First Transcontinental Railroad, a Definition of Done

The Transcontintental Railroad was completed on May 10  1869

The Federal Government Contracts were approved by President Lincoln in 1861.

A majority of workers on the West Side of the build were Chinese while Irish were predominant on the Eastern Side. No Chinese were invited to the celebration exercise.  And issues of treatment of Chinese, Irish and Native American Lands should not go unremembered.

The Definition of Definition of Done

https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2008/september/what-is-definition-of-done-(dod)

( A lengthy wordy description.  But each team and perhaps each task should have its own ? )

Resources about the Transcontinental Railroad, Promotory Summit and the Misconceptions that abound to catch the Tourists

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_spike  

http://www.gregmester.com/done-in-1869/#.WET5tZy00O4.linkedin 

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/28985

Other resources for the 150th Anniversary

https://www.nps.gov/gosp/planyourvisit/2019-150th-anniversary-of-the-completion-of-the-transcontinental-railroad.htm

Spike 150 Commission (spike150.org) and https://umfa.utah.edu/race-to-promontory

Chinese Railroad Workers Descendants Association (https://www.goldenspike150.org/)

Trivia

Companies were paid by the mile, so more miles were built than were necessary. Most of the rail was for single passage ( not for two way traffic ) Resource management was even then in their Definition of Done.

The words on the Golden Spike also appear in US passports.

May God continue the unity of our Country, as this Railroad unites the two great Oceans of the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_spike

This great technical accomplishment was 150 years ago at Promontory Summit, where the First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States was officially completed on May 10, 1869 The misnomer "Promontory Point" is still used by many, according to the Golden Spike Natl Hist Park

 https://www.nps.gov/gosp/faqs.htm

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promontory,_Utah

At the National Historic Site in Utah, on every Saturday and holiday between May 1 and Labor Day, the two replica locomotives are lined up to re-enact the "Golden Spike" ceremony.

The defining features of most Bullet Trains ( like Japan's Shinkansen trains ) are their extraordinarily long noses, designed not to improve their aerodynamics, but primarily to eliminate sonic booms caused by the "piston effect" of trains entering tunnels and forcing compression waves out of the other end at supersonic speeds.

Is there a Philadelphia Connection?

Although the two trains were NOT from Philadelphia, the Jupiter ( No. 60 ) and Train No.119 are similar to the steam locomotives built at the Baldwin Locomotive Works at Red Lion Road .

BUT . . .

The Inyo, a 4-4-0 steam locomotive built for the Virginia & Truckee Railroad (V&T #22) in 1875 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, appeared in both the Golden Spike ceremony scene in Union Pacific (1939) and in the 1960s TV series The Wild Wild West.

In May, 1969, the Inyo participated in the Golden Spike Centennial at Promontory, Utah, and then served as the replica of the Central Pacific's Jupiter (CPRR #60) at the Golden Spike National Historical Site, until the current replica was built in 1979. Purchased by the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City, Nevada, in 1974, it was eventually brought back to Nevada and fully restored there in 1983, where it still runs today.

( Inyo was a great Shoshone Chief.  Inyo County in California includes Mount Whitney and Death Valley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inyo_County,_California )

Ironically, Inyo is also the Japanese name for the Yin-Yang symbol of the Okinawan flag and the symbol of the JKA Karate Association.