Ok nerds, tell me about gravel in the early 20th century

[sd45elect2000]

Yes, The MILW used river gravel for ballast.  The two explanations I've read are :

They were cheap, and didn't want to pay for the good stuff.  Wouldn't surprise me a bit, since the also used uncreosoted poles for the electrification.  Then added "stub" poles to hold the originals up, when they rotted off at the ground.

The second reason was that "crushed rock is sharp, and wears the ties out faster".  Since one of the main purposes of ballast is to hold the tie in place, deliberately using ballast that won't do that seems unlikely.  But, maybe, it's another sign of being cheap.  They figured rough track was worth it to not have to buy new ties as often!

Off topic, but an article years ago, in the early 70s, by an EMD traveling engineer sent to the Pacific Extension to help set up some new SD40-2s, had his comments on the track and wires.  He wasn't impressed by the track, but noted that the wire wasn't zig-zagged like European railroads do, to spread the wear on the pantograph.  After a few cab rides in his new diesels, trailing the electrics, he understood why.  The Europeans have good track, so if the wire stayed centered, it would wear a groove in the contact shoe.  The Milwaukee's track was so bad that the rocking of the loco kept the pantograph itself moving, so the wire couldn't stay in one place.  Plus, the poles were crooked enough that the wire often wasn't centered anyway!  He was very relieved to go back to Illinois without experiencing at least one derailment.

I don't know if the Milwaukee was too cheap to buy the good stuff. Maybe in later years they were but many railroads used what we now consider sub standard ballast. Crushed rock interlocks and keeps the ties from moving around to an extent, this is a fact.
 I haven't seen a lot of evidence that in the early days a large percentage of railroads used crushed rock. I think the railroads evolved into using proper ballast, I don't think it was intuitive until the 1930s.

In my experience the most abrasive effect comes from mud. A tie that is laying in mud and pumping up and down is going to be ruined in short order. That was a common problem with cinder ballast as well, cinders do not interlock to keep the ties from moving vertically especially when the cinders become pulverized. I've seen cinders used more as fill than ballast, but I do not think this was always the case.

In later years the Milwaukee bought crushed rock from a quarry near Sussex Wisconsin, A blue grey marble, The CNW bought their "pink lady" from online quarries at Rock Springs, The SOO bought their "blue Dresser" from quarries around Dresser Wisconsin. The point is that the railroads had to evolve to get there.

The cheapest ballast is limestone. Of all the "modern" crushed rock to use as ballast this is probably the worst. Its a great fertilizer though.

[Maletrain]

My impression is that the B&O used a lot of limestone ballast in their Allegheny districts, mainly because it looks almost white when new in the B&W pictures and few color pictures that I have.

Does anybody here know for sure?

[nkalanaga]

The MILW used good ballast in the Midwest, and had good track, at least on the major lines.  I can't speak for the farm-county branches, never having seen them, until long after the MILW was gone.

The Pacific Extension was another matter.  The MILW really was two railroads, and the officials in Milwaukee didn't like to spend money, or effort, on the western lines.  As long as the electrics ran, and kept the costs down, the western lines muddled along, but they didn't last long after the power was turned off.

When they abandoned the western lines, basically all they took was the rails, and the copper trolley wire.  They left the steel messenger wire when the electrification was scrapped, along with the poles.  When the rails were taken up, in many cases, they didn't even take the signals, much less the ties.  For years, people in Montana collected the ties in big piles, and sold them as landscape timbers.  The untreated cedar poles became firewood.  As of 2011, there was still a pair of block signals along the empty right of way west of Martinsdale, Mt, and Google Maps shows some wrecked boxcars from the last train east in eastern Washington.  It derailed, and they just left the cars laying there, patched the track up, and went on with the rest of the train!