Construction Project Railroads

[JoeBlow]

I recall seeing an article in a 1950s or 60s edition of Model Railroader about construction project railroads. They are basically railroads built to facilitate construction of massive projects such as dams. When construction is over they are scrapped. I know that such railroads were used in the construction of the Oroville Dam in Northern California as well as the Grand Coulee and Hoover. I was wondering if they are any construction project railroads currently being used in the world or USA? 

[carnej1]

 The Construction Project railroads you ask about were primarily associated with extremly large earthmoving projects and there is just not as much of that type of work going on the U.S nowadays. Large scale dam building would be a good example, it is rare now.

I wonder if some of the major dam projects in China in recent years may have had associated rail operations?

 The Oroville project is fascinating. It mostly used Western Pacific trackage that was slated to be removed (as WP's line through the area was relocated) on the completion of the Dam.

 The only comparable U.S project I know of since the dam construction was S.J Groves & Sons I-280 Highway project in New Jersey in the 1970's. The contractor actually layed track down the right-of-way of the highway under construction and used trains of side dump cars to haul fill materials. They purchased a couple of brand new GE U33C's (and a used RS3) which were sold to BN after the project was completed.

http://westorangehistory.com/i-280_construction_train.html

 

 

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

I agree with carnej1's post above - both operations were written up in Trains at the time as either an article, a David P. Morgan editorial, or a 'sidebar', plus were also mentioned by John Kneiling in his column at least once.

Canal projects might also use such railroads - but again, not many of those are being built now, either.      

Most large tunnel projects use a railroad of this sort, although commonly narrow-gauge.

Many mineral development projects - the iron ore roads in Quebec - Labrador and Minnesota come to mind, as do those in Australia - effectively use themselves to build the mining facilities, as well as themselves.

- Paul North. 

[carnej1]

 It should be noted that purpose built construction railroads were a common feature in large construction projects in the 19th and early 20th century.

 Before motor trucks and more mobile construction equipment (especially the caterpillar track system) were perfected, earthmoving and heavy lifting machinery was either stationary or mounted on railroad cars. temporary track needed to be laid to move machinery around a construction site and the same tracks allowed materials to be brought in and rock and earth to be removed.

 The greatest example of this is the building of the Panama canal but it was common in both heavy construction (bridges,dams, etc..) and in the building of large structures. 

There are some good photos of the building of NYC's original Penn Station on this link(scroll down):

http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/abandoned/gct61.html

They clearly show the imprtance of temporary track systems in excavating the site and building the foundation.

[tree68]

I recall seeing an article some years ago about a narrow gauge railroad (complete with a Shay, IIRC) being used to build a concrete highway.  There were pictures, but I don't remember any other details.

I don't remember the article saying that it was an unusual practice.  As has been mentioned, at one time there simply weren't the large earthmoving vehicles we take for granted today.  Even the common double axle dump truck we see everywhere today would have been considered a monster at the time.

[samfp1943]

Several years back, I read an article about a man who had bught a small shey 2 truck locomotive to run at his home and on his property in Pennsylvania. The locomotive was a small engine that had been used to haul construction materials on job sites; it weighed between 5 and 10 tons (?).  The reason this locomotive was so well suited to his needs as his rail line was laid up the side of a hill, and utilized a series of switch-backs  to get to the highest point.   The line was named ( in honor of the commedian?) Foster Brook & State line RR near Bradford, Pa.

Here is a link to that indormtion @ http://www.steamlocomotive.com/lists/searchdb.php?country=USA&state=PA

 

In mentioning these smaller gauged railroads, it would also bear a mention here of the important role that the  Trench Railroads played in WWI- on BOTH Sides.

 

[blue streak 1]

Some one correct me if I'm wrong.   For the US to get enough electricity for the Aluminum smelters in Alcoa Tn the federal government buil a high concrete dam on the Little Tennessee river near the NC TN border.. This provided iportant electric power for the WW-2 effort.

SOU RR on the Murphy branch built a branch from Bushnell, NC to the Dam site along the river.  The dam and lake were to be called Fontana.  Construction materials and equipment was ferried to the dam site over this branch. 

As part of the impound lake SOU had to build a by pas ffrom Bryson city to Lauda including a bridge ovr the future lake.  Bushnell and other villages were flooded after tracks taken up from dam to Bryson City and flooding began..

SOU had another branch from Alcoa up the Little Tennesse to Calderwood which was actually about a mile shorter on to the dam site .  No information as why the NC route was chosen ?

 

just  

[carnej1]

I have an old (1970's IIRC) issue of trains that includes an article about one of the earliest projects to use a purpose built construction railway (other than actual railroad track construction O.C); the backfilling of Boston's Back Bay area in the 1860's.

I found an illustration online:

http://bostongeology.com/boston/casestudies/fillingbackbay/images/large/steamshovelinquarry.jpg

 

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Darn good recall, carnej !

"Mr. Kneiling, meet Messrs. Goss and Munson - was the integral train born in the Back Bay 119 years ago?" by Tom Nelligan, Trains, Oct. 1977, pg. 28

["Magazine Index" keywords: construction - gravel]

Searching the Index for "gravel" and in Trains yielded the following 2 leads:

- "Selected Railroad Reading: Their Jobs Were Riding on 10 Cars of Gravel", about a Chicago, Ottawa & Peoria (traction line) freight train, in the Aug. 1979 issue, pg. 31;

- John Kneiling's mini-series of 3 articles, "A Tale of Three Trains: How To Make Money Hauling Gravel", Jan. 1975, pg. 36.

