The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1872-09-13
MI j s q eIIaneous~
NarrOW-Gauge.
SOMETHING MORE OF THE EXPERIMENT
IN COLORADO.
From the Cincinnati Commercial.

From the Cincinnati Commercial.
The comparative cheapness of the con-
struction and operation of narrow gauge
railways commends them to the people.
1t only remains to show by experiment
that they are practicable to induce CAPT
talists to invest largely in them. For short
lines and roads tributary to main lines,
have proven to be adequate to all the SER
vice demanded of them. The experiment
of operating long line upon three foot
gauge is in progress in Colorado. The
road which is being constructed rapidly,
and of which seventy-tive miles are COM
pleted; and started from Denver City, is
to skirt the base of the Rocky Mountains
to Santa Fe, and thence to be continued
to Ell Paso, on the Mexican border, and
finally to be continued to, and terminate
in the city of Mexico. The total length of
this line will be 1850 miles. The cost of
construction is but $4,000 per mile or
$4,000 less than that of the Kansas Pacific.
Mr.. Samuel Bowles, of the Springfield
Republican,, has recently been over that por-
ton of the road which has been completed,
and reports very fayorably concerning it,
AS important results depend upon the sue
cess of the enterprise, we subjoin single
passage from his Denver letter, descriptive
of the undertaking:
The road and its trains in the first place
look like railway plaything, in contrast
with the broader and heavier tracks and
larger cars of the accustomed lines; deli
cate and dainty, they seem almost too faint
and feeble for the hard, quick work to
which they are called, and especially une-
quail to the great contest which they have
invited. Yet so far surely, they are per-
forming their task with ease, with comfort,
celebrity and with success. The track bed
OF the narrow-gauge is feet wide, as
against o.; the distance between the rails 8
feet as against feet 81 inches; the ties
are 6 to 81 feet as against 8; the rails
weigh 30 pounds to the yard, as against
SO; the engines II to 16 tons as against
20 to 80 tons, putting about half the
weight on the drive wheels that the large
locomotives do; the passenger cars with
s wheels carrying 80 passengers, of 8 tons,
as against 1S tons, 8 wheels and so pas
sengers; and the freight cars so far intro
duced weigh tons, run on wheels, and
carry to 5 tons of freight, as against cars
weighing 8 tons, on s wheels and capable
of 10 tons load. Where four passengers sit
in the ordinary car, there are seated in the
narrow ones, two on one side, and one on the
other of the passage way, the car being di-
vided in the middle by door, and the
seats for two and one, respectively, being
reversed in the two sections, so as to bal
ance the carriage. The cars at first intro
duced, are feet wide and 1O1 feet high
from rail to top. They prove trife more
compact than is necessary, and not quite
generous enough in accommodations for
passengers but this evil is being RENE
died in new cars now constructing while
sleeping cars and day drawing room cars
can be made for the narrow gauge roads,
which will accommodate still more persons,
in proportion to their size and weight, than
the ordinary cars of this character now
do"