1a railroad history

8/3/2019 1A Railroad History

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23 Years of Railroad/Transit Engineering

Metrolink/ACE/UPRR/BNSF/CPUC

Former Metrolink Public Projects Engineer

Former ACE Technical Advisor

Over 320 Grade Separations/Crossings/Stations

Strong relationships with local agencies &

railroads egan as xpert ng neer to a orn a

Railroad Advisor to Local Agencies

Call for Projects/CPUC Funding Applications

,

Mainlines

Grade Separations

Grade Crossings

Commuter Rail Stations

Quiet Zones and Soundwalls


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Why railroads built? Economic Reasons Profit through Freight Military Reasons To move soldiers to strategic destinations Development UPRR wilderness west of the Mississippi River re g t - o ma e ava a e stores o raw mater a s Migration To move people to new land

Freight Passenger


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The histor of the

railroad begins in1825 in England

First steam train

carried passengersSource: Brewster Railroad History

Darlington

Cost: one shillin

Source: American-Rails.com


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The First Steam locomotivescame smo ng out o ng an n

the 1820s. In the early 1800s, the United

States was a new country withlots of land, and pioneers were

just beginning to explore thewestern frontier.

Earl U.S. rail cars were ulledalong tracks by horses. Whenpeople traveled, they walked,rode horses, or traveled instagecoaches and horse-drawn Source: Rough and Ready Railroaders

wagons. Most heavy loads weresent by boat or rivers or canals.

First successful U.S. venture,

Massachusetts to Boston in 1827


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John Thomson

1809: Drew the earliest survey

map in the United States Entitled "Draft Exhibiting . . .

by Thomas Leiper Esq. FromHis Stone Saw-Mill and

Quarries on Crum Creek toHis Landin on Ridle Creek."

Helped Reading Howell, theproject engineer and a well-known mapmaker, construct

tracks for a tramroad

Source: American Memory Railroad maps


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John Edgar Thomson

Son of John Thomson

1873: donated father's 1809map to the Delaware County

Substantiated the claim thatthe map and Leiper's railroad

were the first such work in.



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John Stevens

Considered to be the father of American railroads

1826: demonstrated feasibility of steam locomotion on a circularexperimental track

1815: the first railroad charter in North America granted toStevens

Gridley Bryant 1826: a commercial tramroad surveyed and constructed at

Quincy, Massachusetts

Machinery for it developed by Solomon Willard

Used horsepower to haul granite needed for building the BunkerHill Monument from the quarries at Quincy


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1787: John Fitch adapted James Watt's improvements in thesteam engine to propel a ship on the Delaware River, andJames Rumsey in the same year on the Potomac River.

Fitch published his "Map of the Northwest" two years earlierto finance the building of a commercial steamboat.

Use of steam power for vessels became firmly established


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Railroads brought together the young United Statesan a owe or unprece en e grow an

prosperity The "Golden Age" of railroading lasted from 1880s to

Earliest beginnings dating back to 1815 when

Colonel John Stevens gained the first railroadRailroad Company Not actually constructed until 1832 Eventuall became art of the Penns lvania Railroad

1826: Tested the first steam locomotive in the country Showcased "Steam Wagon" design


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,

Railroadin in this countr

kicked off in 1829 August: Delaware & Hudson

-built steam locomotive called theStourbridge Lion

along cities up and down theeast coast. Railroads began

to sprawl westward.



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, , Railroading set the stage for what

would transpire during the Civil

The North would hold acommanding advantage in thewar

Most of the country's industrialbase was centered in the

Northeast

the trackage centered in theNortheast and Midwest

Much of the war was fought in the

ou , s gn can n ras ruc urewas damaged or destroyed

Differing track gauges wereaffectin traffic interchan e andthe number of bridges crossing

major waterways.Source: American-Rails.com


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, , 1873: financial panic

The industry was building fastleading up to the panic

Averaging almost 6,000 miles ayear or 17,000 miles between

.

Northern Pacific Railway wentbankrupt

into western regions

Empty lines had no means toearn a profit

Filled with angry Indians Not happy about the

encroachment of the White Man

Promptly destroyed track and

infrastructure when possible.



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1860s: railroaders began laying tracks

that would stretch across the U.S.from Boston to San Francisco.

Each worker belonged to a crew, andeach crew had its own job.

Surveyors

Explored the land ahead of thebuilding crews

Decided which arts would beeasiest to build through

Made maps for the builder to follow

Grading crew

made a sturdy roadbed on which tobuild tracks

Evened out bumps and dips

Trackla ers

Source: Rough and Ready Railroaders

Put down ties on the roadbed

Each rail was 30 feet long andweighed 600 pounds.


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.

