Detailed current route map for the Donner Pass line?

From: "BRIAN LIDDICOAT" liddicoat.brian@gmail.com

Love CPRR.org!

I have hiked much of the route between Colfax and Truckee but have never taken the train. I’m planning to take my little son on Amtrak from Sacramento to Reno and would love to take along a detailed route map showing mileposts and tunnels for tracks 1 and 2 so we can follow our progress. We are both CPRR nuts and have hiked out to many of the tunnels and trestles and, of course, the abandoned snowsheds at Donner Pass on the old track 1. My favorite hike the in the world is just following the tracks from Norden to Yuba Pass. Great all-day hikes with a careful ear for oncoming trains at all times, of course.

I have the various railroad atlases and John Signor’s Donner Pass, etc., but I’m hoping there is a detailed and current route map available to the public.

What do you recommend?

—Brian D. Liddicoat, Watsonville, CA

Rail curvature

From: A2lindner@aol.com

I have been reading George Kraus's book High Road to Promontory and am at the part where the Central Pacific laid 10 miles of track ... in a single day. Kraus mentions there was difficulty where curved track had to be laid as the rails were bent by hammering them between two blocks (page 252). I'm nor a railroader or engineer but I have difficulty with this. First, if the iron (56 lb./yd. I guess) was soft enough to be bent by hammering, would not the place where you hammered be damaged/distorted? Second, how could you have any accuracy-keeping the curvature smooth and the correct amount of turn?

—Al Lindner

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Hart stereoview #333, detail. CPRR.org

How many railroads were built by the Chinese?

From: "Tony Chinn" tonychinn@msn.com

How many railroads were built by the Chinese?

"Carquinez Model Railroad Society to Purchase Crockett Odd Fellows Building"

"Carquinez Model Railroad Society to Purchase Crockett Odd Fellows Building" by Greg Ockander, © Altamont Press, 06-13-2011. (Discussion)

" ... This model railroad layout loosely models the area from Oakland, CA to Sparks, NV, which is a segment of the route of the Central Pacific Railroad portion of the original transcontinental railroad. ..." [More]

[Courtesy Google Alerts.]

My great-grandfather

From: "Chris Gallant" chris@gallants.com

... I have French ancestry that emigrated from Ohio to Nebraska in 1867. My great-grandfather died in a wagon accident in 1870 (or went West with the RR). I believe since he was French and poor, his day laborer job was possibly with the RR. I am looking for any lead on a Jacque (Jacob) Mignery, in the Brock, Nebraska area 1867-1870. I also believe his in-laws, Peter, Pierre, Charles Bretty (Burty, Bretey) also worked for the Railroads. ...

—Christine Gallant, M.A.

Ghost town, Terrace, Utah

"Terrace, Utah", © Family Search Research Wiki, (Article)

"Terrace [Utah] is a ghost town, close to the Park Valley area of west central Box Elder County and was established in 1869. The largest of the last few construction camps built by the Central Pacific Railroad, Terrace went from a tent city to a town that settled down to become permanent. The railroad sustained the city with many Chinese remaining after the completion of the railroad to become permanent settlers, while other Chinese returned to San Francisco or back to China. The Chinese lived on east ridge, in dugouts or shanties, a small 'China Town' in Northern Utah. ... " [More]

[Courtesy Google Alerts.]

Firearms owned or purchases by C.P.

From: "Dale Reynolds" dreynold@charlesindustries.com

Recently saw a model 1885 Winchester rifle. Did the Central Pacific Railroad purchase rifles from Winchester? If so did they happen to mark them with a number, and below the number the initials "C.P."? ...

I reviewed your artifacts and website but did not see any reference to arms being carried by the Central Pacific employees. Surely given the times some would have been armed.

Given the consolidation and name changing around 1885 to Central Pacific Railway from the Central Pacific Railroad, thought the significance of the C.P. might be an indication of this as the model year would be at the same time. ...

Crocker Mansion or Huntington Mansion? - Spite Fence

From: "Digi Numetro"

I've been wondering about this for a long time so I thought I would see if anyone can answer this question.

Please see the photo below.

In many historical photos of San Francisco, including the famous 1878 Eadweard Muybridge 360 degree panorama photo of SF taken from the Mark Hopkins mansion tower, the Crocker Mansion is located next to the Huntington Mansion on California Street (now where Grace Cathedral and Huntington Park are located).

In all of these historic SF photos, there is something called the "Crocker Spite Fence" that can be seen that was built to surround and "spite" the only property owner who would not sell to Charles Crocker when he built his mansion atop Nob Hill.

But the Crocker Spite Fence (as it is written about in historical accounts and pictured in the Muybridge panorama photo is shown as being part of the Huntington Mansion, next door to the Crocker Mansion.

So why is the "Crocker" Spite Fence located on the Huntington Mansion, next door to the Crocker Mansion, and not vice-verse? Does everyone everywhere that has the mansions identified the way they show in the photo below just have it wrong, with the mansion names reversed? All articles written say that the "Crocker Spite Fence" was part of the Crocker Mansion, or course, but everywhere that I can find photos of the two mansions, they are identified the same way.

In the detail of the Muybridge photo below, and in many other photos that I have found in books and online, the Crocker Mansion is identified as being the dark colored home to the left of the light colored Huntington Mansion with the "Crocker Spite Fence" built in to it. This can be seen in the Muybridge panoramic photo. ...

—Digi Numetro

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San Francisco Call, May 6, 1904, page 11.

New Book: "Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America" by Richard White

"'Railroaded': Richard White's history of the messy, haphazard development of America's railroads" by Bruce Ramsey, © The Seattle Times, June 4, 2011. (Book Review)

"Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America, historian Richard White's account of the development of America's transcontinental railroads, is a story rife with messiness and failure, 'the triumph of the unfit.' Nonetheless, the routes mapped out in the 19th century are the ones we still use today. ... " [More]

[Courtesy Google Alerts.]

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