What obstacles faced by the Union Pacific railroad workers but not the Central Pacific workers?

Unlike the central pacific workers, an obstacle which was directly faced and experienced by the union pacific railroad workers is conflict with American Indians (Native Americans) because the American Indians wanted to reclaim the jobs and way of life that was being taken away from them.



People Also Ask

Builders of the transcontinental railroad faced geographical obstacles across the entire line. But none were quite as formidable as the snowy granite mountain range rising east of Sacramento.

MORE DETAILS

The Central Pacific met its greatest challenge at the outset—the towering Sierra Nevada, which presented enormous engineering obstacles and strangling winter snows. Deep fills, rock cuts, high trestles, snaking grades, and 15 tunnels through 6,213 feet of solid granite blooded the CP crews.

MORE DETAILS

As the Union Pacific cut its way westward across the Platte Valley in 1865, its workers grew fearful of the Indian menace. Certainly, the Northern Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho maintained a presence on what had once been their prime hunting land.

MORE DETAILS

They had to face dangerous work conditions – accidental explosions, snow and rock avalanches, which killed hundreds of workers, not to mention frigid weather.

MORE DETAILS

Locomotives and tracks began to wear out. By 1863 a quarter of the South's locomotives needed repairs and the speed of train travel in the South had dropped to only 10 miles an hour (from 25 miles an hour in 1861). Fuel was a problem as well. Southern locomotives were fueled by wood--a great deal of it.

MORE DETAILS

But the Depression, and the switch to automobiles after World War II, dealt a blow from which the railroads still have not recovered. A deadly cycle set in. As the number of passengers using the trains decreased, causing revenues to fall, the railroads tried to survive by cutting back on maintenance and service.

MORE DETAILS

That's in part because of the pandemic, but also because the major railroads have for years been making major staffing cuts that have forced employees to take on more work. Over the last six years, Class 1 railroads have cut their workforce by 29%, of 45,000 employees, according to Congressional testimony by Oberman.

MORE DETAILS

However, the race was ultimately a runaway victory for the Union Pacific, which was able to lay 1,085 miles of track to the 690 miles put down by the Central Pacific.

MORE DETAILS

In 1862, Congress hastily passed the Pacific Railroad Act. This act led to the creation of the Union Pacific, which would lay rails west from Omaha, and the Central Pacific, which would start in Sacramento and build east.

MORE DETAILS

Workers would often quit whenever a lucrative strike was reported, leaving the arduous manual labor of railroad construction for a fleeting chance at riches in the gold fields. CPRR managers like Charles Crocker started to consider alternative labor sources in 1864. Bank & Cut at Sailor's Spur by A.

MORE DETAILS