Dear Amy:
I found your question on the BRHS list. I think I can help you out. This
information is taken from my copy of "The Trackman's Helper" (Revised 20th.
Century Edition), by J. Kindelan, published 1900.
"Kinds of Ballast....
Burned Clay---This is primarily used in the West. Almost any clay soil,
easy to excavate, free from sand or vegatable matter, is suitable for
ballast material. Gumbo probably makes the best, and requires less fuel to
burn it than the brick clays. It is generally burned in piles, laid from
two to four thousand feet in length, so placed as to be easily accessable by
tracks. Fire is started with old ties or other wood, and when it is well
under way the clay and coal are piled on in alternate layers, the clay being
thrown up from the trench beside the fire. Various machines are used for
the purpose. Some of them are on the principle of a conveyor, the clay
being carried up on a belt. This, however, tends to pulverize it more than
is desired. There is a machine on the principle of the steam shovel, which
digs the clay and places it on the fire in lumps, which gives better results
as to quality of the ballast. After it has been burned it can be loaded by
steam shovel or by hand. Coal, if economically used in burning this
ballast, may be mixed as follows: Fifteen per cent. nut coal, 40 per cent.
mixed coal, 45 per cent. slack. This mixture costs at some of the Western
mines about 34 cents per ton, one ton of which will burn about four yards of
ballast. The cost per cubic yard of ballast in the track is about $1.05,
distributed as follows, the price for the first item being variable:
Contract price for burning..........$ .38
Average cost of coal ................. .21
Loading on cars......................... .08
Distributing.................................. .09
Putting under track..................... .22
Interest and depreciation........... .04
Land............................................. .01
Miscellaneous expenses........... .02 "
Mr. Kindelan goes on to state; "...the cost of gravel laid down in the track
will vary between $1.00 and $1.50 per yard." The difference, presumably,
reflecting the cost of hauling it from the pit. Locomotive cinders were
also extensively used for ballast, because they were readily available, and
they had to get rid of them somehow, though I can't swear whether the
Burlington used them in your area. There is some evidence that they were
used on the part of the Burlington where I work, in Western South Dakota and
Eastern Wyoming.
Many people forget how expensive building railroads was in the 19th.
Century. Railroading is the 19th., and early 20th. Century equivilent of
"Silicon Valley", and they didn't spend any unnecessary money on
construction. They would have burned clay for ballast if it was cheaper
than hauling rock from someplace else. I'm sure the Roadmaster had to fill
out his equivilent of a modern day "Authority for Expenditure" and justify
the cost of anything he wanted to do. As to the local personnel's opinion,
most of them don't know what went on on the railroad the year before they
hired out, let alone a hundred years ago. Show this to them, if you like,
and see how much of a laugh the get out of it.
I hope this is some help to your project.
Sincerely,
Mike Decker
Locomotive Engineer, CB&Q Alliance Division, Edgemont, SD
-----Original Message-----
From: Amy Zlotsky [mailto:AZlotsky@o...]
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2000 3:17 PM
To: brhs@n...
Cc: Joan Darling
Subject: Request for Help
ATTN: Dave Lott
Mr. Lott--I was given your name by Suzanne Berth, Mgr of Art and
Archives for BNSF in Fort Worth. She thought that you might be able to
help us out in researching a local story.
The City of Lincoln, Nebraska is in the process of constructing a
wetland mitigation bank. The site we are looking at is located north of
the BNSF mainline that was previously the Burlington and Missouri River
Company. It was completed from Ashland to Lincoln in 1870. We have a
transcript from the 1980s from a local Natural Resources District
meeting that tells the story of the "ballast pits" which are located on
the property.
The story goes that the railroad needed ballast to build this line.
They dug two parallel linear pits (about 0.5 mi long each and supposedly
up to 16 ft deep), removed the local clay, lined the bottom with
railroad ties, put in a layer of clay, another of ties, another of clay,
covered it (with soil?) and let it burn for a year. The clay baked like
brick....and the resulting material was used for the ballast for this
line. We have collected what appears to be this baked clay material
from the pits.
Everyone with BNSF in Lincoln laughs when they hear the story. They
think its the most ridiculous thing they've heard. They say even then,
the RR would have opened a quarry for this purpose and brought in
ballast by railcar. We thought that if this was done here in Lincoln, it
might have been done elsewhere in the country and someone may have heard
about it.
We're trying to find out because the property owner and City are
planning to construct an interpretive trail through the wetlands,
including information on the local history of the area. The "ballast
pits" are a very distinctive feature.
Would you have any information, leads....or even opinions for us?
Thank you,
Amy Zlotsky
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