Chapter 36

(Back Track to the Gold Fields and Sacramento)

It sort of rubbed me the wrong way to overhear the muttering and the ridicule from the ranks as my former loyal followers lambasted me behind my back about heading west when we should be moving east to link up with the railroad builders coming from the east to make the Great Northern Pacific railroad system the first transcontinental track across the lower forty-eight.

I shut my ears to it because I could not possibly explain that I already knew the northern route was doomed to delay after delay and would come so close to bankruptcy that no investor in his or her right mind would ever think of putting a dime into a stock or a bond purchase. The problem was that the Pacific Northwest people could talk up a storm to claim a lead in the race to the future “link-up” celebration, but when push came to shove, the Central Pacific was the railroad with the right mix of workers and with the right formula for laying track faster than any other company.

We moved east with the Central Pacific work crews and it became a daily routine that seemed easier every day. I had studied time and motion methods in the distant future and was able to see how effective it was in organizing a motley crew of Blacks, Chinamen and even the Irish right off the boat and rushed out from New York City for the hard back-breaking work on building the railroad line. The kitchen folks started work before the sun rose in the east, the whores in the “happy ending” tent bent over backwards to bolster the worker’s energy levels for the next day’s labors and our crew focused on making certain the railroad ties were staged and ready to slide in under the steel ribbon growing in leaps and bounds slowed only by rough terrain or some obstacle that needed precious time to overcome.

A preacher of sorts had hooked onto the camp infrastructure after being chased out of a Mormon settlement for heretical thought. I could tell right away that Father Jake was not your average religious person because he made no bones about using the services of the girls down at the “happy ending” tent for the sort of foolishness that had nothing at all to do with religion or what normal folks considered appropriate activities for a man of God.

His appearance was a bit biblical because he was long and lanky and had an impressive white beard that gave him that Father Christmas look despite the fact that he looked like he could use a good meal to put some meat on his bones and make him look more jolly and a lot less like a scarecrow in the middle of a draught.

For some reason, he had taken a liking to Clarissa and had made it his personal mission to convert her from her Mormon beliefs to his brand of Christianity with its emphasis on “an eye for an eye” rather than “turn the other cheek” philosophy of the weakness is virtue crowd of the liberal east coast. It wasn’t until one passed the State of Georgia that the law of the gun and vigilante justice took hold and common folks put more store in having a loaded weapon at their side than some book that spoke a different language entirely.

On the Nevada side of the proposed Utah State line, we ran into a spot of trouble that seemed almost insurmountable at the time.

A sizable fissure in the earth’s surface had arose underneath a dangerous stretch of the line already completed and now the railroad bed was in need of substantial revision to eliminate danger to company assets or the lives of passengers destined to ride the railroad line in the future. I felt certain the big boys back east were thinking more about the depression of the company stock values rather than any concerns over the future risk to prospective customers of the completed transcontinental railroad line. Sometimes, capitalism required pecuniary consideration of higher priority than danger to life or limb. I know that sounds quite callous on the surface, but even in war such considerations become more important than most decision-makers would like to admit. Since nothing operates in a void, the two concerns tended to overlap and it was a moot point in most forums. At least, that was often the case and it could be used to mitigate what might seem an unfeeling decision in times of trouble.

I took a team to scout out the new development and discovered that the widening gap was of a depth that made bridging an unlikely solution.

The Indians reported that the original maps had neglected to take into consideration a possible shortcut through a pesky hill that was a fairly stable alternate route. They showed me a narrow ravine that could be widened without too much difficulty and the track would remain relatively level across the valley in question without any need to span the shifting ground depression.

The bad news was that we would likely lose our already in-place rails and railroad ties now too compromised to salvage. Fortunately, we had a good stock of spare material and could progress without any delay in the construction timeline. For me, it was all a win-win, but the powers that be back in the east saw it as a management failure and wanted to fire the project engineer that had no fault in the matter at all.

I had seen this sort of “at a distance” decision-making before and knew it would be a big morale-buster for the company to punish an innocent professional. My two-cents was worthless in the discussion and the gentleman in question left the line to work for a railroad that was attempting to make a joining of the TransCanada line with the border spur of the Great Northwest Pacific line and open up the west coast to accelerated development.

During our extended stay in the Sacramento area, it fell to me to have dinner with a number of the supporters of our transcontinental effort including some investors looking to park their money in an investment with the potential of multiplying their money by a factor of ten. Actually, the railroad stocks were a risky gamble just from the sheer magnitude of the obstacles in the way of successful completion. I felt compelled to put our mutual “best foot forward” and touted the successes we had already accomplished. It would have been easy for me to run down the Pacific Northwest project as a way to make the Central Pacific operation seem much more lucrative in comparison but I had an ingrained sense of loyalty to the original company and figured they would drive the last nails in their own coffin without my turning traitor behind their back. In truth, I had some future point of view reservations about the management level at the Pacific Northwest railroad headquarters and knew they were in store for a number of setbacks that would delay them from their easterly push to link up with the westward driving operation.