This 23 minute documentary uses black and white archival film from the 1920s, enhanced with added sounds. It shows the logging, cutting, transport, and treatment of railroad cross ties. There are scenes showing operation of the steam powered sawmill, a “tie drive” in which ties are floated down river, steam loaders, various types of steam locomotives and rolling stock, creosoting of the ties, etc:
Very interesting Video… tks…
Very enjoyable watching that. Gee they worked hard in those days. 8 ties a day, 10 cents each all by broad axe. I liked the steam powered loader too.
Andrew
Wicked cool video… 
John: The video was interesting and educational. The only thing was that my back hurt watching all that man handling of those ties, have a couple in my back yard and I can not move them now too old. Now the trend is to precast prestressed concrete ties with metal clips to hold the rail and rubber pads to cut the noise.
Thank you John for that one.
Paul A
Very cool video. Makes me feel like a sissy after watching those guys work!
Terry
My aunt and uncle lived on the southeast shore of Lake Washington in Renton, WA, near one of those creosote plants. It supplied ties for the Northern Pacific RR. When the wind set from just the right direction, lordy, lordy!
Ugh, after splitting wood last Sunday, by hand. I now know I am a sissy. I was only wielding the axe for a couple hours and I can still feel it today. Those were some tough guys back then.
Wow great video. Thanks Ray
I watched that last night… Twice… What a great record of the history of how stuff was done in the early 1900’s
What really surprised me was the enormous number of ties that were processed at the plant is East St Louis…
Great video…
An old man was 30!
Nice one Ray!
Fantastic and informative video. Thank you for posting it.
Here is modern day Koppers tie plant just up the road a piece in Guthrie Kentucky.
Lot of similarities in the modern day production of wooden RR ties.
Doc Tom
I gotta stay away from this stuff! Not sure why I even looked at it to begin with? I love history!
Thanks
Holy Cow! AndyC told me about this yesterday.
Black River, Clearwater, Ellington, Reynolds County, Missouri is all where my Dad’s family is from. Spent many young years in that part of the World. My Dad’s Mom came out of those woods in the 1920’s and came from a family much like the TV show “the Walton’s”. Great Grandpa Brooks ran a home operated saw mill and sold those ties to the Missouri Pacific Railroad.
Wow! That struck home. I’ve got kinfolk to contact to show this film to on the confuser,
I’m sure glad these guys filmed what they were doing back then as all this would have been lost years ago. Very interesting video.
It reminds me of last summer when a couple of us were exploring the old Northern Pacific right away over Lookout Pass on the Idaho/Montana border. We located the area of an old down hill de-rail siding where an accident took place in 1933 when a freight train lost control on the 4% down hill grade. We found several old pieces of nuts and bolts that had been torched off equipment that had crashed over a shallow embankment. I also found an old Oak railroad tie that had to be made around the turn of the century as the top and bottom were flat but the sides were round. Unfortunately I left it up there and I have to go back in the spring after the snows gone to get it. I want to put it on display in my back yard with all the other items that we have collected from that area.
Several miles down the right away you will find the old town of Borax which was a water stop for the railroad. The concrete foundation of the water tower is still there along with some Italian bread ovens. We have found lots of different items here including a tie removal bar, a pistol, telegraph pole with cross bars and insulators, belt buckles, plates, shovels, lots of other items. My wife uses most of the smaller items in her class showing the kids what life use to be like. My plan is to create an area in front of my shop with most of this on display for anyone visiting.
Chuck
Good stuff Chuck. I collected a lot of small stuff and mounted it all on a plywood backer board maybe 3x4 feet or so, painted white, gave it a title at the top, ‘OLD IRON’. Then I labelled all the items. ‘old fashioned can opener’, ‘trivet’, ‘bootjack’, ‘pulley wheel’, ‘horseshoe’, for examples. A lot of old tools, many hand-forged y’know? Then I hung the board up on a wall in the workshop. It made a cool display, a kind of miniature museum, but it was portable. Now and again teachers would borrow the whole kit’n’kaboodle. They would take it into class. Sometimes they’d cover up the labels for the kids to guess what the things were.
Awesome Vid, Ray! Thanks for posting!