How tracks were laid - 10 mile day - Research for New TV Documentary

From: "Vikki Cox" Vikki.Cox@twofour.co.uk

My name is Vikki Cox and I am contacting you from Twofour Broadcast an award winning TV production company based in the UK. We are currently in production for series 3 of our specialist factual series Impossible Engineering. ...

I have been looking back at the history of rail track laying around the world ... about the great race of 1869 and the amazing achievement of CPRR laying over 10 miles in one day. ...

I would really like to try to understand the way in which the tracks were laid, basically the whole process of the construction of the rail. ...

So my questions are:

1. Was the method of laying the track also known as the "cart and wagon" method of track laying. If not- did this process have a name?

2. The description of how the track was laid for the famous 10 mile challenge - is that basically the same method used on normal working days, just less continuously?

3. Was the train that brought the materials running along the freshly laid track? - is that the single track that is referred to when describing the crew jumping off and lifting the empty carts to that the full ones can pass underneath?

4. Would it be true to say that as the track foreman H.H. Minkler was the driving force behind these continuous process, which was then kept in motion and supported by the 4,000 strong workforce?

...


—Vikki Cox, Assistant Producer, Twofour