News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-09-02
LIVELY RAILROADING.
EXCITING WORK FOR THE ENGI-
NEEKS OF THE CALUMET BRANCH.
A Road that Winds Around a Mountain and
Rises 400 Fe in NIiIe-TaIl stories
About the Way the Trains Come Down.

: A Road that Winds Around a Mountain and
Rises 400 Fe t in n NIiIe-Tan stories
About the Way the Trains Come Down.
cts a short seven miles from Hecla
Station in Browns Canon on the Denver
and Rio Grande Railroad to Calumet in
the mountains" said former employee
of that road, "but when you get to Cal
umet you are just half mile higher up
in the world than you were at Hecla.
| That little branch has the heaviest
curves and the steepest grades of any
railroad that uses the ordinary drive
wheel locomotive to run its cars in the
known world. 4 grade of two hundred
feet to the mile and a fifteen degree
! curve and that's almost like taking the
same track back when the cars round it
! are common on what is known as the
| Rio Grande road; but the Calumet
branch hasn't a grade on it less than
! four hundred feet to the mile. and a
.twenty-f five degree curve isn't any trick
at all That little road winds up the
! face of the mountain gulches for all the
world as ii it were an immense snake
| twisting and coiling itself in the most
capricious manner. Why. here in the
East, where they drag train of cars up
a plane with one hundred and fifty feet
/ or so grade to the mile by means of
wire rope, and then let it run down the
other side of the hill still held by the
rope, they think they have performed
wonderful feat in railroading, and l
have known the newspapers TO go almost
/ wild over the marvel.
"Well no; they don't make business
of carrying passengers on that Jacobs
ladder of road, but / guess they'll let
any one ride if he thinks he can hold
his breath long enough to make the trip
down the guldh. Calumet isn't much of
a place, being principally hematite
iron mine. The ore is very rich, and
! the BesSemer furnaces at Puebla must
| have it. l don't know who ever strug-
! gled up there and found the mine, but
! there it is, seven miles away and half
mile high. They couldn't build gray
/ ity road to it because the route up the
canon was SO everlastingly crooked.
| There WASH t one railroad engineer out
of hundred, hardly, that thought
locomotive could ever ascend and de-
scend the mountain and handle the cars
safely, but there was no other possible
! way to get to the mine, and they cut
the road along the face of the canon,
and began to experiment. The road is
a narrow guage one. When they first
began to operate the road, il it wasn't
| little the livelIest piece of railroad prop
erty in the universe then there is no ev-
idence of the fact in about $500, 600
worth of old iron, incapacltated loco
motive boilers, car whe Is and tImbers,
smokestacks, air brakes, hand brakes,
and sundry other disintegrated speci-
mems of rolling stock that lie heaped at
the bottom of the canon all along the
seven miles of this cloud-sweeping line.
The train men couldn't get the hang of
toDogganing on sleds down this gulch
along at first, and there wasn't day
passed but spectators down below would
catch sudden glimpse of train up the
face of the mountain as it dashed like a
thunderbolt from the mouth of some
rock cut, flying with the speed of the
wind, kept straight on its course, una
Bile to follow the windings of the track,
and leaped headlong from the precipice,
locomotive 'and cars crushing together
in midair, grinding themselves into a
million fragments, and laundering down
in one great heap of ruins at the bottom
of the canon, at least two thousand feet
below. They knew at Hecla that
the brakes had lost their grip, and that
the train had refused to wait for re-
pairs. The fellows generally managed
to jump when they found the air brake
had gone back on them, and there were
more broken bones carried down that
mountain, on their way to Hecla to be
mended, the first year this lively road
was OPP ned for business than they gen.
orally lug off of fair-sized battlefield.
| never heard of any of the boys stick
ing by runaway train in those days,
and taking their chances in the flying
leap IN the canon, and | guess only a
few were ever killed in jumping. This
Calumet Branch is so unpopular with
the officers of the Rio Grande that only
two of them ever experienced the ride
upon it from the clouds to the earth.
This was some years ago, and they new
er tried it again. Now, when the other
officers want to enjoy the trip, they sit
down and listen to the story of the two
who tried it, and turn pale and go home
satisfied.
"Well, after awhile, they got the way
of moving trains successfully on the
road. They found that, first, they
must use locomotives of extraordinary
weight, and, second, they must man
the trains only with men who would
stand at their posts at all hazards.
There is brakeman on every car. The
cars ae something like coal cars, and
carry five tons of ore each. They are
equipped with airbrakes and strong
handbrakes. The locomotive drivers are
checked by the powerful hydraulic
brake. 1t takes an hour and half to
make a trip from Hecla to the mine
summit. The down trip is made in
about fifteen minutes. When the train
starts from the mine every brakeman
stands up with his hands on his brake.
The airbrakes are tightly set. The wa
ter brakes get their highest grip on the
locomotive wheels. The locomotive it.
self runs with the throttle reversed Yet
against all this friction the train thund-
ers down the mountain, shooting around
the sharp curves, and dashing through
narrow rockcuts, MANY them curved
almost double, at the rate of mile
every two minutes. No locomotive can
take less than five loaded cars down the
canon, because any less resistance than
that would be insufficient for the proper
gripping of the air brakes on the car
wheels. The men who man the hand
brakes must be simply bundles of mus
cles and nerves. Their positive In
structiOns are to work their brakes
when yer the air brakes fail, and to
stand at their posts in the face of every
risk and danger. 1t happens not few
times in the course of a year that these
fellows have to control as best they can
some runaway train, and stick to it
against the very likely chance that the
next curve they strike will topple them
cars and all, over the brink of an abyss.
the depth of which the eye can scarcely
penetrate, and which yawns directly be-
meath the flying train. l believe these
brakemen have succeeded i'll taking
every runaway during the past year safe
ly down to HecIa Junction.
at is sight worth going a good
way to see to watch far below the COM
ing of one of these ore trains down the
mountain. The tight grip of the steel
brake shoes on the car and locomotive
wheels drives from every vince a con-
slant stream of fire, which cuts path
way of light all along the face of the
mountain, and, whirled about by the fly
ing wheels, takes the fantastic shapes
of some brilliant pyrotechnic display,
which is made sti more fantastic as the
flying line of fire follows the many con-
torting curves of the road, disappearing
in some yawning cut and flashing out
again SO close to the canon brink that
the scattering sparks drop into the