Greatest Feats of Railroad Engineering

[Boyd]

Nowadays getting "any" major project past the EPA and its offices full of tree huggers.

[JSGreen]

and how about the CPR's spiral tunnels (I forget the name -- shame!) in the Candian Rockies?

I was thinking of those also...on Kicking Horse pass....visited there a couple of years ago.  Pretty impressive.... 

[Modelcar]

.....Yes, I wondered about that 2-wheeled vehicle he drove.

I never would see the strip in our home paper...The Johnstown Tribune or a near by paper The Somerset Daily American, but when I would visit Ligonier in western Pennsylvania in the Summertime, I would see it {the strip}, in...I believe it was the Latrobe Bulletin.  And that newspaper would be delivered to Ligonier in the afternoon via Doodlebug on the Ligonier Valley Railroad.  About 11 miles away.

Of course the above scenario all goes back a few years.  I believe the Latrobe Bulletin is still published.

[Poppa_Zit]

P Z:  Just curious.....Wasn't that phrase "Notary Sojac" associated within the "old" Smokey Stover comic strip......?

Yup. Very astute of you to notice and know its source. Used as a tribute to my favorite comic strip when I was on the FD. He drove the "Foomobile" and was the first "Foo Fighter".

From Cecil Adams' "The Straight Dope":

""Notary sojac" ... has no meaning. The words were just a nonsense couplet thought up by artist Bill Holman and used at random times in his cartoon "Smokey Stover." But ... it's survived longer than a lot of other things that made more sense.

"Smokey Stover" was probably the most screwball comic strip ever published. It was begun in 1935 and distributed by the Chicago Tribune/New York Daily News Syndicate. The cartoon was famous for putting little sight gags and puns in almost every frame, including the words "foo", "1506 Nix Nix" and the aforementioned "notary sojac," all of which Holman refused to explain.

Actually, Holman is better remembered for "foo." Stover drove a [two-wheeled fire] truck called the "Foomobile" and the word was later picked up and used by Bob Clampett in some of his cartoon work for Warner Brothers. It may have also influenced the formation of the military acronymn "fubar". ... Holman finally retired in 1973 and, going against the grain of letting another artist take over his work, retired the strip as well. He died in 1987. No one could have done it better anyway."

[Modelcar]

P Z:  Just curious.....Wasn't that phrase "Notary Sojac" associated within the "old" Smokey Stover comic strip......?

[trainboyH16-44]

 I'd definitely have to agree with Selector and Pathfinder on the KVR call, that is a very magnificent stretch of line! (Had about 15 helper distrcits, IIRC)

Both the original Canadian and American transcons have my vote, as well as the Chunnel, almost every rail line in Switzerland...Connaught tunnel, and in fact, most of the things people have mentioned! 

 

and how about the CPR's spiral tunnels (I forget the name -- shame!) in the Candian Rockies?

Don't worry, they're just called the Spiral Tunnels.  

[selector]

The most challenging and expensive mile-for-mile railroad in North America at the time was the Kettle Valley Railway in southern British Columbia. I saw that in a railroad video once.  Can't attest to its veracity.  In general though, the Hells Gate Canyon in southern BC, which hosts the Thompson and Fraser Rivers, including their confluence, and which provides the rights of way for the two national carriers in Canada, is a miracle if you ask me.  Hugely costly, too, especially in migrants' lives.

[tatans]

You forgot the largest feat of railroad engineering in the world, nothing has ever compared to it: The building of the Panama Canal.

[eastside]

Don't forget:
Qingzang railway

and each of the following:
Trans-Siberian Railway including the Trans-Manchurian, Trans-Mongolian, and Circumbaikal Loop

Baikal Amur Mainline

[Pathfinder]

Othello Tunnels on the KVR in Southwest BC.

4 straight tunnels, with 2 bridges in-between, and 1 curved tunnel.  Makes a nice short hike now.

[Poppa_Zit]

Hoosac Tunnel, because it took 20 years and 193 lives to go the 4.75 miles and was all done with rudimentary construction methods to go through some of the hardest rock in the world.

[spokyone]

Royal Gorge Hanging Bridge on the Arkansas River.

 

It hasn't been "hanging" for over 60 years.

Thanks. But I don't know what else to call it.
Edit: Was the bridge over the gorge refurbished around the same time?

[mudchicken]

Royal Gorge Hanging Bridge on the Arkansas River.

 

It hasn't been "hanging" for over 60 years.

[jchnhtfd]

and how about the CPR's spiral tunnels (I forget the name -- shame!) in the Candian Rockies?

[samfp1943]

How about :

      Starruca Viaduct in Pa?

      Or:

       Driving over the Huey P. Long Bridge at New Orleans with a long heavy freight viberating the whole bridge next to you?  Or even the US190 Bridge at Baton Rouge with a freight crossing also; the the old Mississippi River Bridge at Vicksburg with an IC freight rumbling past? Or crossing The Mississippi at Memphis on the Harahan's Motorways with a couple of trains meeting and passing while shaking the whole structure, something a child remembers for years afterward.  

 

[spokyone]

Royal Gorge Hanging Bridge on the Arkansas River.

[Modelcar]

...A few more:  Longest straight line track in USA....78.86 mi., down in Wilmington and Hamlet, N C

...Former Pennsylvania {State}, route {Muleshoe curve}, up and over and thru the Allegheny mountain.  Located near Horseshoe Curve, but built just a few years before.....Eventually owned by the Pennsylvania RR.  Removed and abandoned some years ago...and highway 22 is located on a bit of the ROW now.  Any interested, check out the satellite photos and it can still be seen.  Location: A bit southwest of Horseshoe.

[CShaveRR]

May I submit the original St. Clair River tunnel at Port Huron/Sarnia in the 1880s.  New methods used to cut through some pretty tough soil conditions.

[ndbprr]

The new South Korean high speed line also and how about the Transcontinental railroad right here in the good old U S of A.

[vsmith]

The US Transcon was the Moonshot of its era

All of these are relative to their eras, the Tay Bridge was condsidered a wonder of its day, then it fell over..

Other wonders of the 19th century;

The Firth of Forth bridge

The Niagara Bridge

The Eads Bridge

Horseshoe curve

The original Marshall Pass alignment

The Tehachapi Loop

The Canadian Transcon

Some 20the Century wonders;

The Moffet Tunnel

The Cascade Tunnel

The Swiss Glacier Express line from St.Moritz to Zermatt

The Japanese Hokkaido Tunnel

The Japanese Shikensan HST system

The French TGV system

The Chunnel

 

[Modelcar]

....Double tunnels under the Hudson and East river's....in NYC to reach the Late Great Pennsylvania Station back early in the 20th century.

Tehachapi alignment.

Cajon Pass.

Engineering done for the non finished SouthPenn RR...later roughly followed by original Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Several Swiss tunnels under the Alps.  {Some still under construction}.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

For your consideration, in no particular order:

1. The Quebec Bridge.

2. Pennsylvania Station and Tunnel Approaches in New York City.

3. The Key West Extension.

[GP-9_Man11786]

I was wondering what you guys think are the most impressive feats of railroad engineering. There's a lot of them all over the world. Here's my picks:

1. Horeshoe Curve, building it required the whole side of a mountain to be balsted away and then backfilled.

2. Nicholson Viaduct and the Lackawana Cutoff just for the sheer amount of concrete, bridges and fill required for it's construction.

3. English Channel Tunnel.

4. Firth of Fourth Railway Bridge.

5. Cascade Tunnel

6. Hellgate Bridge

7. Durango & Silverton Railorad's High Line.