Wichita eagle., 1889-07-11
RAILROADS IN INDIA.
SIXTEEN THOUSAND MILES OF
TRUNK LINES IN HlNDOSTAN.


Wretched Arrangements In the Passenee
Cars-Ants That Eat the Wooden Tie
and Telegraph Poles.
India has now sixteen thousand mile
of railroad 1t is as far from Calcutta K
Bombay as it is from New York to Den
yer, and several trunk lines run acros.
Hindostan from one city to the other
There are branches from these which g
up the Himalaya mountains almost K
the borders Of Thibet, and others which
shoot off to the Khyber Pass at the en-
trance to Afghanistan and not grea
distance from the new Russian railway
which has been pushed on past Samar
cand The day will come when we car
travel from London to Calcutta by rail
though this presupposes the cutting OF :
tunnel under the English channel South
India has many long miles of railroads
and the whole of Hindostan, which il
half the size of the United States, has {
railroad net covering it The oonstruc
ton Of these railroads has included en-
cheering works fully as grand as the
railroad making of the United States
and the keeping Of them in order is more
difficult.
WOOD EATING ATS.
One of the great plaques Of Indian rail
road makers is the white ant. These in
sects eat every dead thing in wood form
above ground. If pile of wooden tes
i,f loft <T,f< s,ffanl- IF
will have carried it away by morning,
and there is no possible storage of wooden
ties. Such ties as are in the roads are
saved from destruction by the vibration
caused by the running trains, which
scares the ants away. 1t Is the same
with telegraph poles and fences, and the
result is that the ties of most of the rail
roads are made of iron. l have Travelled
about three thousand miles over all kinds
of railways in India. The telegraph
poles on many of the lines are hollow
tubes of galvanized iron, about as big
around as the average mans calf, Sc
made that they fit into one another and
form pole about ten feet high. To these
poles the lines are strung, and many OF
the roads use such poles throughout their
entire length.
On other lines the telegraph poles are
T iron rails, the same as those on which
the car travels. Two Of these rails are
fastened together by bars about foot
wide and then this iron lattice work is
set deep in the ground and the wire strung
upon it. About some of the stations the
fences are made Of such iron rails, and
through hundreds of miles along one of
the rajah's railroads in Western India
found fences of barbed wire with sand
and about four inches thick, and they
stood about three feet above the ground.
The wires ran through holes in them and
the railroad men tell me that they are
much cheaper than wood.
TIE MAGNIFICENT DEPors.
lam surprised at the magnifcence of the
depots in India. Here at Bombay there
is finer railroad station than any we
have in the United States. 1t cost about
900, 600, and INTELLECTUALLY it is the
peer of any building at Washington. AT
Calcutta there are small depots and even
at the smallest of the towns you find
well made stone buildings surrounded
by beautiful gardens, in which bloom all
kinds of tropical flowers. Nothing about
these stations is made Of wood. The
platforms are of stone flied in with &C.
ment, and the cars run into the stations
on plane about two feet below the floor,
and so that the floor Of the cars is just
even with that Of the depot. Each sta
ton has its first, second and third class
waiting room, and everything in India
goes by classes.
The cars are first, second, third and
fourth class, and they are all on the Eng
fish plan. They are about two-thirds
the length Of our cars and trif1e wider.
They are not SO heavy as the American
passenger coach and they look more like
wide, long boxes than anything else.
Each of these cars is divided into COM
partments. In the first and second class
there are only two compartments to the
Car, and the chief difference in these two
classes is in the number allowed in the
compartment. If you will imagine a
little room about 10 feet long by wide,
with roof feet high, in the center Of
which there is glass globe for hight.
you may have some idea Of the Indian
first class car. You must, however, put
two long, leather covered, cushioned
benches along each side Of this room
and at the ends of these have doors with
glass windows In them, opening inward.
Over the cushioned backs of the benches
there are windows which let up and down
like those of the American street car,
and which are of the same size. The car
has none of the finish Of the American
Pullman, and though you are expected
to sleep within it, there are no signs Of
bedding or curtains. At the back Of If
there is lavatory. without towels, soap
or brushes, and there is barely room
enough for you to turn around in i,
when you are washing. The second
class cars are much the same, and there
may be one second class car and one first
In the same coach.-Frank G. Carpenter.