American ingenuity still lives!! You gotta see this!!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mdXTXWpIYgQ

Oh my God, they made a locomotive from scratch for the movie!

I didn’t think we had any foundries left that could pour that large of casting for the wheels.

I would like to know where that specialty shop is located that built the locomotive and find out what all they can build.

Thanks John, that was great!

You guys know that Kevin Anderson is building a 150 Case road locomotive from scratch don't you?

Has he started pouring castings yet? The last I knew they were still making the wood patterns from the original blueprints. BT

Wonder what they did with it all when the movie filming was finished?

(quoted from post at 14:36:20 04/04/14) Oh my God, they made a locomotive from scratch for the movie!

I didn’t think we had any foundries left that could pour that large of casting for the wheels.

I would like to know where that specialty shop is located that built the locomotive and find out what all they can build.

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We were talking about Promontory Summit Utah earlier this week on the "Abandoned Rails" external_link page. "They own an exact replica of both engines involved, both were built by O'Connor Engineering Laboratories of Costa Mesa California and it's owner Chadwell O'Connor built as a labor of love (in other words, at less than the actual cost of about three million 1969 dollars- almost $20,000,000 today) and donated to the government the two locomotives- the Central Pacific's Jupiter and the Union Pacific's 119. The engines are incredible reproductions- recreated entirely from photographs and news accounts of the day, they are believed to be completely faithful to the originals with dimensions accurate to within one-quarter of an inch/.6 cm." Is what is posted on the page. Quite a site too see!

Great video!!! I see that the laborers building the tracks were depicted as Americans. On the History channel, it is pointed out that a lot of problems were had with the American worker not showing up for work or drunk or not diligent. They found Chinese immigrants willing to work and to be much better workers. Not much new over the years. sigh.

twas a good one

(quoted from post at 08:20:14 04/05/14) Great video!!! I see that the laborers building the tracks were depicted as Americans. On the History channel, it is pointed out that a lot of problems were had with the American worker not showing up for work or drunk or not diligent. They found Chinese immigrants willing to work and to be much better workers. Not much new over the years. sigh.

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Yeh right - the westbound Irish smoked the eastbound Chinese in track laying boyo! :twisted:

The westbound group had mostly flat plains to lay track on. The eastbound group had mountains to tunnel thru and gorges to bridge. What is your measuring stick for evaluating work output?

(quoted from post at 03:40:59 04/08/14) The westbound group had mostly flat plains to lay track on. The eastbound group had mountains to tunnel thru and gorges to bridge. What is your measuring stick for evaluating work output?

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Only this - http://cprr.org/Museum/Southern_Pacific_Bulletin/Ten_Mile_Day.html - and a couple hundred other references - Google '10 mile day track laying' or similar :roll:

Your reference refers to a one day challenge that built 10 miles of tracks. My original comment had reference to the everyday grind of building 1907 miles of track. That is apples and oranges.


The link below, dealing with the big picture, is 72mb so hard to download. Starting on page 41 is information about the Chinese laborer. For your convenience and reference, I scanned a paragraph that summarizes my point.

Chinese workers

(quoted from post at 04:59:57 04/10/14) Your reference refers to a one day challenge that built 10 miles of tracks. My original comment had reference to the everyday grind of building 1907 miles of track. That is apples and oranges.


The link below, dealing with the big picture, is 72mb so hard to download. Starting on page 41 is information about the Chinese laborer. For your convenience and reference, I scanned a paragraph that summarizes my point.

Chinese workers

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I agree that the Chinese 'were far more reliable' as to their compliance with Crocker & Strobridges' commands. The Chinese had yet to learn that [b:8b8c895790]ALL[/b:8b8c895790] Americans should be treated equally and were fresh from immense poverty whereas the Irish were long enough on these shores to be able to tell a boss to 'go pack sand' if the situation warranted.

Apples to oranges or not - It remains a fact that those 8 Micks kept 'a small army of Chinese' busy supplying them with rail in order to set the '10 Mile Day' record that has gone down in history.

I submit that Crocker's comment: 'were far more reliable' was a 'gentleman's' way of saying; 'far easier to run roughshod over' - perhaps it was your choice of words in your original post that 'got my Irish up' but I suggest that 'we agree to disagree' and stop beating a dead horse! Or you can have the last word - you choose.