St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1873-07-25
From Portland to Swanton.

THE GREAT NOTCH AND ITS RAILROAD.
Below we give liberal extracts from
letters to the Springfield Republican, by
one of its editorial staff who has lately
passed over the entire route of the r.
& o. Railroad from Portland to Swan
ton:
Lower to Upper Bartlett, while waiting
for the stage that is to carry me through
the Notch and along the line of the new
railroad to the Crawford House. This
road is now open for six miles and soon
will he for six miles more. to Upper
Bartlett, making ~ miles from Port
land beyond this the track will not be
laid, this year, although six miles more
are well along, and could have the
track laid on them before winter if it
were any object to do it. But the
heaviest part of the road-the last three
miles from the Wiley house to the
Crawford hOuse-cannOt he finished or
even well begun, this year and so there
is no especial hurry in building up to
the Wiley house. 1t is not now eX-
pected to open the whole line for
through travel until July, 1873, although
the road through the Notch may he
completed. next summer. TO push il
| on. this wear. would seriously interfere
with the stage-coach travel of the sea-
son now beginning, for along this mar
row gorge above Sawycrs Rock, the
railroad crosses the stage-road frequent
| ly, and for some distance will run in
the very road-bed where the coaches
now 90. 1t is therefore agreed that the
work at the western or Crawford house
end of the Notch shall not begin until
the stage-coach season is over. The
eighteen miles northwest of North Con-
way, now completed or rapidly getting
built, are comparatively easy to build,
and the first twelve miles can hardly
cost more than S25,OOO a mile. For
| four or five miles it is almost straight,
runs across the easy, level or slightly
ascending intervale of the Saco river,
and can he built for little more than
the cost of prairie railroad. Farther
up, the grades are sleeper, there is more
wood to be cleared, more lodges and
powders to bc blasted, deeper cuts and
more curves and bridges Between
! North Conway and the Crawford house
the track will cross the SacO four times,
and in several places in the Notch
proper it will run into the side of the
mountain on the south of the narrow
gorge. and the rock must there he cut
or blasted off. This is the case at the
western portion of the Notch, where
several feet of the cliff will he removed
and the Notch widened for the railroad
track to run. At the Wiley house the
track will pass behind and above the
house, at a higher level than the top OF
the great slide which buried the Wiley
family and turned the course of the
Saco in lS26. From there to the Craw-
ford house the cost of building may be
S75,0O or even $lOO,O0O mile, hui
the distance is short, and though the
grades are steep and the roadway mar
row, the best engineers pronounce the
route perfectly feasible and suitable fol
II well operated railroad. On this point
the company took the advice of Mr.
Latrobc, the eminent railroad engineer
who built the Baltimore and Ohio road
and his report. made nearly three years
ago. has been followed in locating the
road and establishing the grades through
the Notch and just beyond it.
Mr.. LatIobe's report is dated Septem-
Der |. 1870, and contains this interest
ing passage, suggested by his own ex,
pericnce: Upon lines of general trave
and in sharp competition with Othel
lines the tastes, the fears and even the
whims of passengers have to he con
suited, and everything avoided which
could give the agents of the rival rOutel
occasion of detraction. Looking at the
question in this aspect as well as in the
more strictly professional one, | would
advise that the grade line should no
be sleeper than has been successfully
operated upon some important ant
well l-known route of general trade anC
travel, such as it is the confident ex
pectation that the route through tn,
Notch will he when opened and con
nected with its proper extensions west
ward and northward. The steepes
grade which occurs upon line of thi
character in America, as permanen
feature of its location, is that by whicl
the Baltimore and Ohio railroad crosses
the Allegheny mountains, and whicl
averages ll6 feet per mile for abou
eleren continuous miles. The curvature
occurring upon this grade are numerous
and their shortest radius is 600 feet, {;
straight line of not less than 300 fee
being interpOsed between all reversIon
of curvature,) the grade upon sucl
curves being reduced to ITO feet pc