664 



REPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



AMERICA WITHOUT ROLLING MILLS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 



RAILROAD ERA. 



When the corner-stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was laid 

 in 1828, there was not a rolling mill in all the United State where rails 

 of the character laid on the Stockton and Darlington Railroad could be 

 rolled ; in fact, the only rails rolled in America for several years after 

 was the strap rail of merchantable bar iron 2i inches wide and five- 

 eighths of an inch thick, the holes for the spikes often being drilled by 

 hand. 



Fig. 36. 

 Wooden Stringer and Strap Rail, Albany and Schenectadt Railroad, 1837. 



From a drawing in the U S. National Museum.) 



On the Albany and Schenectady road strap rail was laid on longi- 

 tudinal sleepers of wood, supported on trenches filled with broken stone. 

 (See Fig. 3G.) 



CSX 



Fig. 37. 

 Stone Strixgek asd Strap Rail, Baltimore and Omo Railroad, 1833. 



( From original rail and stone block in the U. S. National Museum. ) 



On the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the Columbia road in Penn- 

 sylvania, the strap rail was attached to the edges of stone blocks, which 

 were laid on trenches filled with broken stones ; the corners of the stone 

 stringers were chamfered. (See Fig. 37.) 



