Suggestions Please, what are these structures.

[Waterloo50]

I'm quite interested in the civil engineering side of the railroad and it was whilst I was looking for pictures of railroad construction workers that I came across this photograph. I have no idea what I'm looking at. Can anyone tell me what these structures are, I initially thought that this could be temporary accommodation for construction workers but I'm not so sure. Did these buildings remain on the train, were they being moved to a specific location?
From all of the accounts that I have read, life in the railroad construction camps was pretty harsh and living accommodation was poor. I have read that as the railroads continued to expand living conditions improved and many workers would travel with their families, could this photo show an example of improved living conditions or is it just a cargo of prefab huts.

 

[Carronade]

Don't know that much about the Civil War era, but railroads today have "camp cars" for crews working in the field; these look like an early version. The double row of windows on the upper floor are similar to camp cars today, allowing two-level bunk beds to each have a window.

Interesting that they are two-story; I suppose there were not many bridges over railroads back then, most roads crossed at grade, and people just put up with the delays and the chance of accidents.

 

[UCVRelics]

They are indeed camp cars. Whats neat is the antlers and shull on the front of the first one.

 

[Waterloo50]

They are indeed camp cars. Whats neat is the antlers and shull on the front of the first one.

Thanks, I spotted them, I thought perhaps that someone had added them to give the place a personal touch. I was quite surprised when I first came across the picture, like I said earlier, I read that life in the camps was pretty horrific, I have found many photos of railroad workers, the majority of the men are Irish, Chinese, Mexican and black slaves. I notice in the photo that the majority of people are white, I'm curious to know if the accommodation was for white workers only. By the way, I like the guy sat on the roof, he's laying there as if to say, 'welcome to my crib'.

 

[Waterloo50]

Here's a couple of pics of railroad camps and another camp train, life must have been pretty tough for those men.

Camp train under construction

Chinese Railroad construction workers camp

 

[UCVRelics]

I going to say yes it was for white workers only. Camp life was terrible but working conditions were even worse. That is where the phrase "You don't have a Chineman's Chance" came from.

 

[Waterloo50]

I going to say yes it was for white workers only. Camp life was terrible but working conditions were even worse. That is where the phrase "You don't have a Chineman's Chance" came from.

That would explain a lot of those cartoons that I keep finding.

 

[DaveBrt]

A very few Southern RRs had camp cars and if they had any there were usually only a couple of them. Once the roads were operational, the only use for the cars was at trestle-filling sites and bridge re-building sites. Even roads with the largest inventories of cars (like Central of Georgia, with 750 cars) kept no camp cars after construction was complete.

Southern railroads had plenty of bridges going over the track. There are more than a few reports of soldiers and brakemen being knocked off the cars because of not paying attention and hitting a bridge while on the roof of the cars. Of course, those bridges were not there during construction.

 

[Jimklag]

I'm quite interested in the civil engineering side of the railroad and it was whilst I was looking for pictures of railroad construction workers that I came across this photograph. I have no idea what I'm looking at. Can anyone tell me what these structures are, I initially thought that this could be temporary accommodation for construction workers but I'm not so sure. Did these buildings remain on the train, were they being moved to a specific location?
From all of the accounts that I have read, life in the railroad construction camps was pretty harsh and living accommodation was poor. I have read that as the railroads continued to expand living conditions improved and many workers would travel with their families, could this photo show an example of improved living conditions or is it just a cargo of prefab huts.

View attachment 164165

Great thread, Dave. Camp trains were used to house railroad workers and were used for large hunting trips and excursions. The camp trains for railroad workers were rolling cities with saloons and whore houses included.

 

[Waterloo50]

Great thread, Dave. Camp trains were used to house railroad workers and were used for large hunting trips and excursions. The camp trains for railroad workers were rolling cities with saloons and whore houses included.

