page_title: Evansville and Eastern Electric Railway
section_title: Track and roadway
hierarchical_section_title: Evansville and Eastern Electric Railway / Track and roadway
caption_attribution_description: English: Trestle of the Evansville and Eastern Electric Railway over a ravine near Yankeetown
context_page_description: The Evansville & Eastern Electric Railway was put into operation on 10 June 1906 was one of the very few electric lines in the United States which did
  not parallel a steam railroad.
context_section_description: All of the route, but particularly the western portion, was very picturesque. For about 2 miles (3.2 km) after leaving Newburgh the track was laid over bluffs on the bank of the Ohio River. The railroad then crossed behind the hills and passed over Cypress Creek on truss steel construction 115 feet (35 m) long. The only other steel structure on the line was that over Pigeon Creek, which was 130 feet (40 m) in length. Both rested on concrete abutments. Near Yankeetown the tracks were carried over a ravine on a wood trestle which was planned to be displaced later by a fill. 
  The heaviest grading was necessary near Yankeetown where some 22-ft. cuts were made. East of Yankeetown the country is comparatively level. All cuts were made 22 ft. wide at the bottom and fills are 14 ft. at the top. 
  The track is laid with 70-lb/yard (35 kg/m) rails on oak ties, obtained largely from the neighboring country. The entire railroad was bonded with brazed bonds, the work being done by the Electric Railway Improvement Company, of Cleveland, Ohio. 
  Sidings varied in length from 100 feet (30 m) to 300 feet (91 m) and were located at about 3-mile intervals. All passing sidings were double end; others are stub end. The sidings were placed more frequently than otherwise to provide for the simultaneous operation of freight trains and passenger cars. 
  Throughout its length the road was ballasted with gravel taken from the bed of the Ohio River, just above Newburgh. The gravel was dug up and loaded into barges by a dredge boat, and a tug towed the barges down the river to a coalmine incline, which extended over the tracks of the electric line. The coal-mine engines were used to pull small cars of gravel up the incline, and these cars were dumped, either directly into the ballast cars or into a hopper underneath the incline. The gravel was almost entirely free from sand and makes an excellent roadbed. 
  As the road was built partly for freight traffic, heavy grades were eliminated wherever possible. There was, however, one short grade of 2.4 per cent near Yankeetown.
caption: Trestle over a ravine near Yankeetown
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