The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1886-11-24
SOME NOVEL RAILROADS.
EXTRAORDINARY WAYS IN WHICH
TRACKS HAVE BEEN LAID.
A Railroad on Ice-Tracks Laid on
Tree Stumps, in the Air and 9th
crwise.

In small book entitled "Wonders
and Curiosities Of the Railway" the au-
thor, Mr.. w. S. Kennedy, touches on the
anomalous and entertaining features of
his sub Ject in chapters bearing such sug
gestive titles as 1.-The Lightning Har-
messed, 1.-THE Locomotive in Slippers,
"The Luxuries of Travel,n and "a
Handful of Curiosites." The average
reader, who has not made railway build
ing special study, will perhaps be as
tonished to learn that there have been
railroads, not only under the ground and
in the air, but among tree tops and on
the ice, while the model of even a sub
marine railway has been exhibited.
1t appears that some time ago a loco
motive on sled runners was constructed
in Scotland, and employed for drawing
passengers and freight over the ice be-
tween st. Petersburg and Cronstadt.
The two driving wheels in the rear were
studded with sharp spikes, whereas the
front part of the engine rested on a sled
which was swiveled, and turned to the
right or left by wheels working in con
nection with an endless screw and seq
ment rack. From this locomotive,
which is said to have run eighteen miles
an hour in any direction, the transition
is natural to railroads whose ties and
track have been laid on the frozen sur
face of rivers Mr.. Kennedy tells us
that in 1879, when the mercury stood
twenty degrees below zero, train of the
Northern Pacific railroad passed over
the Missouri River on ice three feet thick.
The pressure which the ice resisted may
be estimated from the fact that the track
was laid on twelve-foot ties, and that the
cars carried over a quantity of railroad
iron as well as a number of visitors.
About year after a similar road was
built across the river st. Lawrence at
Hochelaga. In this instance a rough
road-bed was first levcled in the ice /;
then crossbeams were fitted in, and upon
these were placed longitudinal beams
which were themselves crossed by the
ties that held the rails, water being then
pumped over the whole structure to
freeze it down.
Even more novel is the idea of grading
for a railroad through forest with a
crosscut saw, and laying the ties on the
stumps. This has actually been done in
Sonoma County in this State. Here the
trees were sawed off and leveled, and the
ties fastened on the stumps, two of which
were huge redwoods, standing side by
side, and sawed off seventy-five feet from
the ground. So firm is this support that
cars loaded with heavy logs can pass over
with perfect security. 1t is not generally
known that IN 1899 no less than fifty. two
miles of the projected road of the Ohio
Railroad Company was laid on wooded
piles which were from seven to twenty
eight feet long, and driven ten feet apart
in four rows. No train, however, was ever
run over this track. Several wooden
track railways, on the other hand, are
actually operated in the United States
and Canada. One of these, in the prov
ince of Quebec, is thirty miles long, and
is used in the transportation of timber.
The rails are of maple, and trains are said
to run over them with remarkable smooth
ness, at the rate of twenty-five miles an
hour. Another wooden-track railway,
more than fifteen miles long, has been
constructed on the grading of the aban-
doned South Carolina Central Railroad
in order to carry the products of turpen-
tine distilleries to amarket
Still more curious are what Mr.. Ken
nedy would call the bicycle railways,
where the car wheels run on a single
rail One called the ''steam caravan
was begun in Syria, between Aleppo and
Alexandretta, but apparently never fin
ished. In the case of this experiment
the rail was raised on a wall of masonry
twenty eight inches high. and seventeen
and one-half inches broad. On this one
rail were to travel the wheels of the To-
comotive and the carriages attached, but
it was intended to brace the engine and
the last car in the train by obliquely
placed leather-covered wheels, running
along the sides of the wall, which wheels
were further to serve as breaks. A single
rail, or bicycle railroad, has a'so been
built in the United States, and was in
operation at Phenixville, Penn, in 1876
Since that date two wheeled locomo-
tive has been made in Gloucester, n. j.,
for an elevated railroad in Atlanta, Ga.
With these bicycle engines may be COM
pared the railway velocipedes many of
which, we learn, are used on Western
railroads. These which have a wheel
ON each track, can be propelled by the
feet and hands of the rider at the rate
of twenty miles an hour.
There is nothing specially new in the
project of atmospheric railways, or, in
other words, of propelling carriages along
large tube by producing vacuum in
front and applying atmospheric pressure
behind. This device has not proved of
much practical value, though tubular
road of this kind was for a time in actual
operation at the Crystal Palace, Syden-
ham. The tube in this instance was of
brick, a quarter of mile long. nine feet
high and eight feet wide, and the car
within it was used only for the conve-
nience of passengers. The piston that
propelled the car was rendered almost
air-tight by means OF fringe Of bristles,
extending nearly to the surrounding
brickwork of the tunnel and to its floor.
A fan, worked by steam engine, both
exhausted and compressed the air. The
motion of the car was pleasant, and the
ventilation ample. In connection with
this branch of his subject, Mr.. Ken
nedy tells us that ga flying locomo-
tive" was made to Justify its name at
fka grammatical ovh;h;t;or !