A similar search for "construction" + "Trains" yielded - besides a couple of tunnel boring/ drilling articles - only the article on the Oro Dam Constructors railroad by Donald Sims, January 1966, pg. 20.  

Since the Oro Dam article was indexed also using the keyword "industrial", a search for "industrial" + "Trains" yielded nothing else relevant. 

However, I'm recalling that within the last couple of decades, a major road in Texas was built using a similar construction-type railroad ?       

- Paul North.   

[tomikawaTT]

I rather suspect that construction railways (and tramways) have been done in for the most part by the availability of humongous earthmovers that aren't restricted by rail locations.  Also, I believe the earthmoving currently taking place in the Panama Canal Zone is being handled largely by barges.

60 years ago, a road improvement in semi-rural Japan involved pushcarts on temporary 600mm gauge track.  Not too long before I had seen a similar project in Korea where the 'earthmovers' were a bunch of men with dump-bottom A-frame boxes on their backs.  Both have been consigned to the dustbin of history.

Chuck

[Euclid]

Perhaps the biggest user of narrow gage construction railroads was the railroad industry itself as it rebuilt the first lines that were built 1865-1880.  These were typically excavated and graded by hand labor and horses pulling a variety of scrapers and haul wagons.  Much of this original trackage was rebuilt on newly made roadbeds circa 1880-1910.  It was the introduction of the steam shovel that made more massive earthmoving practical during this rebuild era. 

Some of the rebuilding retained the original right of way corridor, but much trackage was moved to an entirely different route.  For lines relocated to new routes, fills were typically begun by building temporary trestles across the low land of the intended fill.  A steam shovel worked the cut, and loaded small side dump cars which were handled by dinky locomotives such as 0-4-0Ts.  The carloads of dirt were hauled out onto the temporary trestle and dumped over the side.  The temporary trestles were simply buried in the process and remain in place today in many modern railroad fills.     

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Future uses will be extremely rare, but we can envision the factors that would be involved in such a scenario - probably in the Far North (Alaska) or a desert or jungle-type terrrain is my view:

• Large quantity (weight and/ or volume) of material - several hundred trainloads (of what size ?) at least.
• Probably granular (rock, sand, not much clay) or near-liquid (flowable), which can be loaded and unloaded quickly.  
• Comparatively long haul for most or all of it - something special that can't be found or used "as-is" locally.
• "Point" source and/ or destination, such as a quarry/ borrow pit/ conveyor belt / transfer station/ car dumper, etc.
• No convenient and reliable roads.
• Limited right-of-way width or clearances, which favors rail vehicles.
• Poor subgrade (swamps, perma-frost, etc.) which can't handle repetitive concentrated wheel loads. 
• Environmental, social, or cultural aspects that would disfavor trucks over trains (NIMBY's who don't want truck noise, fumes, dust, traffic, truck stops, or some of the stereotypical truck driver types contaminating their idyllic little community or disrupting their lifestyle - perhaps Native Americans and First Nation tribes have a legitimate claim here).

Sadly, perhaps the most significant strike against this use of rail technology is that it's been so long and rarely done that it will just never occur to the present crop of construction industry managers to do such a thing. 

- Paul North.   

[carnej1]

Paul_D_North_Jr

Future uses will be extremely rare, but we can envision the factors that would be involved in such a scenario - probably in the Far North (Alaska) or a desert or jungle-type terrrain is my view:

• Large quantity (weight and/ or volume) of material - several hundred trainloads (of what size ?) at least.
• Probably granular (rock, sand, not much clay) or near-liquid (flowable), which can be loaded and unloaded quickly.  
• Comparatively long haul for most or all of it - something special that can't be found or used "as-is" locally.
• "Point" source and/ or destination, such as a quarry/ borrow pit/ conveyor belt / transfer station/ car dumper, etc.
• No convenient and reliable roads.
• Limited right-of-way width or clearances, which favors rail vehicles.
• Poor subgrade (swamps, perma-frost, etc.) which can't handle repetitive concentrated wheel loads. 
• Environmental, social, or cultural aspects that would disfavor trucks over trains (NIMBY's who don't want truck noise, fumes, dust, traffic, truck stops, or some of the stereotypical truck driver types contaminating their idyllic little community or disrupting their lifestyle - perhaps Native Americans and First Nation tribes have a legitimate claim here).

Sadly, perhaps the most significant strike against this use of rail technology is that it's been so long and rarely done that it will just never occur to the present crop of construction industry managers to do such a thing. 

- Paul North.   

 

Plenty of construction aggregate (crushed stone in particular) operations use rail. In some cases entire Unit rock trains. I so far haven't gotten a copy of the TRAINS issue that featured rock-by-rail as a cover story but it is a big source of revenue. Florida East Coast and Providence & Worcester are two railroads that come to mind with dedicated aggregate services not just involving RR ballast.

[rdamon]

When they added the 5th runway (10/28) they used a 5 mile long conveyer to move the fill material needed. 

[beaulieu]

The new Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland used a narrow gauge railroad to haul the rock  excavated by the Tunnel Boring Machines, to tunnel portals or the central lift station at Sedrun. They also hauled the pre-cast concrete ring sections used for the tunnel lining back from the concrete casting plants to the TBM for installation as the tunnel lining.