Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-06-02
THE CHANGE Of GAUGE.
THE WORK ACCOMPLISHED AND
TRAVEL REsUMED TODAY.

sTHT, WORK ACCOMPLISHED AM
TRAVEL RESUMED TODAY.
Thirteen Thousand Miles OF Road Adop
Uniform Gauge-The Change o. th'
savannah. Florida and Western and
on the Central Made in a Few Hours
The Regular Schedules to be ResuIne &c
this Morning.
The great work OF changing the gauge
OF upwards Of 1900 miles of railway in
the south from the 5-foot TO the feet
inch gauge, was completed yesterday
There was a general suspension Of traYe
on Monday night and yesterday every
thing was at a staudstill.
The details of the gigantic work were
mapped out and agreed upon at meeting
of the general managers and officers
of about thirty Of the leading
Southern lines, held in Atlanta last
February. Since then the shops OF
the various roads have been busy gather
ing their rolling stock and preparing Tor
the change. The gauge that was adopted,
and which has now been made the uni
form gauge OF all roads south OF the ohio
river, is that Of the Pennsylvania rail-
road, which is half an inch broader than
the standard gauge.
AN UNIFORM GAUGE.
Beginning to-day a standard gauge car
can be run over almost every mile Of rail-
way in the United states, with the eXcep-
tiOn OF few thousand miles by the 3-feet
gauge, which still remains unchanged.
The latter gauge has rapidly disappeared
within the last few years, and now re-
mains on only few roads, and most of
these are comparatively isolated from the
other railways Of the country.
There has been an almost total suspcn-
sion OF rail travel throughout the South
( since Monday night. The fast mail from
the North was tue only mail that reached
: Savannah yesterday. The ticket agents
( did not have very hard work selling
tickets, nut they had about all they could
do answering questions. At the depOts
there was very little stirring. and the
yards were empty. Tee work was being
done along the line.
THE s., F. AND W. ROAD.
The Savannah, Florida and Western
started q gang Working south from the
Charleston junction at an early hour.
( The two miles from the junction into the
J city was not touched until : O'Clock, for
I 1t had to wait until the fast mail got in
from Charleston. Work was pushed rap
idly, and by a few minutes after II O'Clock
the line was open to Jacksonville. The
noon, and there was nOdelay in starting the
North. bound fast mail out. Some delay
was caused in the yards in this city by
some cars getting OF the track during
the morning, but no damage Of importance
was caused.
THE FIRST TRAIN SOUTH.
The SOuth-6ouDd fast mail was the first
train to pass over the entire line between
Savannah and Jacksonville after the
change. IL arrived in Jacksonville at I
O'Clock last night only seven hours late.
The NOrth-bOund mail ran on the regular
schedule to Waycross. After passing
that point some time was lost on account
OF hot boxes, but the train reached Sa-
vannah within forty-fVe minutes OF the
regular hour.
The movement OF freight began last
night. and to-day everything will be
moving as though there had been no in-
terruptiOn.
Tue Charleston and Savannah started
its FIRST train North at asp. M, but the
line was not open all the way through
until late 10 the afternoon.
THE CENTRAL SYSTEM.
The Central had several divisions
changed as early as 1880 o'clock IN the
morning, and few minutes after 80
O'Clock the entire system had been
changed. The service trains were run over
} the road in the afternoon, and last night
and this morning the regular schedule Will
be resumed. The first tram to arrive over
the new gauge on the Central will be the
Atlanta express, due here at 4:07 this
afternoon. The work was finished in
better time than it was expected it would
be and with very little delay. The prep
aration was thorough. Every detail was
mapped OUT aud every contingency was
provided for, and the work was accom-
plished In most satisfactory manner.
AT OTHER POINTS.
An Augusta special says all roads GEN.
tering there, except the A., G.. d s. and
the Port Royal aud Central branch, which
had previously changed, narrowed their
gauge to the standard measure yesterday
The work was completed by O'Clock p.
m. Trains ran over the lines last night,
and schedules will be obeyed to-day.
ACBarleston special to the NEWS says
work on all roads leading into Charles
ton began at 4 O'Clock 10 the morning and
was completed last evening. The change
was made with little interruption to
travel, and trains were all running on
regular schedules last night.
NO ACCIDENTS REPORTED.
An Atlanta dispatch says: The
changing OF the gauge of the railroads in
Georgia Was successfully completed to-
day. The change is from . feet 10 tho
standard gauge of feet inches. The
number OF miles was nearly 5000 COM
posed principally of the Central railroad
system, the East Tennessee, Virginia and
Georgia railroad, Western and Alta 1tic
railroad, Georgia railroad, Atlanta and
West Point railroad, Atlanta and Char
lOtte division Of the Richmond and Dan
Vile railroad, the Georgia Pacific road the
Savannah, Florida and Western railway,
and the Brunswick and Western railroad.
Tne change was begun at daybreak this
morning and by noon was finished. BY 6
O'Clock this evening nearly all the regu-
lar schedules were resumed. In some in
stances delays to travel were merely
nominal, while in others twenty-four
bours were lost. No accidents were re-
ported. The change was a subject OF
general interest, and il is regarded as OF
great benefit TO commerce IN the south.
The total number Of miles changed in the
south was 1900, leaving 1000 to be
changed IN the next few days"
The Fords' initial Performance.