouri River at Kansas City via the Hannibal Bridge (https://kchistory.org/blog/hannibal-bridge-keeping-it-rail-1869) near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. This bridge thus allowed traffic crossing the Mississippi River via the Quincy Rail Bridge (https://www.johnweeks.com/river_mississippi/pagesB/umissBR08.html), linking Quincy, IL and West Quincy, MO or the Rock Island Bridge (also known as Government Bridge or Arsenal Bridge) linking Rock Island, IL and Davenport, IA (https://iowadot.gov/autotrails/government-bridge).
Illinois Central Missouri River Bridge connecting Council Bluffs, IA with Omaha, NE was not opened until 1893 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Central_Missouri_River_Bridge). Before this, trains were ferried across the Missouri River and retracked on the other side (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_ferry). It was probably as quick and safer to run through Kansas City, Mo via Denver and Cheyenne than to take the ferry.
This example Illustrates just a few important steps that must be taken to establish a railroad. Now we need to discuss Trackage.
A train, for our purposes, is a set of one or more railroad cars (locomotives, goods cars, passenger cars, etc.) coupled together so as to move as a unit over the railroad tracks.
Trains can be categorized in various ways. For example, unit trains carry a single good (e.g., coal, crude oil, iron ore, wheat, cattle, gravel) to a single destination, whereas a wagonload train carries a variety of goods bound for a variety of destinations.
Motive power can also be used to categorize trains. We will discuss steam, diesel-electric and electric trains. There are also funiculars, rack, maglev and monorail trains, as well as passenger, freight and specialized trains. Of course, there are revenue-producing trains and non-revenue trains (e.g., maintenance-of-way trains). We will discuss some of these in due course.
Territory and Routes
Before a train can be seen operating along a rail line, a great deal of work must be done. For instance, a railroad organization must establish the territory within which it plans to operate. Country or countries would be the first level of operating territory. The amount of work required to establish an international railroad operation is substantial. What is the home base of the organization? What legal hurdles must be overcome? How would standards, rules and regulations affect operations. Are there time zone issues? How about taxation? You get the idea.
Perhaps it would be better (initially) to establish a territory such as the Mississippi River Valley. Or a territory that links two major cities. Railroad organizations have carved out territories similar to these. But in many cases, a much more limited territory can be established that makes economic sense. Consider the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road (P&R). This railroad founded in 1843 began with a route from Pottsville, PA through Reading and onward to Philadelphia following closely the Schuylkill River valley for roughly 93 miles (150 km). This was a double track route over which anthracite coal was hauled to the P&R port facility in the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia, PA. From this relatively modest beginning, the P&R developed into one of the world's largest corporations (see Railroad Company History for more about Reading Lines).
Routes
Once a territory has been defined, routes may be planned. For example, the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company (later, LVRR) was incorporated in 1847, having received authorization to operate in the state of Pennsylvania. From the name of the company you can imagine the thinking that underlay its business plan. In 1853 its name changed to Lehigh Valley Railroad (LVRR). Its initial operation (excluding passenger service) was the transport of anthracite coal from the area around today's Jim Thorpe, PA to terminals on the Delaware River where it would be transported by boat to various destinations (the distance from Easton to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania is some 40 miles following the Lehigh River). Eventually, LVRR expanded to operate a rail network that ran from Buffalo, NY to New York City through Ithaca, NY, Scranton, PA, Easton, PA and Jersey City, NJ across the Hudson River from NYC. For a variety of reasons, LVRR ceased operations in 1976 through merger (see Railroad Company History).
Layout
Once a territory is established, the layout of the railroad must be designed and built. This involves both the planned routes as well as various buildings and other facilities that will be needed for effective operation.
Perhaps a few examples will help to clarify this matter.
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built a line from Baltimore to Moundsville, WV and onward to Wheeling, WV between 1828 and 1853. Several factors slowed progress, including crossing the Potomac River, dealing with mountainous territory, and the question whether to use horse power or steam power to move trains.
Many other railroads were developed during this period, including Delaware & Hudson, Mohawk & Hudson, Camden & Amboy, Pennsylvania, Erie Railroad and several others, thus linking selected towns or mines and ports. The overarching objective was improvement of commerce.
Beginning before the U.S. Civil War (ca. 1845), efforts had been made to create a railroad that connected the growing eastern network of rails with rails west of the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. There were several drivers of these efforts, including the admission of new states to the union as pro- or anti-slavery; gold and silver fields to be plundered in California and Nevada Territory; the opening up of the west to settlement, farming, ranching and mining. It quickly became obvious to observers that railroads were a boon to nation building and financial growth. State and federal governments encouraged railroads to expand by offering financial and other incentives conditioned on expanding rail networks and facilitating movement of both goods and passengers around a country.
