I was digging around in the storage room the other day and came across my collection of Time Life books The Old West series, and of course the first book I grabbed was the one entitled The Railroaders… Man alive. I can’t even begin to imagine the harsh conditions that those guys had to work under. They had to deal with indian attacks, rival railroads, weather, elements, nearly impossible odds, etc. It’s a miracle they were able to lay the tracks and accomplish what they did… I only model as far back as the 1930s but greatly respect the early days of the 1860s when the old wood burning 4-4-0s and alike ruled the rails.
As modelers, we should thank our favorite dieties that we don’t have to endure the same conditions the builders and operators of our prototypes had to live with - and conquer.
The workers lost arms and legs, fingers and heads. many sections of track still in use today such as the old Clinchfield lines in the Apalatians (now CSX) are built over the graves of those workers, mostly Chinese. There was no thought of digging a grave, just shove the poor b#stard under the ballast and keep going. Harsh, cruel and thankless work. It’s much better today in every way, but it will still kill you for being careless.
A friend worked for Clinchfield, first as a welder, then engineer. Always interesting talking with him, looking at his old photos of work on some of those high trestles, etc.
The ET & WNC “Tweetsie” (original–not the tourist train) had hand-cut tunnels I understand were cut by slaves prior to the Civil War.
Yes indeed many tunnels and tall bridges were built by slaves, Irish, Italians, Chinese and other undesirables that could be exploited for pennies a day and then tossed out when used up. Shall we discuss reparations? No, didn’t think so…nobody like Jesse Jackson around to front for the Chinese, Irish and Italians.
But history IS and WAS. We can’t go back and undo anything. The modern railroads are here because of their history, good and bad. History of the railroads is not just about technology and invention, machines and money. It’s got a human side as well. I must get a copy of that Time Life book, I have a number of others in that series and I think very highly of it’s scholarly merit.
Chinese primarily worked on the west coast railroads. The Clinchfield for example used a mix of local and Italian workers. They talked about that on that “Hillbilly” show on the History Channel with Billy Ray Cyrus. The west also would have had a fair number of dispaced Southerners after the Civil War.
True that the Chinese were primarily on the West coast, but the particular section of the CSX line that runs along the continental divide of the Apalatians, from portions of the former Clinchfield and Tweetsie had a fair number of Chinese workers and it’s their graves under the track that make for local legend and ghost stories. One senior foreman told me that there was one Chinese grave for every mile of track. Judging from the rugged terrain, it’s easy to believe that if not more. I’m not sure what the connection was or how the Chinese were tasked with this portion of the East, I would imagine that somebody with more time than I have will have a ball of fun finding out.