The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1874-12-17
CHEAP RAILWAYS.

1t is of the utmost importance to the
people of jackson county to devise and
adopt. some cheap plan for transporting
heavy freights, such as ore. limestone,
coal and iron. We need at least one more
through line of railway, to get our heavy
products to market; but when even this
is accomplished, we must adopt some
plan which will reach out from the trunk
lines to the coal mines. ore banks, fur
naees, &c. Turnpikes might answer the
purpose, but we think there are better
plans that can be adopted. 1t is pretty
we'll settled that the narrow gauge rail
way is very much cheaper than the COM
mon railway; but ten thousand dollars
per mile is too costly for branch roads.
We cut the following from a recent
number of the Scientific American
A WOODEN RAILRoAD IN MICHIGAN.-The
tram road of Van Etten, Kaiser & Co., manufac-
turers of rough and dressed pine, lumber and
lath, at Pinconneng, Bay county, Michigan, Is
'There are, first, logs laid crosswise, about nve
or six feet apart. The logs from = to l6 feet
fiattened timber laid in these gains; this pre-
vents the road from spreading. Our rails are OF
hard maple. Before spiking the rails down we
put ties across the stringers, notching the
stringer enough to let the tie down even with
the top of it, and spike the tie fast before the
rail is laid on. The ties are of inch hemlock
plank, from to Il inches wide; this prevents
the stringer from rolling. We would recon-
mend any one who wishes to build road on
the above system to build it straight as possi-
BILE. We have some curves in our road, and We
have been obliged to dispense with wooden
| rails on the curves, and lay down iron. We
operate our road with locomotive power. Cost
OF building, without rolling stock, is about
$1,000 per mile. The stringers are made from
| elm, oak, pine, and ash, and are flattened on
| two sides to 10 inches in thickness"
Here is another plan taken from the
same paper:
THE ONE RAIL SYsTEM-A contract has been
taken by Messrs. Whitaker & Woodward to
| build railroad ON Crews prismoidal one track
some Quarries near that city. 1t is built by the
contractors at their own risk, as an experiment,
and II successful, is to be paid for at the rate OF
| 81 600 per mile.
We have heretofore illustrated this novel
| style of railway. We have no doubt as to the
above example. The crew plan is one of the
cheapest and best plans for railways that has
We have no doubt that if the iron bust
ness should revive, our enterprising fur
mace men and NINE owners will inquire
into and investigate the cheap railways
now tested.
1t would very soon pay if railway
could be constructed at cost of from
$4,000 to $4,000 per mile, from jackson
to the hill coal banks Immens quaint
ties of this superior coal are now beinl
hauled to this place. and the road will
soon be in that condition that teams will
have to stop hauling. A teamster told
US few days ago that there were a dozer
teams all together that day, coming tc
town with coal, and that the greater por
ton of them had stalled, and they had t.
unite in order to get each other out.
If the narrow gauge railroad shall b
constructed to this place, the cities ives
of us will take immense quantities of tn
hill coal, as that is the coal they will neet
for fuel and manufacturing purposes. A
this road cannot reach the mines, bu
will pass within half mile to three mile
of them, some plan must be adopted t
reach up the various hollows to tn
mines. 1t might be we'll to talk abou
this matter of switches and side tracks a
once, as we have great confidence that
! road from some point west of US will in
very few years at most, come to the grea
Jackson coal and iron regions.
In this connection we might remark
that the people of jackson county gel
: orally do not yet realize the wealth store
{ in our hills. We have all heard of tn
: rich gold fields of California; but ther
; never was any four hundred square mile
. in California as rich in minerals as is tn
u day Jackson county.