Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-01-05

A NEW RAHRoAD PRoJEcT---THE BEDFoRD
ROUTE THE BEST UNocourIED RAILROAD
GROUND IN PENNSYLVANIA AT THIS DAY.
We find the following communication and ed.
itorial remarks, in a late number of the q. S.
Railroad and Miaiug Register, published in
Philadelphia
Your acquaintance with the current rail-
road projects of the day, and especially your
frequent favorable notices of Harrisburg as
an iron works centre, prompt me TO put be-
fore your readers project for an iron and
coal railroad which, on its completion, would
command mineral traffic of million oftons
the first year, to begin with.
Starting from a point on the Lebanon
Valley Railroad ,aud passing on thesouth side
of Harrisburg to an eligible site for railroad
bridge across the Susquehanna; thence up the
Yellow Breeches creek, through and near
series ofiron ore deposits opened at intervals
along the foot of the South Mountain; thence
across the route Of the Cumberland Valley
Railroad in the yicinage of Shippensburg;
thence west to the Huntingdon and Broad
Top Railroad, on the waters Of Bloody Run;
and thence on, via Bedford, to connection
with the Pittsburg and Connellsyille Railroad
on Wills creek, twelve miles from Cumber-
land.
'With this road built, the Broad Top coal
region would mine and forward to market
half million tons of coal and more, per year
whilst large quantities of Somerset coal would
be received on the new road, at its Wills creek
connection with the Pittsburg and Councils
Vile Railroad
~ know very well that it is contemplated
to connect the South Pennsylvania Railroad
with the Cumberland Valley Railroad, via
Loudon; but know, too, that the road which
am foreshadowing, as an elongation, SO to
speak, of the Lebanon Valley Railroad, could
command the Broad Top coal tonnage and
reciprocate inter trade with the Pittsburg and
Connellsville Railroad.
"And if it be offset against my proposition
that there has long been in use railroad in
the Cumberland Valley, l answer, very true,
but it is in the basin of the Conedegwinnet,
some miles north of Yellow Breeches creek,
which latter flows east along the south side of
the valley, where the iron ores outcrop, and
whence a new tonnage would be supplied to
Harrisburg, and its vicinity, as absorbing
ore market.
Besides, it is no novelty to see two roads
in the same valley, as witness the Susquehan-
ma the SehuyIlill and the Lehigh valleys. The
two great carriers that reach Harrisburg from
Philadelphia, one via Reading, the other via
Lancaster, should each have an ally and fee
der in the Cumberland valley, And as the
Lancaster route may be called the line for
miscellaneous traffic, so the Reading route is
distinguished as line for mineral tonnage.
Moreover, the Cumberland Valley Railroad
dips down south into Maryland, having one
terminus at Hagerstown; whereas the Yellow
Breeches route climbs out of the Cumberland
valley, and pursues western course to the
foot of the Allegheny Mountain, in Bedford
comfy.
'sThe Huntingdon and Broad Top Railroad
"A miles long, is now open and in operation
from Huntingdon on the Juniata to Noun
| III aaditIvI, = =, miles from Radfnna
own three branches, Zone OF which IS nine
mi les long,) leading to the coal mines. Over
two millions of dollars are invested in the
Huntingdon and Broad Top Railroad, and
about twenty FIVE collieries have been opened
in the Broad Top coal field; so that, altogeth-
er, Broad Top is the scene of vast invest
ment in railroad, mining plant and mineral
land
''The Dauphin and Bedford Railroad would
enhance the interests in the Broad Top coal
field in amount equal to the whole cost of a
new road from Harrisburg, via Yellow
Breeches creek, to the Huntingdon and Broad
Top Railroad. 1t would save to the Broad
Top colliery operators dollar ton in cost
of fcrwording coal to market, which saving
alone would more than pay the interest on the
whole cost of the new road; and if we add
what it would enhance Broad Top coal lands
and Huntingdon and Rroad Top Railroad
shares, we see the whole cost of the road rep
resented in the increased value impaired to
existing investments in the Broad Top district.
$50, too, with the iron ore deposits on
Yellow Breeches creek, from which an ore
trade that would soon rise into hundreds of
thousands of tons per annum; the profits on
the ore and on its transportation would Jointly
make up a sum sufficient to warrant the bull
ding of the railroad to the head of yellow
Breeches creek. SO you see that, from seve-
raj standpoints, the enterprise commands the
elements that assure successes and profit. -
Note By Editor Of Register. Our own
opinion of this Daupbin and Bedford project
may be expressed in few words:
I'm the first place, it proposes to occupy the
best unoccupied railroad ground in Pennsyl-
yania at this day, lroridecl that it be built all
the way through from the Lebanon Valley R.
r. to the Pittsburg and Connellsville R. R.
or Cumberland; and that it be operated under
lease by the Philadelphia and Reading R. R.
R. Co.. which is in position and in condition
to accommodate the Broad Top coal trade,
and also the Somerset coal trade; and also to
form combination line to Pittsburg, via
Connellsyille; and also to form combination
line, via Cumberland, to Wheeling on the
Ohio river, and to Parkersburg on the Ohio
river. And so the Dauphin and Bedford
Railroad would be division in ashort direct
and eligibleroute between Southwestern Penn
sylvania and West Virginia in the interior,
and the two great cities at tidewater. This
is of the first significance and
Importance, and will bear elaboration and |