I was surprised when I first spotted the picture, I had no idea that they even existed but that's probably due to the fact that the Navvy's in Britain didn't have to travel vast distances like the railroad workers did in the USA, British railways supplied simple houses for their workers, as a result little shanty towns cropped up in the rural areas but by all accounts they were just as bad to live in as the American railroad camps. The men would be paid daily and they had a tendency to blow their money in the ale houses, things got so bad that the railway companies ended up providing the men with food tokens for the soup kitchens, I read an account that says that exactly the same thing happened in the USA, the men were paid daily but they would spend it on alcohol and women, their families would suffer as a result. I have also read that things like Cholera, dysentery and typhus was also common in these camps.
This is a picture of one of the last surviving Victorian railway workers accommodations, its made of timber just like the huts on the American Camp trains. I suspect that the huts on the camp trains may have had some kind of sanitation but in the UK there was none. They may have been on opposite sides of the world but those railroad workers had a lot in common, many of the Irish workers that built British canals and railway also helped to build America Railroads.

 

[JohnW.]

I'm quite interested in the civil engineering side of the railroad and it was whilst I was looking for pictures of railroad construction workers that I came across this photograph. I have no idea what I'm looking at. Can anyone tell me what these structures are, I initially thought that this could be temporary accommodation for construction workers but I'm not so sure. Did these buildings remain on the train, were they being moved to a specific location?
From all of the accounts that I have read, life in the railroad construction camps was pretty harsh and living accommodation was poor. I have read that as the railroads continued to expand living conditions improved and many workers would travel with their families, could this photo show an example of improved living conditions or is it just a cargo of prefab huts.

View attachment 164165

WT...heck???? They look like luxury RV's a la 1860 something.

 

[JohnW.]

Great thread, Dave. Camp trains were used to house railroad workers and were used for large hunting trips and excursions. The camp trains for railroad workers were rolling cities with saloons and whore houses included.

OMG!!!! I WANT ONE!!!!!

 

[Jimklag]

OMG!!!! I WANT ONE!!!!!

 

[diane]

Southern Pacific in Northern California literally built towns using what was called out here skid houses. Long Bell Lumber owned the station site, which is named after John Tennant, the company boss. They were cheap, pre-made single family units brought in by car and, using skids, unloaded and placed in rows near the tracks. (They are also called box houses.) They were for the railroad and lumber workers. The town of Tennant is pretty much an excellent example of this type of workers' town - they've become quite gentrified by the way!

 

[DaveBrt]

We may be mixing 2 different problems here. The construction crews in the South were all slaves, except for supervisors, a few mechanics and an engineer or two. Everything I have read says they lived in tents or house cars. Once the road was built, section houses were constructed for the section master and his laborers (all slaves).

I think the other structures were see above were for the vast distances of the trans-continental railroad construction (the camp cars) and for the stationary workers (section hands and men running lumber mills etc.)

 

[JOHN42768]

Ship one of those to India and house 300 people in luxury

 

[BillO]

We may be mixing 2 different problems here. The construction crews in the South were all slaves, except for supervisors, a few mechanics and an engineer or two. Everything I have read says they lived in tents or house cars. Once the road was built, section houses were constructed for the section master and his laborers (all slaves).

I think the other structures were see above were for the vast distances of the trans-continental railroad construction (the camp cars) and for the stationary workers (section hands and men running lumber mills etc.)

I was under the impression that they h a lot of Italians working the rails.

 

[JohnW.]

I was under the impression that they h a lot of Italians working the rails.

I'm not sure about down south.....but out west, it was darn near exclusively Chinese.

 

[Jimklag]

I'm not sure about down south.....but out west, it was darn near exclusively Chinese.

You are right. The western half of the transcontinental railroad was largely built by Chinese workers and the eastern half mainly by Irish workers.

 

[diane]

The lesser known railroads, particularly in the northeastern part of California were built and maintained by Greeks. Between 1880 and 1920, they were the primary workers, usually recruited by company agents back east. The little round ovens they used to bake bread are still found along the railroads. They didn't get treated any better than the Chinese, either!