Nostalgia & History > Working on the railroad

Extra Atlantic Coast Line reefer block passing crews doing ballast work.I have no information.
Collection of Uncle Joe Oates
Seffner,Fl.

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What is the "ballast"? Oyster shells? Doesn't look like rock. Could this be a line change where the track is on a temporary roadbed?

AmtkGP7 Wrote:
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> What is the "ballast"? Oyster shells? Doesn't
> look like rock. Could this be a line change where
> the track is on a temporary roadbed?


It may be shells, and it wouldn't necessarily be temporary. In southern Louisiana, shells were used like gravel to pave roads and parking lots (perhaps they still are). Railroads used cinders for ballast, partly because it was "free" and partly because they had to put it somewhere - why not shells if they were available at the right price?

JAC

I have heard of railroads using shells.

Oh, that would've been "purty" in color.

When I worked in New Orleans in the early '90's, the station tracks at NOUPT were all ballasted in shells that had been "vacuumed" off of the bottom of Lake Ponchartrain. This industry was banned just before I left in early 1993 as it was determined to contribute to the pollutants suspended in the lake water. These were small white shells, not the multi-colored ones that you might be familiar with.

Silver Sky