Man-powered boulder loading

[bcp]

Alaska Railroad construction. I'm surprised they weren't using a steam shovel.

Bruce

 

[Fuddy1952]

Fascinating.
It's always amazed me in our history how hard people worked especially for a dollar.
Antique furniture for example that couldn't be reproduced today economically and/or by hand.

 

[MossRoad]

Alaska Railroad construction. I'm surprised they weren't using a steam shovel.

View attachment 585988


Bruce

Just think how slow that progress would be, yet they persevered.

 

[jeff9366]

I toured a Deere plant in Waterloo, Iowa this summer.

Before the 90 minute tour, there was a film, which included some footage of a Deere assembly line in the early 1950's.

Man, the workers had to hustle to keep up, as assemblies moved down the line.

At the plant I toured this summer, the $1,000,000 tractors moved between assembly stations on robot sleds, after the workers keyed in their stage of work was complete. Assembly looked leisurely, in contrast to the film, but of course experienced professionals often make complex tasks look easy.

 

[newbury]

Looks more like a 1HP prime mover with man assisting.

 

[oosik]

Somebody really wanted that RR right there. The rocks are peanuts compared to the amount of dirt that will need to be moved.. And, no steam shovel. Will they be moving the dirt with drag shovels and horses, also.

 

[mddorange]

Alaska Railroad construction. I'm surprised they weren't using a steam shovel.

View attachment 585988


Bruce

Thanks for the Picture. :thumbsup: I have always been interested in those type pictures from the past. It is amazing what people had to do back then to produce things we take for granted now.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

My house was built circa 1850, it has a full basement with a fieldstone foundation. Some of the stones in it are twice the size of the ones in that picture. The largest is about six feet long*. Every time I'm down there I wonder how they got them there. I do know that the floor of the basement is at the original grade level, they built the wall and then filled around it to put the house up on a hill.

(*Around here we call a stone of that size "medium-sized." A "large" stone is one that is visible from space.)

 

[bcp]

Somebody really wanted that RR right there. The rocks are peanuts compared to the amount of dirt that will need to be moved.. And, no steam shovel. Will they be moving the dirt with drag shovels and horses, also.

Looks like they may have used shovels. Here is a different cut with dirt and sand.

Bruce

 

[Tractor Seabee]

My house was built circa 1850, it has a full basement with a fieldstone foundation. Some of the stones in it are twice the size of the ones in that picture. The largest is about six feet long*. Every time I'm down there I wonder how they got them there. I do know that the floor of the basement is at the original grade level, they built the wall and then filled around it to put the house up on a hill.

(*Around here we call a stone of that size "medium-sized." A "large" stone is one that is visible from space.)

Remember the pyramids, that construction was 100% man power. They did use leverage, incline planes, and rude wheels.

ron

 

[oosik]

My EXACT thoughts Tractor Seabee. Regarding quicksandfarmer's basement foundation - - they hired a team of Egyptians.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

My EXACT thoughts Tractor Seabee. Regarding quicksandfarmer's basement foundation - - they hired a team of Egyptians.

Close.

My land has stone walls that were built when the property was settled by Europeans in the 1600's. But they weren't built by those settlers. This area was part of Plymouth Colony and was settled by Puritans. The Puritans were generally urban people, in England they concentrated around the book printing and binding business. They knew little about farming and weren't used to hard manual labor -- which was why they had a hard go of it for a long time. They had to hire people to do work for them -- and the only people around to be hired at that time were the Native Americans. So the walls were built by Native Americans, who were used to outdoor work and physical labor, and were happy to receive steel tools, guns and alcohol in return.

 

[Jstpssng]

My house was built circa 1850, it has a full basement with a fieldstone foundation. Some of the stones in it are twice the size of the ones in that picture. The largest is about six feet long*. Every time I'm down there I wonder how they got them there. I do know that the floor of the basement is at the original grade level, they built the wall and then filled around it to put the house up on a hill.

(*Around here we call a stone of that size "medium-sized." A "large" stone is one that is visible from space.)

I was in the cellar of my friend's farmhouse of similar vintage years ago. Not only was the foundation granite; but there was a huge granite slab supported by granite pillars, underneath part of the living room floor so that you could stand upright beneath it. He wasn't sure what the original purpose was, but suspected that there was once a fireplace on top of it.