wow! i never would have guessed. makes sense though.

i have been driving past all those parked rail cars for years assuming they were grain cars waiting for the harvest!

when they were building the panama canal the breakthrough techniques were instituted by a railroad man, stevens i think was his name. he would have them lay track along the edge of the excavation. they would load the rail cars with large steam shovels bucoles i think maybe was the name of the shovels or similar, then they would pull a whole train of loaded cars along side where they were moving the earth and the sides would drop down and they would take a dozer and push all the dirt off the train at one time. so they could unload it really quickly too.

they used similar techniques for the hoover dam for earth moving.

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.