What were four major problems with building railways in 1870?

Question

pls people! i would need this in around 20 min!

Answer 1

Getting enough people to lay the track down!

No c**p. it was the major construction project of the time and they imported labour from China, Ireland and anywhere else they could.

A lot of noise is made about how bad the Chinese were treated. Some of it is true.

They actually treated the Irish worse.

Answer 2

People who procrastinated. That was a big one.

Answer 3

In 1870 most railways were laid to standard gauge (4 ft 8.5 ins) but the Great Western Railway (GWR) was laid to a gauge of 7 ft 0.25 ins i.e. the Broad Gauge.

After much debate about which was the better the Gauge Commission had ruled in 1850 that all rail lines built after that year should be standard gauge and all broad gauge lines should have a 3rd rail added so standard gauge trains could run on them.

This put the maintenance costs of broad gauge lines up, generally because of the extra rail and because the pointwork at junctions was more complicated than on a 2-rail system.

Other than that, another snag was the sheer manpower involved, because railway construction c.1870 was very labour intensive and had none of the technological advances that were to come later. Earthworks, cuttings etc. were literally hewn out of the land by men with picks and shovels. Gunpowder was available for blasting but once the dust settled the work had to be done by sheer muscle. Whole villages had to be raised to accommodate the armies of men that were needed to construct a line, provisioned, amenities provided, etc.

Communications were another factor. The railways had the telegraph but they also had to install their own electrical system to power it. The cost had to be considered: e.g. copper wire which was needed for the circuits was expensive. Signalling was still evolving and the public demands for safer operation had to be balanced against what was technologically possible at the time.

So this may be summarised as:

1. The gauge question;

2. The general question of cost;

3. Logistics involved in a labour-intensive industry;

4. Limits placed on operation by available technology.

Hope that helps. Btw I'm talking about railways in Britain.

Answer 4

labor

materials, getting ties and rail

geographical, geting over and through the mountains is the reason they needed so many workers

weather, the project continued year round even in the mountains

indians, some of them didnt think a railroad through thier hunting grounds was a good idea

animals, sometimes construction had to be stopped because of immense buffalo herds

terrain: nobody even knew what the best route to lay a railroad through so they had to survey across unknown terrain