The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-06-12
Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch1
Railroad Notes.

THE VALLEY RAILROAD N BOTETOCRT AND
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OF TIE VALLEY
PIKE LASTISG-IT ALIAE SToNE.CUTTERS
FROM MOUNT CENIS-RAILROAD MEN: HOW
THEY LlvE-CoSGREssIOSAL CAMPAIGN.
AMSTERDAM, BoTETorRT COUNTY.
June TO- 1874.
jogging Ieisurely along the Valley railroad
| between Salem lin ROanOke) and the Rock
bridge county line at Roaring run, the writer
| was surprised 10 see the extent to which that
| work has been pushed, and that, too, III the
face of 50 many difficulties. Old railroad
| men say they have never had such untavor-
| able weather for work rs has been eXpe-
rienced this spring.
In one month, with the most Careful
piecing and splicing, contractor only made
| ten whole working days, and half that time
| the men in mud to their knees, and the mules
| into it bely.deep. The stringency of money
has been seriously felt, though the hands
| have been paid otfpretty regularly. While the
counties of Botetourt and Roanoke are assist
| ing in the embarrassment by contentious
with regard to their subscriptions. Still the
work has gone on. Some very heavy work
| has been done, and contractors say if they
could be allowed to 60 ahead as fast rs they
wish, all the heaviest could be completed by
Christmas
1t is dangerous undertaking to travel
with a green horse along the macadam pike
| through these counties. That excellent
road-in fact, 0 III only good roads ruined
BY the railway crossing and re'cros>lng or
running parallel with it for long stretches.
| The engineers of the two roads, though OF
| different generations, must have studied in
| the same school, Judging from the similarity
| of their views as 10 grades and straight lines,
curves and crossings, and the consequence
will be many 4 runaway team and smashed
vehicle, iuterspersed with bruises and bro
ken bones, and an occasional Fatality when
| the steam-horSe actually comes in conpetl-
| ton with the quadrupcdal equlneS.
At this stage Of the work the traveller on
| the Valley pike may expect to be halted 4
half.dozen times a day by the hands running
| out of cut near by haIlooiny to you to
"Stop-a blast is going off," You jump out
Of your vehicle, run to your horses head,
and wait in delightful suspense for the cN-
plosion, in bli>sful ignorance whether 1t Is
one, ten, twenty, or fifty kegs Of powder
that is about to explode within short dis
lance of you. But if one is not struck by q
flvng fragment Of limestone. and ones horse
does not run away, he is repaid by the sight
Of the sudden eruption Of earth and stone
enyeloped in cloud Of dust aud smoke
rising high in the air; then the loud report
and trembling of the earth beneath him, fol-
lowed by another report and another in quick
succession. The flying rock, and the smell
of powder, and pillows of smoke, are strik-
ingly suggestive to an old soldier of stirring
scenes but too recently enacted on fields OF
blood and carnage.
TarryiDg for while on the works of
Messrs. Menifee, Langhornc & Ballard the
writer was much entertained by closer
inspection of the cuts and fills, the culveFts
and bridges and quarries, and learned some
thing about blasting. He saw some twenty
kegs of powder, twenty-five pounds each,
rammed into q hole thirty-tire feet deep,
which, being exploded, threw out enough
dirt and stone to keep the force two weeks
| at work removing. An old veteran cOntrac-
| tor, late of the Chesapeake and Ohio rail-
road, said that was child's play to some of
their blasts on New river; spoke of blast
of three hundred kegs, known as the "big
blast" which was made on Hobe.zelFs work,
near Hawks Nest. The cost of the powder
used in this blast was 81 800, and the work
5000, making $1,000 total expense. Seven
thousand five hundred pounds of powder
were exploded, and fifteen thousand square
yards of dirt and stone removed.
By another blast of $50 kegs, scientifically
applied at Suites Cliff, on New river, the
whole cliff was torn away, hurled down the
mountain into the river, where the water
was twenty feet deep, and lay there in the
river, twenty feet above the surface of the
water, having raised the water ten feet on
the opposite shore when it fell. How is that
for high?
Menltee & Co. have fourteen miles from
Salem to TroutyilIe, and are pushing their
work with a vim. They are having some
beautiful masonry done by the Italian stone
cutters lately from the famous Mont Gents
tunnel. Their work will compare in beauty
and finish with any similar work in the
country. They are about commencing work
on the high bridge across Mason's creek
near Salem. This will be fine structure
and will require year or more to build it.
Your correspondent bad an idea that these
railroad men lived sort Of half civilized
life in their rough shanties, among their
mules and niggers, exposed to the heat and
cold of the seasons, and carrying with them
the dust and dirt of their work till their
contract was finished, when they would wash
oil, scrub up, put on clean clothes, and come
out into civilization again. But we were
agreeably surprised to find them living like
white fOlks-their wives and children with
them chose who are SO fortunate as to have
wives and children), with the comforts anc
even luXuries of lite around them, and dis
pensing the hospitalities OF their establish
ments in lavish Old Virginia style.
The last work we visited was that oil
Shannahan s. Mckendree, which extends
nineteen miles from near Waskey's mill te
Shaner's, in Rockbridge-h headquarters n
Roaring run. We were pleased to meet here
our old friend Major McKendree, of tht
First brigade, Breckenridge division, whom
we had not seen in the flesh since the crue
war was over" The Major displays tn
same energy, system, and good government
in the management of his mixed force Q
Italians, senegnmbians, lrishrnen, and othe
employees, and bis scores of mules, that b