By 1860, the slavery issue had gained supremacy. Once southern states seceded from the union (1861), Congress was able to move ahead on the concept of a “Pacific Railroad”. In 1862, Congress passed “An Act to aid in the Construction of a Railroad and Telegraph Line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for Postal, Military, and Other Purposes” (The Act).
Referred to as the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, it was signed into law by Abraham Lincoln 1862 July 1. Among many other things, this act created "The Union Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company”, known today as the Union Pacific Railroad (reporting mark, UP). This railroad would build trackage and telegraph lines westward on a line “from a point on the one hundredth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, between the south margin of the valley of the Republican River and the north margin of the valley of the Platte River, in the Territory of Nebraska, to the western boundary of Nevada Territory”.
This established the territory for the line. Today, the 100° west meridian falls just west of Cozad, NE and I-80 would approximate the north boundary, while the 100° west meridian falls just east of Holbrook, NE and the approximate south boundary lies just south of the Republican River at that point. Present-day railroad lines run along both the northerly route and the southerly route as delineated in the Act of 1862.
The Act of 1862 also invited four other established railroads to participate in the building of the “Pacific Railroad”, namely Central Pacific Railroad Company of California (CPRR) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Pacific_Railroad), incorporated 1861 (to build across California); Leavenworth, Pawnee, and Western Railroad Company of Kansas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_Pacific_Railway) federally chartered in 1855 to build from the mouth of the Kansas River to the point (~100° west) in Nebraska to meet the westward line; Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_and_St._Joseph_Railroad) founded in 1846 (to build through Atchison, KS to connect with the LP&W), and the Pacific Railroad Company of Missouri (to link with LP&W at Kansas City).
Funding for the lines specified in the Act of 1862 consisted of five parts: 1) capital stock issued by the Union Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company of one hundred thousand shares of one thousand dollars each with no more than 200 shares held by any one shareholder; 2) right of way through “public lands” to a width of 200 feet either side of the right of way both for construction materials (such as earth, stone, timber, etc.) and for location of stations, repair facilities, storage, switches, side track, turntables, water stations, etc.; 3) a grant of five (5) odd-numbered sections of “public lands” along both sides of the line per mile of line not to exceed 10 miles from the line (with some caveats); 4) upon certified completion of 40 consecutive miles of the railroad and telegraph, the U. S. government will issue 16 bonds of $1000 each, for each mile of the 40 miles of railroad completed, due in 30 years and bearing interest of 6%/year payable semiannually. In essence, the United States makes loans to the railroads engaged in building the railway specified in the Act, thus constituting a first mortgage on the line and telegraph; 5) for the 150 miles eastward, beginning at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the 150 miles westward, beginning at the base of the Rocky Mountains, the government will issue 48 bonds of $1000 each for each mile of the certified 20 miles of railroad completed and for the portion of the line between these two 150 mile sections the government will issue 32 bonds of $1000 each for each mile of the certified 20 miles of railroad completed, provided that no more than 50,000 of such bonds may be issued. It is noteworthy that all loans were paid with interest.
The Act of 1862 also specified the track upon the entire line of railroad and branches shall be of uniform width and the grades and curves of the line and branches shall not exceed the maximum grades and curves of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The act also specified U.S.-made rails.
When the line called for in the Act of 1862 (amended in 1863, to require Standard Gauge (4’8 ½”), amended 1864 to authorize UP and CPRR to issue their own “First Mortgage” bonds (with limits) and again in 1865 to confirm Western Pacific Railroad as one of the authorized builders)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Railroad_Acts#1863_Act) was completed on May 10, 1869, it was about 1,911-miles (3,075 km) long and represented a phenomenal achievement, but it was not transcontinental.
That status was achieved in 1870 when the Denver Pacific Railway & Telegraph Co. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_Pacific_Railway_and_Telegraph_Company) connected Denver with UP at Cheyenne and linked up with Kansas Pacific (Leavenworth, Pawnee, and Western Railroad Company of Kansas) at Comanche Crossing (now Strasburg), CO. The Kansas Pacific had a link east when Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad crossed the Missouri River at Kansas City via the Hannibal Bridge (https://kchistory.org/blog/hannibal-bridge-keeping-it-rail-1869) near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. This bridge thus allowed traffic crossing the Mississippi River via the Quincy Rail Bridge (https://www.johnweeks.com/river_mississippi/pagesB/umissBR08.html), linking Quincy, IL and West Quincy, MO or the Rock Island Bridge (also known as Government Bridge or Arsenal Bridge) linking Rock Island, IL and Davenport, IA (https://iowadot.gov/autotrails/government-bridge).
Illinois Central Missouri River Bridge connecting Council Bluffs, IA with Omaha, NE was not opened until 1893 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Central_Missouri_River_Bridge). Before this, trains were ferried across the Missouri River and retracked on the other side (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_ferry). It was probably as quick and safer to run through Kansas City, Mo via Denver and Cheyenne than to take the ferry.
This example Illustrates just a few important steps that must be taken to establish a railroad. Now we need to discuss Trackage.