A piece of iron called a fishplate was used to bolt the ends of therails together and keep them straight

Spikes kept the rails connected to the wooden ties

Workers had to be sure that the two rails were exactly the same

them.

Distance between the rails were called gauge

Allowed locomotives from one railroad to run on the tracks of any otherrailroad.

Work Trains: As soon as one section of track was finished, work trains took

supplies to the builders at the end of the line

Pulled up to 12 cars filled with rails, spikes, tools, and food.


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Baltimore & Ohio first triedusing ties made of stone but

realized wood ties rodemore smoothly

The first rails were made ofwood with flat iron bands

strapped to the top. By the 1860s, stronger steel

rails replaced the iron ones

Train passengers rode in

stagecoaches attached totrain wheels, or in boxcars,or even on train car roofs

Source: Historical Travels


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Better Trains and More Track

(cont).

B 1840s locomotives were s eedin alon tracks

at 60 mph pulling as many as thirty cars Train crews learned to use whistles, signal poles,

ags, an an erns o commun ca e e weenstations

B 1850s electric tele ra h si nals were beinused to direct traffic


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1862, the President Lincoln andCongress passed the Pacific

Railway Act Promised to pay the railroads in

money and land for each mile ofcross-country track built

The Civil War was worlds firstra roa war

Both armies used trains to bringtroops and supplies far into enemy

In 1862, the Union Army formedthe U.S. Military Railway USMR

Source: Historical Travels


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.

Both armies tried to stop the enemy by ruining their. , .

the war by destroying the Souths railway.


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During the 1600s and 1700s,

European settlers conquered

Native American peoples in theEast and took most of their land

,Removal Act, which forced easterntribes to move west of the

Mississippi to territories known asIndian country

Tens of millions of acres wereclaimed by the government, and

Nebraska and Kansas



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July 1, 1862-

Union Pacific Railroad

Creation of the Pacific Railway Bill

Designated the new Union Pacific Railroad (westward from the Missouri

River)

Central Pacific Railroad (eastward from Sacramento)

Theodore Judah (Engineer) special interest in Transcontinental RR

23 trips to Sierra Nevada (hardest segment to build the Trans RR)

Completed the transcontinental railroad May 10, 1869: line completed at Promontory Point, Utah

Industry exploded in terms of mileage and by the 1890s there wasover 163,000 miles in operation

Many other advances Agreement on the standard track of 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches in the 1880s

Development of the automatic coupler and air brake, whichrevolutionized efficiencies railroads could provide along with allowing formuch safer operations


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Over the next 15 months,

and laid track across 250miles of prairie

reached 300 miles west ofOmaha

,worked to cover 245 milesof Indian country withrailroad track Source: Rough and Ready Railroaders


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In 1867 Indian war arties attacked workers on the

Union pacific and Kansas Pacific lines Government sent out soldiers on horses to guard railroad

.

Railroads tried to starve the Indians out of the region bydestroying the huge buffalo herds they depended on for

Indians could not succeed against thousands ofU.S. soldiers with bigger weapons

As the railroad pushed into Colorado andWyoming, tribes were forced to move farther west


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January 1863: owners of theCentral Pacific led ground-

breaking ceremonies atSacramento, CA for the railroadthey hoped would cross thecountry

Would run east from Sacramento Climb 7,000 ft into the Sierra

Nevada mountains

Decline down to the Nevada.

In 1885, the Southern Pacificleased the Central Pacific Source: Rough and Ready Railroaders

merging with it in 1959.


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By February 1864, only 18 miles of track had been laid east of

Sacramento

Hired Chinese immigrants to become railroad workers, who workedfor lower wages and were more orderly and reliable

y ovem er , covere m es an c m e , o scoon the western slop of the Sierras

Tunnels Varied in length, from the 271-foot Emigrant Gap to the,

By August 1867 Last of the Sierra tunnels were finished

Crews began laying track down the eastern slop of the Sierras

June 1868 : Tracks reached Reno, NV 1869: Tracks crossed the Nevada desert to Utah


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The Pacific Railroad

Act Did not state where the

Union Pacific railswould meet

to lay more track andcollect more inovernment a ments

Source: Union Pacific Train


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.

May 10, 1869: Celebrating

the completion of thetranscontinental railroad.

Promontory, UtahThe final spike linking the two

lines was made of solid oldwith the following inscription:May God continue the unityof our Country as this

Railroad unites the two greatOceans of the world.



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Source: Reflections California: A Changing State


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Big Four:Leland StanfordCollis P. HuntingtonMark HopkinsCharles Crocker

acts:Coast to Coast = one week rideFancy Ride = $100 ($1,340*)Hard Bench = $40 (=$536*)* Todays dollars

Source: Reflections California: A Changing State


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A lar e-scale rant madated 1893, showing thealternate sections of

Little Rock & Fort Smith

Railway Used by land speculators

to advertise railroad lands.



