The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-11-18
Mount Vesuvius.

The railway up Mount Gents was
completed in 1868, and upon it the trac-
ton of the engine was secured by two
wheels acting horizontally under heavy
pressure against middle rail. In the
railroad up Mount Washington, N. H.,
the traction is effected by Il cogged
wheel working in cogged rail. The
Mount Rigi railway in Switzerland is
on the same plan. 1t was opened for
traffic in 1873, OF some four yerrs after
its pattern. Now comes the Mount We
suyius railroad, in which old plans are
abandoned, and the cars are simply
pulled up grades as steep as GO feet in
100, and averaging Sc feet in 100, by
sheer strength of cables moved by a sta
tionary engine, just as the cars are
raised to the top of Mount Holyoke, IN
Massachusetts. and to the top of the in
clined planes on the "switchback" rail
roads of Pennsylvania. The Vesuvius
railroad would, doubtless, have been
sooner built if engineers had not deemed
it impossible to get rails to soil of so crum-
bling a nature on so steep grade. AS
built, thick platform of wood, not un-
like a gigantic raft. is laid over the
whole road bed, and the rails are thus
cleared of the shifting cinders, lava and
.atritus which make up the cone. The
station IS . feet under the lava, and it
is thought in case of eruption (the last
was in 1870 the destruction OF the rail
road would not necessarily follow.
Heretofore. to visit the volcano from
Naples it has cost some seven hours,
much fatigue and about - for each per
son; row the ascent Of the cone, the
worst OF the journey, requires only eight
minutes.
The first public trial Of this remarka-
bic line took place on June 9th. The
time of ascent occupies only eight min
utes: Oh foot it takes an hour and halt.
4 correspondent of the Times, who was
present en- the occasion, says: 1t must
be admitted that on this, the first pub
lie experiment, the boldest among the
many present confessed the necessity of
screwing their courage up to the stick
ing point before making the railway
-urney along a road steep as ladder
or a fire escape and $50 meters in length;
but as regards danger it is reduced to a
minimum. 1t is not a train in which
one travels, but a single carriage, carry
ing ten persons only, and as the ascend
Ing carriage starts, another counterDal-
ancing it comes down from the summit,
the weight Of eacl. being five tons. The
carriages are SO constructed that, rising
or descending, the passenger sits on a
level Lame, and whatever emotion or
| hesitation may be felt on starting,
changes before one has risen twenty
meters into Il feeling of perfect security.
| The motion also is very gentle, and the
effect is magnificent, if not indeed,
grandly awful, as when hanging mid
way against the side of tho cone, one
looks from the window directly upwards
or downwarda along the line, which, its
slight incline alone excepted, is perfectly
perpendicular. Dismounting at "a little
station at TIE submit, one can scarcely
be SAID to Chamber TO the edge of the
crater, for the company has cut con
venirnt winding path, up which all, ex-
cept the aged, heavy or feeble, can walk
with ease. The upper station was gaily
decled with a trophy OF flags Flags Of
all nations waved along each side Of the
line, and, after descending again to the
base Of the cone, we sat down, 40 IN
number, to a splendid banquet, spread
in a spacious and welappointed restau-
rant, established in kind OF Pompian
villa