Elinor

Elinor, at mile 739.1 from San Francisco, was largely uninhabited. It was a long siding measuring 2,300 feet in length, constructed in the early twentieth century to accommodate increased rail traffic. It was possibly also used as a freight outlet, but no records confirm that. The siding was used by the railroad from 1902 to 1907. Survey crews mapped the landscape and found the best route for the railroad, and work crews followed behind constructing the railroad bed, cutting or blasting through hill, building bridges, trestles, and tunnels, and then laying the rails. Track laying was divided into parts, with some workers preparing the railroad bed and laying the ties in advance, and another gang laying rails on the ties, driving spikes, and bolting splice bars. Almost all the work was done by hand with spades, shovels, and picks, while other workers distributed telegraph poles and wire along the grade, cooks prepared meals, and laborers lived in camps near the work site that moved with the railhead.

Utah · United States