The past three posts discussed the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad at three locations in the Sierra Nevada in the 1860s. That effort was primitive when compared to modern rail construction technology.
While passing though Loomis recently, I chanced to see the crew of a TRT-909 Track Renewal Train at work. In this complex and well-coordinated operation, the crew pulled up the old stakes and track and wood ties, and placed in new concrete ties and track and stakes. The amount of track replaced in this one day with the TRT-909, would have taken weeks to lay in the 1860s.
