Tag Archives: Railroads

Let’s Talk About…… Inland Northwest Railway Museum

by Donna Phillips


Have you been to the Inland Northwest Rail Museum just a hoot and holler west of Reardan?? If you’re into trains, train history, engines, different rail lines, anything “railroad,” this is the place to go. While not open every day year round, they have plenty of regular open days and a host of special events. Do check it out. 

Coming up on Saturday, May 11th, there are Big Happenings planned for the entire weekend and I will be offering a class on “Did Your Ancestor Work For The Railroad.” Come, enjoy the displays, the train rides and, on that day, the class…… if you happen to be on the east side of the mountains.

Railroad Facts you perhaps did not know (according to a 1990 factsheet I have):

  • Freight traffic on major U.S. railroads is measured in “ton-miles.” This is a term denoting the movement of one tone of freight a distance of one mile. Our U.S. railroads achieve millions of ton-miles every year
  • There are no legal limits on how long a train can be but there are practical limits, such as power of the engine.
  • During WWII, railroads moved practically all the men and supplies of the American Expeditionary Force to seaports. 
  • From 1 Dec 1941 to 30 Aug 1945, U.S. railroads carried approximately 44-million service men and women in special troop trains, hospital trains and in special cars attached to regular trains.
  • The first known instance of mail being moved by rail occurred in South Carolina in Nov 1831. By 1840, railroads had begun to provide space and facilities for handling of the mail enroute. But as the movement of mail by air grew, the railroads’ mail business declined. The last mail run, between Washington and New York, was in June 1977. 
  • What are the commodities carried by railroads? Coal ranks first in tonage, followed by farm products, chemicals, nonmetallic minerals, food and kindred products, frozen products, lumber and wood products.
  • Railroads are deemed vital to the U.S. economy. The steel industry depends on railroads to deliver its ore and coat; the car industry depends on railroads to deliver the steel and parts of making cars and then to carry cars to their destination. 
  • There are more railroad-railroading websites available to you than you likely have time for. Use Google and go for it! 
    • The place your railroading ancestor lived
    • The railroad he worked for
    • Railroads have historical societies and archives!

 Remember all the good railroads have done for our country, and still do, the next time you’re stuck seemingly forever at a railroad crossing. 

Let’s Talk About: Railroads, Part 2

by Donna Phillips

Continued from last week’s post………………

The Union Pacific Railroad had a must easier time of it due to the flat midwestern terrain. A large 20-car work train crawled along the newly-laid tracks to bring supplies and support the army of workers. This train was a combination of factory, hotel, restaurant, hospital and administrative center. It required two locomotives to pull it along. Some cars were divided into offices, storerooms, blacksmith shop, carpenter shop, saddler shop. The rail hands boarded in huge sleeping cars packed with 144 bunks and fed in massive 75-foot long dining cars. Food was good and plentiful: bread, meat and coffee being the staples.

The Central Pacific had less mileage to cover but the Rocky Mountains were extremely difficult to conquer. Remember, all the work was done by blasting with TNT and then with the workers’ hands. At first, labor was scarce and expensive and unemployed immigrants were quickly snapped up by railroad recruiters. “The solution to this labor shortage lay not across the Atlantic but the Pacific,” wrote David Norris in his publication, History of Railroads. China provided thousands of men willing to travel over the ocean to work on the railroad; Chinese recruiting began in 1865 and soon grew to over 10,000 men…… who, being Chinese, were paid $31.00 per month instead of $45.00 for whites.

The worst part of the route for the Central Pacific was the Summit Tunnel over Donner Pass. This project took two full years and in the winter the workers had to dig through tunnels of deep snow just to reach the work site.

The sunny May day in 1869 when the two rail lines finally converged at Promontory Summit in Utah was indeed a milestone and reason to celebrate but the photos of the day omit the details of the full story. In those historic photos, you’ll see no Black or Chinese faces….. these ethnic workers were given no credit for their sacrifices on that auspicious day.

Jumping ahead, the Pullman sleeper car was the brain child of George Pullman who, after being “tormented during a jolting and uncomfortable ride in an overnight passenger car,” turned his mind to a solution and came up with a way to improve overnight rail travel. By 1869, his Pullman sleeper cars were running coast to coast on the new combined Union & Central Pacific Railroads.

Let’s Talk About: Railroads, Part 1

by Donna Phillips

Railroads were lifelines across America to our ancestors. Anything we can learn about railroads and railroading will benefit the social history we seek to fill out our ancestors’ lives. Do keep in mind that it was our ancestors who did this railroad building not “hired workers from elsewhere.”

David Norris authored a special issue from Internet Genealogy Magazines titled The History of Railroads. This issue was 50 pages all about the topic of railroads and you might want to order a copy for yourself. I do quote from that publication.

In the beginning, there were two railroads: the Central Pacific in the west and the Union Pacific in the east. Soon after the Civil War, it was apparent that the need to connect both side of the county was sorely needed. So the government gave financial incentives to these two railroad companies, with greater benefits going to the Central Pacific for they had the far rougher terrain to conquer. Railroad companies were granted up to 6400 acres of public land and $48,000 in government bonds for every mile of track; this was to the Central Pacific with lesser amounts to the Union Pacific.

First, surveyors had to map the path. Then crews wee assigned to build bridges, culverts or tunnels. Next came the graders to shape the track bed. Most work was done by hand with pick, shovel and wheel barrows. Other crews cut timber along the way for lumber to build these structures, for the ties and for fuel.

Working at top speed, crews could lay over 100 feet of track per minute… or less than one hour to lay a mile of track. Each mile of track required 380 rails, 2600 ties and 10,000 spikes which were transported to the work site along the newly-laid tracks.

This last paragraph applies to the work across the midwestern plains. Work crawled along with much greater difficulty through the Rocky Mountains.

To be continued………………..