Wichita eagle., 1886-09-22
9ai19 r. eagle
LIVELY RAILROADING.
EXCITING WORK FOR THE ENGINEERS
OF THE CALUMET BRANCH.

OF THE CALUMET BRANCH.
A Road that Winds Around a Mountain
and Rises 100 Feet in a Mile-The
Way the Train Comes Down-A Leap
Into a Canyon 1000 Feet Deep.
"It's short seven miles from Hecla station
in Browns canyon, on the Denver and Rio
Grande railway, to Calumet in the noun
tains," said former employe of that road,
"but when you get to Calumet you are just
half mile higher up in the world than you
were at Hecla. That little branch has tho
heaviest curves and the steepest grades of any
railroad that uses the ordinary drive wheel
locomotive to run its cars in the known world.
A grade of 200 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 olrwhat is known as the Noun
tain division of the Rio Grande road; but the
Calumet branch hasn't grade Oh it less than
400 feet to the mile, and a twenty-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 if it were an immense snake
twisting and coiling itself in the most CAPRI
ciouS manner.
TOBOGGANING OK THE RAIL.
Il worked on the perpendicular string of
rails for three weeks. They called it carry
ing the hod' out there when you hire out to
work on the Calumet branch, for it's about
as near like climbing ladder from the side
walk to the top of building as anything you
ever saw 1 might have worked longer at it,
because rather like the excitement, but one
dow xybar ct rtaJ from Caluu1pt fO yhiSl<
down to Hecla with locomotive, seven cars,
an engineer, fireman and seven brakemen,
and arrived there with one car and the brake
man that was on it in just ten minutes-the
car being the one rode On and the brakeman
myself concluded that l would engage in
something where there was less risk, and went
out with a party hunting Sioux Indians.
You see, the water brake on the engine and
the steam brake on the cars got a little out of
lsilter when we were about half way down,
and the hand brake didn't seem to answer the
the twist very well, and from that time on a
streak of lightning couldn't have caught cn
behind US One after another the locomotive
and SIX OF the cars shot off OF the curves and
took q short route to the bottom of the
canyon don't know how it ever happened,
but my car stayed on the rails and dropped
uONU lltO I1cCld Ike q iilcttoiciltt
"Well no; they don't make business of
carrying passengers on that Jacobs ladder of
a 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 gulch. Calumet
isn't much of a place, being principally
henatite iron mine The ore is very rich,
and tho Bessener furnaces at Puebla must
have it, don't know who ever struggled up
there and found the mine, but thero it is,
seven miles away and half a mile high. They
couldn't build gravity road to it because
the route up the canyon is SO everlastingly
crooked. There wasn't one railroad engineer
out Of hundred, hardly, that thought loco
motive could ever ascend and descend the
mountain and handle the cars safely, but
there was no other possible way to get at the
mine, and they cut the road along the face of
the canyon and began to experiment. The
road is a narrow gauge one. When they
first began to operate the road, if it wasn't a
little the iveliest piece of railroad property
in tho universe then there is no evidence OF
the fact in about S300,000 worth of old iron,
incapacitated locomotive boilers, car wheels
and timbers, sinokestacks, air brakes, hand
brakes and sIndry other disintegrated speci-
mems of rolling stock that lie heaped at the
bottom of the canyon all along the seven
miles Of this cloud-sweeping line.
CRASHING TOGETHER IN MID AIR
"The train men couldn't get the hang of
tobogganng on sleds down this gulch along
at first, and there wasn't day passed but
spectators down below would catch a sudden
glimpse of train up the face Of the noun
tain as it dashed like q thunderbolt from the
mouth OF some rock cut, flying with the
speed Of the wind, kept straight on its course,
unable to follow the windings of the track,
and leaped headlong from the prccipice, loco
motive and cars crashing together in mid air,
grinding themselves into million fragments,
and laundering down in one great heap Of
ruins at the bottom of the canyon, at least
:, 900 feet below. Then they knew at Hecla
that the brakes had lost their grip, and that
the train had refused to wait for repairs The
fellows generally managed to jump when
they found the air brake had gone back on
them. ard there were more broken bones car
ried down that mountain, on their way to
Hecla to be mended, the first year this lively
road was opened for business than they gen
orally lug off of fair sized battlefield. This |
Calumet branch is so unpopular with the
officers of the Rio Grande that only two of |
them ever experienced ride upon it from
the clouds TO the earth. That was some years
age, and they never 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 ct ell hazards |
There is a brakeman on every car. The cars
are something like coal cars and carry five |
tons of ore each. They are equipped with |
air brakes and strong hand brakes. The loco /
motive drivers are checked by the powerful |
hydraulic brake. 1t takes an hour and a |
half to make the trip from Hecla to the mine
summit The down trip is made in about fif-
teen minutes. When the train starts from
the mine every brakeman stands with his
hands on his brake. The air brakes are tight
ly set. The water brakes get their tightest
grip on the locomotive wheels. The locomo-
tive itself runs with the throttle reversed
Yet against all this friction the train thunders
down the mountain, shooting around the
sharp curves, and daShing through narrow
rock cuts many Of them curved almost double,
Mt the rate of a mile every two minutes. The
men who man the hand brakes must be sim
ply bundles of muscles and nerves. Their posi-
tive instructions are to work their brakes
whenever the air brakes fail, and TO stand at
their post in the face of every risk and dam
ger. 1t happens not few times in the course
Of year that these fearless fellows have to
control Us 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 eve can scarcely tene-