Sixty Pound Rail

Publications

Browse through our collection of research publications, reports, and articles.

Report (Original)

Nitroglycerine Myths

This article by Chuck Spinks examines and debunks several persistent myths about the use of nitroglycerine during the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad, particularly at Tunnel #6 near Donner Summit. Drawing on primary sources including engineering reports, newspapers, and correspondence, it clarifies that nitroglycerine was introduced only in April 1866, well after many alleged accidents, and was used carefully under the supervision of engineers like John Gilliss. Contrary to popular accounts in books and media, there is no evidence of mass casualties or dramatic explosions involving Chinese workers, and key figures like James Strobridge were injured years earlier using black powder, not nitro. The piece also reveals that decisions about nitroglycerine use were made by civil engineers, not contractors, and that later retellings often recycled or fabricated incidents without verifying original records.

View Publication

Report (Original)

Theodore Judah and the Dutch Flat Route.

This article explains that, after field-checking several Sierra Nevada crossings in 1860, engineer Theodore Judah determined the most practical transcontinental rail line ran from Sacramento up the Bear River–North Fork American divide through Dutch Flat and over Donner Pass. It further debunks the popular tale that Dutch Flat druggist Daniel Strong “showed” Judah the route, noting that Strong’s sole 1887 claim lacks any contemporary corroboration and conflicts with Judah’s own records.

View Publication

1869ASCE Transactions

Nitro-Glycerine: Its Manufacture and Use

Paper read to ASCE on 2 June 1869 that explains practical methods for producing nitro-glycerine, its safest preparation for land and submarine blasting, and ways to mitigate public fears about the new explosive. Chester focuses on step-by-step manufacturing details, storage precautions, and detonating techniques suitable for civil-engineering works such as tunnels, quarries, and harbor clearances.

View Publication

1870ASCE Transactions

Tunnels of the Pacific Railroad

Gilliss surveys every tunnel completed or underway on the newly finished trans-continental route, focusing on the Central Pacific’s granite Sierran bores. For each tunnel he tabulates location, length, altitude, geological formation, excavation method (hand drill vs. nitro-glycerine & compressed-air drills), timbering details, daily progress rates, labour costs, and final lining. He discusses winter snow-sheds, ventilation problems, and the logistical challenge of delivering explosives and ironwork over primitive wagon roads. Concluding sections compare American practice with Alpine experience and suggest design standards for future western rail tunnels. The paper served as a technical benchmark for railroad tunnelling in hard rock.

View Publication

1878ASCE Transactions

On Igniting Blasts by Means of Electricity

Prize-winning ASCE paper (Transactions, vol. VII) analyzing why large rock-blasting attempts mis-fired and how to guarantee simultaneous detonation of thousands of charges. Striedinger details low-tension fuses, galvanic-battery frames, and a gravity circuit-closer that were successfully used to remove Hallett’s Point Reef, with drawings, resistance data, and safety recommendations.

View Publication

1890ASCE Transactions

The Railroad Ferry Steamer “Solano”

Harris presents the design, construction and early performance of the Solano—then the world’s largest railroad-car ferry—built for the Central Pacific to carry entire freight or passenger trains across California’s Carquinez Strait. He details its 424-ft wooden hull, quadruple-track deck, twin independent 60-in.–stroke beam engines, 30-ft paddle wheels, eight oil-fired Scotch boilers, Pratt-truss under-framing and novel balanced-rudder hydraulic steering. Brown’s notes explain the hinged, counter-weighted aprons and submerged pontoons that let the 154-ton loading ramps rise and fall with the 9-ft tides while holding the vessel against swift 8 mph currents. Operational data compare petroleum to coal firing and show the crossing—about one mile—takes nine minutes, letting through trains lose scarcely fifteen minutes. The paper situates Solano within a lineage of American rail ferries and argues that neither bridge nor tunnel could then match her efficiency for trans-strait traffic.

View Publication

1913ASCE Transactions

Irrigation and River Control in the Colorado River Delta

Written after nearly a decade spent redirecting the lower Colorado River and managing the vast Imperial Valley irrigation scheme, Cory’s paper documents the river’s hydrology, silt load, flood behavior, and shifting channel; reviews storage prospects and levee design; and analyzes the 1905–08 Salton Sea diversions that temporarily routed the river into the desert. Drawing on flow records, sediment studies, and first-hand construction experience, it offers an early systems view of how reservoir sites upstream, rock-fill diversion works, and a comprehensive levee network could tame floods, protect farmland, and deliver reliable water to more than a million prospective irrigable acres on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border.

View Publication

1953ASCE Transactions

An Engineering Century in California

Huber’s presidential convention address surveys 100 years of California civil-engineering milestones. Topics range from Mission-era irrigation, gold-rush hydraulics, Judah’s railroad, and early hydro-power, to contemporary aqueducts and bridge icons (Bay & Golden Gate). A succinct, engaging overview that links the state’s growth to its engineers and is loaded with names, dates, and project stats.

View Publication

2019Report (Original)

Theodore Judah and the Blazing of the First Transcontinental Railroad over the Sierra Nevada

This richly illustrated monograph recounts how civil engineer Theodore D. Judah conceived, surveyed, and tirelessly championed the Central Pacific Railroad’s daring route across Donner Pass—work that made America’s first transcontinental rail link possible. Rogers and Spinks weave together the technical challenges of Sierra Nevada surveying and tunneling, Judah’s political lobbying in Washington, and the economic forces that shaped California’s early rail ventures. The paper offers both engineering detail and engaging narrative, making it an accessible primer for researchers interested in 19-century railroad construction, Western expansion, and the pivotal role of Judah’s vision in U.S. transportation history.

View Publication

2019Report (Original)

The Cape Horn Myth

Spinks reviews—and debunks—the long-standing story that Chinese laborers on the Central Pacific Railroad were lowered in baskets or bosun’s chairs to carve the precarious roadbed around Cape Horn above California’s American River. Drawing on engineering reports, contemporary letters, and later secondary analyses, he shows that the 1865-66 construction was a conventional side-hill cut in friable slate, worked from the top down, not by suspended crews, and that no primary source supports the dramatic legend. The paper also traces how the tale grew through travel guides, popular histories, and publicity art from 1869 to the 1960s, documenting each embellishment that turned routine grading into a mythic feat.

View Publication

2022Report (Original)

Theodore Judah Timeline, 1854 – 1864

Compiled as a research reference, this document lays out a month-by-month chronology of civil engineer Theodore D. Judah’s activities from his arrival in California to his death in 1863, with a brief note on 1864. It tracks surveys, reports, political lobbying and key meetings that advanced the Sacramento Valley Railroad, Judah’s reconnaissance of Sierra Nevada passes, creation of the Central Pacific Railroad, and passage of the 1862 Pacific Railroad Act. Interwoven are contextual events—financial panics, Lincoln’s election, the Civil War, and milestones such as the first transcontinental telegraph—highlighting Judah’s pivotal technical and promotional role in launching America’s first transcontinental railroad.

View Publication