Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-10-29
THE HER AL d.
NARROW.GAUGE.
A Ride Over I2O Miles on . Rocky Mountain
Railroad that 10 only Three Feet Wide.

Journal furnishes that paper with an
account of the workings OF
The Narrow Gauge in the mountain
district of Colorado. If the Narrow
Gauge is a paying success in that
sparsely settled and rough country
the practicabilitY of similar PROJECT
which would connect the vast and
rich section of country in Southwest
ern Wisconsin with market point on
Lake Michigan, must seem clear to a
country that is hungry for better
transportation facilities. Governor
Washburn in his speech at Lancaster
on the goth inst, stated that he had
given much attention to the workings
and profits of the marrow gauge"
and believed it was one of the salu-
tons of the transportation problem
He thought "a narrow gauge railroad
could be built and equipped for bus
mess, from Dubuque to the Lake,
traversing the counties of Grant, Iowa
and Dane along the old "Military
Ridge" and thence running astward
to Milwaukee, for $4,000 per mile"
Such a route has long been in con-
temptation, and if built would without
doubt relieve the people of Southern
Wisconsin of whatever railway ex-
tortion has been practised by the com
panies now in operation, and provide
for the future cheaper facilities for
travel and freighting. We copy from
the Chicago Journal correspondence:
Its name is the Denver and Rio
Grande railroad; it traverses the foot
hills of the Rocky mountains, south
ward from Denver to Pueblo-a dis
lance of 100 miles. It's rails are only
three feet apart, its passenger and
freight cars only six feet nine inches
wide, and its locomotives look like
baby engines. 1t is an unique affair
OF the railway kind-the first we had
ever seen, and ride in its cars was a
new and by no means dlsagreeable
sensation. The seats are double from
the front to the center on one side OF
the passenger coach and single on the
other side, and from the center to the
rear of the car the same, except that
the double and single sides are re-
versed Each coach seats about thlr-
" three passengers, and has a coy
little saloon and water tank at one end
in a corner, and a small stove in the
center. To see a train of these little
cars pulled along by cunning" lit
tie engine, over the narrow little track,
is at first exceedingly amusing to one
who has al ways been accustomed to
the broad-gauge roads. 1t looks like
playing at railroading-like a dwarf
initiating a giant. But, seated in one
of the softly cushioned single or dou-
BILE seats and moving rapidly along,
one soon gets over being funny at the
narrow gauge. You see and feel and
know that you are being whirled along
as surely, as comfortably, and almost
as rapidly, IS if the cars were as big
as the biggest and the road bed as
broad as the broadcast. 1t isn't a
dwarf when you come to get acquaint-
ed with it. Like many of the small
sized men and women we meet in the
world, the Narrow-GauGe makes up
in force and energy what it lacks in
physical proportions. 1t took US about
four hours to make the seventy six
miles from Denver to Colorado
Springs. We know of many Broad
Gauge that does not do as well, either
in speed or smooth sailing. The Mar
row-Gauge is "nott to be sneezed at
we tell you that in all seriousness; and
if we should ever go into the railroad
building business, it is the Narrow.
Gauge that we would build.
This road has been in operation less
than three years, and does respecta-
BILE freight and passenger business.
The company that owns and operates
it is one of the few railroad copora-
tons that has been able to pay the in.
terest on its bonds promptly at matu-
rity, since the panic, without wIncing,
and had money left in its treasury.
Here is feather in the cap of the
Narrow-Gauge, and it wears it proud
ly, as it should.
Pueblo is its present southern ter
minus, with branch at that point
westward to Canon City, forty miles
where it lands the tourist and the in
valid at the mouth of the great and
grand canon of the Arkansas, and at
the hot mineral springs, and where
are beds of coal, of good quality
AMI inexhaustible quantity. From
Pueblo the road is ABOUT to be ex>
tended ninety five miles southwark to
Trinidad, where it will tap the North
ern Mexican trade and travel. 1t l.
the intention ultimately to extend
the line to Santa Fe, southeasterIy
aud, by means of connecting roads,
to the City OF Mexico, southwesterly,
to the very doors OF the "halls of the
Montezumas With such a record,
such energy and such ambition, let
no airy BrOad-Gauger dare to sneer
ct this Narrow-Gauge road not
when we are around. We won't tel
crate Ievity or sneers on its account.
We know it deserves much bet er
treatment.
When you go TO the Rocky noun
tains, for health, for pleasure or for
business, take trip over the Denver
and Rio Grande Railroad II will be
new sensation tor you. You will
fall in love with the narrow-gauge
cars, will be charmed by the glorious
mountain view above you TO the
westward, will admire the pluckiness
with which these little cars, with
their diminutive engines, penetrate
the hills, averaging an upgrade of IS
feet to the mile just before reaching
the Divide" fifty miles south OF
Denver, and glides like thing of life
q