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Continued to see slow expansion.

Knuckle couplers and air brakes

federally mandated on all trainsdrastically improving safety andefficiency.

Dizzying web of trackage would

come back to haunt railroads dueto drain on profits.Source: American-Rails.com

Knuckle (AAR Type "E") couplers in useSource: Wikipedia


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Began switching to steel

ra s nstea o ron

Much stronger Longer lifespan

In the end it meant abetter bottom line

Introduction of the electriclocomotive, first used bythe B&O

1960s: branches were


highly profitable inagricultural traffic sincerailroads were the onlyviable means to movegoods to market


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It was durin this time throu h rou hl the 1920sthat railroads enjoyed their greatest dominanceand profitability. The year 1916 saw peak mileage

,of all interstate traffic, both passenger and freight.

Below is a timeline of railroad mileage through theyears:

1840: 2,808 Miles

1850: 9 021 Miles

1900: 193,346 Miles

1916: 254,037 Miles

1860: 30,000+ Miles 1870: 52,922 Miles

1945: 226,696 Miles 1963: 214,387 Miles

,

1890: 163,597 Miles

,

Today: 160,000+ Miles


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Phenomenally more efficient Year 1921 1940

than in WWI

Moved more tons of materialand goods

Avg. Freight CarCapacity Tons

42.5 50.0

Daily Mileage Perfreight Car

25.8 38.7

,cars, and overall rail mileage

Had improved technology to

move freight in the 1940s

Daily Ton-Mileageper freight car

448 661

Avg. size of

Freight train, by

37.4 49.7

and locomotives and the newdiesel-electric locomotive

Avg. net tonnageper train

651 849

Avg. Train Speed 11.5 16.7

Net Ton MileagePer Train Hour

7,506 14,027



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Centralized Traffic Control Year 1921 1940

(CTC)

Gave a dispatcher completecontrol over a section of track,known as a block to set

Avg. Freight CarCapacity Tons

42.5 50.0

Daily Mileage Perfreight Car

25.8 38.7

switches and watch oversignals

Allowed for a single track

Daily Ton-Mileageper freight car

448 661

Avg. size of

Freight train, by

37.4 49.7

capacity of a fully double-tracked line

Originally implemented in

Avg. net tonnageper train

651 849

Avg. Train Speed 11.5 16.7

Allowed for much moreefficient railroad operations

Net Ton MileagePer Train Hour

7,506 14,027



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Rail freight ton-miles have steadily

ncrease rom on n to over1.5 trillion in 2006.

Market analysts and experts expect thisnumber to continue to rise as shippers lookfor more efficient and faster means oftransporting their products with highwayssteadily becoming more clogged

Between 1990 and 2000, famous railroadsdisappear into merger, most notably theAtchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway

1994: the Santa Fe agreed to merge withnorthwestern giant, Burlington Northern, to


form the Burlington Northern Santa FeRailway

Recently changed its name to simply BNSFRailway

Ended one of the most famous railroads toever operate worldwide although its legendwill forever live on in the products bearing itsname and famous "Warbonnet" livery


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UPRR merged with the Southern Pacific

ransportat on ompany etter nown asthe Southern Pacific) in 1996 making itone of the largest railroad in the nation.

Past Present

Source: UPRR Source: UPRR


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Source: UPRR

Source: UPRRSource: UPRR


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Source: JMD



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- Today's BNSF Railway is the

railroad lines that merged or

were acquired during morethan 150 years.

Source: JMD

Source: BNSF


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Resources 2006 2007

Miles of Road Operated less

Trackage Rights

94,440 94,209

Miles of Track Operated LessTrackage Rights

161,114 160,734

Miles of High-Density A Trackmaintained

70,323 69,749

Locomotives in Service 24,143 24,003

, ,

Source: Association of American Railroads


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U.S. Revenue Ton-Miles 2006

Operating Statistics 2006 2007Miles of Road Operatedless Trackage Rights

140,490 140,695

Miles of Track Operatedin the U.S.

171,077 171,513

Freight Cars in Service,

U.S. Railroad Owned

596,103 580,635

Freight Cars in Service,All U.S. Owners

1,361,250 1,385,709

Source: Association of American Railroads


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Three T es of Railroads: Class I, Class II, and

Class III (Regional/Shortline Railroads) Class I railroads operating above $250 million in

revenues. There are five in the United States: CSX,Norfolk Southern, BNSF, Kansas City Southern, andUnion Pacific.

Class II railroads are smaller, with revenues between $20. .

The most prevalent type of railroad are class III railroads,also known as shortline or regional railroads. They areunder 20 million in revenue.

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