|
Railroad Ties by John LaBorde 
Building a railroad required
lots of material and equipment.
The rails were laid on ties and
hooked down with spikes.
Without ties, the rails just sat
there. Such was the case with
the Kansas and Pacific. When
the KP began their push from
Kansas towards Denver they
ran out of ties. There was no
one in eastern Kansas that
would deliver to the railroad in
any sizeable quantity.General Palmer, Construction Director, had a railroad to build but was not getting enough ties to lay rails on. He turned westward and went to the sawmills of the Black Forest. The sawmills said they could produce his ties, that was Gomers and Weir’s mill’s among others in the area. Next , the General put out the word to teamsters returning east or south with empty wagons from the gold camps that they could go to the sawmills and pick up loads and haul ties out to his rail head and get a good price and not go empty.
There were more than 500 teams of oxen in use at six oxen per team; 100 mule teams, 6 mules per team. At the height of production, there were more than 700 teams hauling ties. A team of six yoked oxen could haul 130-150 ties per load. The Black Forest was being moved to eastern Colorado. General Palmer’s plan of using the Kiowa mills had worked, he was getting his railroad ties from the west and the rest of the materials were coming by train from the east. Much of the labor was provided by Mexican workers. They helped with the grading, tie laying and setting of the rails. Because of the flat terrain of western Kansas, there wasn’t much need for grading. Lay the ties down, set the rails and spike. Some of the ties that were used were not much more than logs and would roll easily. Unlike today, the ties were not treated or sawn, much. Lumber was critical for the railroads and as they moved onto the High Plains, trees were few and far between. Besides ties, the builders needed lumber for bridge building and later building of structures. The blazing prairie fires would burn up most of the trees and the short grass was good fuel for fires and for a tree to survive it had have a good water source and be very green to survive these fires that could last several months. The General Palmer that was the construction director for the Kansas and Pacific Railway Company is the same one that went on to build the Denver Rio Grande and Western out of Denver.
For more information on these historical groups, check out: Take a ride on the rails and support a piece of our history. Copyright High Plains View
|
The wagons began rolling in
with the ties. The teamsters had
been hauling coal, ore or lumber
as return loads but most of the
wagons were empty for the return
trip. Here was a way to get
some money in a short haul.
The Mexicans had been delivering
supplies to the gold camps
from the south and they were
also talked into hauling ties for
the railroad.
