How much iron and lumber was used in the construction of the transcontinental railroad?
About 200,000 net tons of iron total were used just for building the railroad from Omaha to Sacramento [at 2000 lbs/net ton, the modern useage, also called the short ton; not using the gross ton unit of weight, also called the long ton, used historically by the CPRR which were 2240 lbs/gross ton; also not the metric ton = 1000 kg ]. Details, at 60 lb/yard (per single rail) single track from Omaha to Sacramento: 1776 miles x 60 lb/yard x 5280 feet/mile x 1/3 yards/feet x 2 rails x 1/2000 ton/lb = (1776*60*5280*2)/(3*2000) = 187,546 tons of iron. If the rail is 56 lb/yard, then the total rail weight is about 175 thousand tons (about a hundred tons of rail per mile). To this you would need to add the weight of about 5,500 spikes and 1,408 bolts per mile, 900 tons of iron used in the construction of the Sierra snow sheds, plates, switches and sidings, iron hardware used in constructing wooden trestle bridges, 20-40 ton locomotives, cars, etc. Other sources speak of “fifty-ton locomotives”
