Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1885-01-14
4 MOUNTAIN ROAD.
Heaviest Curves and Steepest Grades
in the World.
A Graphic Description Of the Route
from, IlecIa Station TO GAIA
raut, ON the Denver and
Rio Grande Road.
New York Times


ton in Browns canon, on the Denver q Rio
Grand. railroad, 10 Calamut, in the noun
/ tqfns.~ said II former enp,oye of that road,
! @lu. when YOU get TO Calamut you're just
! hall a mile higher up in tie world than you
! were at Hec.a That little branch has the
1 heaviest curves and the steepest grades of
I any railroad in the world that uses TIE ordiG
I arv driye-wheel Locomotive to run its cars
a grade If 200 feet to the mic and a
! fifteen degree curye-and that's almost Ike
taking tie same track lack when the cars
round it-are common On the mountain di
vision of the Rio Grande. but the Calamut
branch Easn't grade on it less than 400 feet
to the mic, and q twenty-five degree curve
is ne track at ali. That little road winds up
The face Of the mountain gulches
fer all the world as if it were an
immense snake twisting and coiliLg
Itself in the most capricious manner Why
here in TIE east, where they DRAG n train Of
cars upa plane with 10 feet or SO grade TO
the mile By means Of a wire rope and
let it run down the other side of the hill still
held by the rope, they think they have per
formed a wond erful feat in railroading, and
Eve known the newspapers 10 go Wild over
the marvel And see how writers use ~
their pens and artists their pencils describing
and picturing the wonders of the mountain
railroads of Switzerland. up which the train
tug and labor, aided by tin cable and cog
wheel system. But here's this stub-ani-
twist little Calanut branch, climbing up
into the clouds and on which the imIense
grade is overcome every day b. the SaE:a
kind of locomotive that they hood, on 10 an
express train here in New York and send
booming over the level country, and rot"dy
seems to have heard anything about it.
Il worked on this perpendicular string q:
rails three weeks. They call it carrying
the Eod out there when you hire cut to rGa
on the Calamut branch, for its about a
mar climbing a ladder from the Sidewalk Il
tla top of building rs anything YOU even
saw. | might have worked longer at it. be-
cause | rather liked the excitement, but one
day When we started from Calamut 10 whisk
down to Hecla, with a locomotive, seven
cars an engineer, fireman, and seven brake
men, and arrived there with one car and the
brakeman that was tn it, in just 10 minutes lie
car being the ore | rode On, and the brak,
man myself concluded that l woulj en-
gage in something where there wa, les ri <,
and went out with party to hunt 81 ,ux H.
dams You see the water brake on ;Ae c,;-
CINE and the steam brake OH the cas- ct =
little out of killer when were ahpl. h..
u answer the twist very well, ana from t..
time on a streak of lightning couldn't have
eau sht ON behind US One after another ia,
locomotive and six OF the ears shot az Of a
curve and took short route TO the bottom
Of the canon | don't know how it ever
happened, but my car stat on the rails, AMI
1 dropped down into Hecla like mete o-plite.
We'll. no; they don't make business Of
carrying passengers on that jacobs ladder
of a road. but guess they'll let any one ride
il lie thinks ne can hnli his breath long
enough to make the trip down the gu.ca
Calamut isn't much o. 4 place, being princi
paly hema:it. iron mine. The ore i; very
| rich, and the B,SScm.r furEa at Pueblo
must have it. | don't know whoever strug
| g.ed NJ there and found the mine but there
it is. seven miles away and half mile high
| They couldn't build n gravity road to it.
because the route up the canon was ever
lastingly crooked. There wasn't one railroad
| engineer out Of hundred hardly that
| thought locomotive could ever a ceni and
AMI descend the mountain and handle The
| ears safely. but there was no other possible
way To get al the mine and they cut tn. roe!
/ Along the face o: the canon and began to
| exp rim nj. The road Is a narrow .sIIa- e che
When they first began to operate the raa / If
4
property in the universe then there's no
! evidence of the fact in about s, o 600 worth
o. old iron. incaTacita;ei locomotive l.,iIars,
car wheels and tinhers. smokc tacks, hand
| brakes. anu suniry othr ds:utpGra-el sIeci-
mems OF rolling stock that IL hcaYej at the
| bottom OF the canon all along that seven
miles Of cloud sweeping railroad
| Well, after while they got tie hang Of
/ running the trains successfully on the road
| They found that. first they must use loco
| motIve' Of extraordinary weight and
, second, they must man the trains only with
mea who would stand 10 their posts at ali
| hazards. There is n brakeman on every ear
| The cars are something Ike coal cnrs. and
] carry five tons Of ore each They are
| equipped with air brakes and strong hand
brakes. The locomotive drivers are oheckeI
by the powerful hydraulic brake I: takes
an hour and half for the trip from Hecla
! % the mine summit. lui the down trip Is
| made in about fifteen minutes When tie
| train starts from the mins every brakeman
stands with his hands on his brake The air
| brakes are tightly set. the water brakes
! given their tighte>t grip on the locomotive
| wheels, and the locomotive Itself run; with
| the throttle reversed: yet against all this
/ friction the train thunders down III, noun
| dRsliing through narrow rock cuts. many Of
] them curved aln5st double, a: the rate # 4
| mile every two minutes
! No locomotive can take less than Eve
/ loaded cars down the canon. because
| any less resistance than that would De- IN
sufficient for the proper gripping OF the air
brakes on tn car wheels The men who
/ man the hand brakes must b simply bun
| dies OF mus sle and nerve. Their positive in
/ stfucilons are II work their brakes whenever
the air brakes fail and 20 stand NJ their post
| III ths face OF every risk and danger Il
| happens not a few times in the course # a
! year that these fearless fellows have 20 con
| tro! a. best they can some runaway train
and stick % II against the very likely chance
! that tie next curve they strike. xii. .oppls
1 them ears ami al, over the brink Of an
abyss the depths Of which the eve can
| scarcely penetrate and which yawu, di-
rectiy bensath the flying train / b. heve
these brakeman have succeeded in taking
l every runaway during the past year safely
/ down O. hecla junction.
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