Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1873-10-08
The p. 4 O. Railroad.

u
act Of Legislature authorizing Portland to
lend its credit to the Portland & Ogdens-
burg Railroad. the Board Of Mayer and
Aldermen, with several other city officials.
made trip Of observatios over the line OF
the read to note its condition and the prog
ress Of the work. A psrtiOa Of the party
passed through The Notch and were shown
the locates Of the road through the noun
tain regios.
Since the opening Of the Spring, the
read has been completed in wor kmanlike
manner iron North Conway 10 Upper
Bartlett, a distance Of about thirteen miles.
From this point the grading is nearly COM
pleted to the old Mount Crawford House,
or the place OF DR.. Bemus, distance Of
nearly ak miles from Upper Bartlett.
This distance cssld be put in readiness for
the iron this Fall, but there is no object
10 Ia ying il before next summer, when the
travel begins. From Bcmus' place through
the Notch to the CraN ford House, the dis
lance is eight and half miles, as surveyed
for the railroad, and affords some of the
rarest scenery in New England. The
country cannot Le said to be very favora-
bic to railroading, yet it seems that that
gap was made or rather left through the
twelve or fifteen miles of mountains for
some other purpose than to give the little
pond on the other side chance iC BECOME
the head waters of the Saeo. Ofthis las,
piece, eight and half miles, the full sur
vey of the line has been made, and on more
than half of it the heavy timber has been
cut off. I. Il. Poverty, ESQ, an engineer
of extensive and long experience, has the
immediate superintendent of the survey
ing of the notch cast. He went through
with the party and as far as possible pOist-
ed out the line As is generally known,
the proposed line runs along the sides Of
the hills on the eastern side Of the Saco.
There are places where the work of grad
ing will be very great, but Mr.. Poverty
says it is not so difficult as it looks. The
rock is full Of seams and can. to great
extent, be easily removed. On the steep
hiIlsides it caL be split off in slabs, which
will fall out Of the way. The eight and
half miles from Bemus' through the notch,
as surveyed, ha, an average grade Of l02
feet to the nile, and the maximum grade
of any single mile is ll6 feet. Over this
distance there are several fats and few
greater part of the freights will be from
the West to the East, the grades will be
favorable to the line. This grade appears
pretty hard but there are many greater
freight roads than the Poi tland Il Ogdens-
burgh can reasonably be expected to be,
that have sleeper grades than this through
the mountains. Fer instance, the Balti-
more and Ohio, one Of the heaviest freight
ing roads of the country, has eleven miles
of road that averages l Is feet grade to the
mile, and in some places it is 100 feet,
and this, too, against the transportation.
as the burden of frcights has to be pulled
up this heavy grade. The same road las
curves on a radius of 800 feet, while the
sharpest curve on the mountain line is 637
feet. The wsrk on the eight and a half
miles is of nature that will not allow ex-
tensivc gangs Of inch and will doubtless be
the last of the road TO DO completed.
The whole length Of the line from North
Conway to the Connecticut river. where
the Vermont section is met, is nearly fifty
miles The western section is under the
immediate charge of s. L. Stephenson.
The survey has been completed and the
party is now making some triiing correc-
tons. 1t is expected that grading will
begin ON this part Of the road this Fall, as
b.contraotsrs have been looking over the
line. 1t has been suggested that this part
Of the road should be completed as early
as possible and run BY tho Vermont divis-
ion, so as to make the distance to travel
as shsrt as possible. When the iron is
laid to Bemus', it will not be worth while
to lay any more until the mountain Sec
tioa is completed as it could not be used.
Good judges say there is no better road
in the country than the Portland & Oe-
densburg, as far as it has been completed.
1t is the smoothcst riding read that can be
found. There is an impression that more
men might DO worked to advantage now
that the surveys are fully completed.
New Industries are springing up all along
the road aud the amount of freight is in.
creasing largely. H. N. Jose, Esq, is
building very large saw mill at Upper
Bartlett, which when put in operation,
will contribute large amount of freight.
The summer houses are nearly all clos
ing. but there is no more desirable season
to visit the mountain region than at this
season of the year, when the foliage Of the
mountain sides is gorgeous with its myriad
ues.--Portland Press.