The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-07-30
VOL. XIII.---NO. 81.
AMONG THE AvALANcHEs.
THE RAILWAY OVER THE ALPS.


We quote the following from Paris
letter of a recent date:
The railway over Mount Gents, which is
a temporary method of transit only until
the tunnel is completed, is called the
American railway, its inventor, Mr. Fell
who built the one up Mount Washington,
being an American; and we were promis-
ed ride in real American cars. The
time of starting was z A. M. The train
consisted of an engine and two first-class
passenger carriages The carriages were
about half the length of ours at home, with
seats on each side.
The locomotives of these trains are small,
compact and powerful; their trucks, as
well as those of the carriages, set well in
the middle, so that they can turn very short
curves. The track has three rails, one ele-
waited in the centre. Besides its ordinary
driving wheels, the locomotive has two
horizontal wheels which press this third
rail on either side, and it is by this strong
traction that the train is pulled up.
The carriages have corresponding wheels
for the centre rail, but their only use is to
keep the train on the track. Both cars and
locomotive have double sets of breaks,
one for the ordinary and one for the CEN
tire rail, so that they can screw the cars to
the track with the grip of vice, and rem
der it almost impossible for the carriages
to run away. There is every precaution
against accident; and should only fear
the storms of the winter, and perhaps
an avalanche in some places high up,
which are not rooted in.
We began to climb the hill directly af-
tor tofi
riage drawn by horses would do. In fact
our track ran parallel to the carriage road
all the way, was just as steep and made
the short turns of the latter. Our train
seemed to be huge live reptile with
legs and claws, that crawled up by its
own power; it literally dug right up hill,
and we felt ourselves mounting, and look
ing back, could see the steep incline.
On the curves, where the wheels got
good grip of the rail, we moved with ease
and more rapidly than on a straight pull,
where the locomotive evidently labored
more, and we rose more slowly. The
steepest grade on the road is one foot in
nine feet, but this is only for short distan-
'ces. You march up with triumphant ease,
rising among the grand snow peaks like
conqueror. The valleys open behind you
with their rivers and brown villages, the
great panorama expanding with every rev.
olution of the wheels.
You skirt precipices and look down
upon nesting villages and green fields; you
push your way up among the snow re-
gions, the stone huts of the begging half
naked dirty peasants, and the refuge houses
Of the road; are wisked round rocky head
lands, through tunnels and covered ways,
over deep gullies and tracks of avalanches,
rising always higher and higher, as by no
expenditure of strength, into purer air,
among peaks of virgin snow, among the
silent SUBMITS of the enduring Alps.
The day was superb, with blue sky and
fine air, and it was so warm even in the
snow region, that needed no overcoat.
Our view was for the most part uninterupt-
ed and magnificent. The summit level is
about 6,400 feet above the sea, and before
we reached it we passed into covered way,
built of wood at the sides and arched with
iron, and were immured in this, in the as
cent, descent, and on the level for four or five
miles, l should think dark unpleasant
passages, made worse by the smoke and
fume of the locomotives.
These covered ways are absolutely ne
cessary, as protection against avalanches
in many places and against the falls of
snow, for long distances. Through the
chinks of the boards / could see the snow
piled up high along the way. The summit
station is one of these long sheds, and is
gloomy enough.
1t was nearly one o'clock when we ran
into st. Michel, and passing the humbug
of a custom house, took comfortable cars
for Lyons.