The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1891-04-04
A PERUVIAN RAILWAY.
Expensive TO Run and Repair because q
High Hills and Many Freshets.

Expensive To Run and Repair because Il
High Hills and Many Freshets.
The Oroya road is q very remarkable
piece OF engineering work: executed, per-
haps, not wisely but too well. The diff
culties ~surlllountcd are enormous. The
constructor, an American, Henry Meiggs,
used to say, ] was told, at certain arduous
points, "The line has to go there, and it
we can't find a road for it We'll hang the
track from balloons" This remark illus
trates the bold1,ess aud almost reckless
ness with which the line has been built,
and even now, fine as the work is, it is in
constant danger of destruction in many
parts. Every year sections of the line,
bridges and viaducts are swept away by
floods and landslips which cannot be fore
seen.
A w~aterspout bursts on a mountain peak,
an immense volume of water, mud and
powders dashes down, and half an hour
later all is calm again; but the railway
track has disappeared, or one of the
bridges will be found twisted into q Knot
half a mile away from its proper place.
For this reason the line must always be
very expensive and difficult to keep in re-
pair. The working of it is also very ex-
pensive on account of the high price of
coal and the quantity wasted by the con-
tinuous firing required to force the train
up the steep gradients.
AS it is, the locomotives lave % inch
cylinders, ind the steam pressure all the
way has to be kept at 140 pounds to the
square inch. The maximum train is five
cars, weighing eight tons each and carry
ing ten tons of cargo: and in order to drag
this weight from Lima to Chicla the loco
motive burns seven tons of first class En-
glish coal. The maximum gradients are 4
per cent. and the maximum curves 120 me-
ters radius. This radius is found in all the
tunnels, of which there are forty between
Lima and Chjcla, the longest measuring
29G meters. The number of bridges is six
teen, the longest being the Verrugas via
duct. The total distance from Callao to
Chicla, where the rails end, is 8G11I miles.
The Oroya line, on which the Peruvian
loan in 1870 of Is, so, 900 sterling was ex-
pended, was not finished for want of funds,
and the portion of it that was completed
has never paid. The original idea was to
carry the line to LII Oroy;. in the transan
dine province of Junin. andthe survey and
much of the carthwork and tunnels were
executed before the money gave out in
1873. The summit tunnel through the
Paso de Galera, between LOO and 1000
meters long, is open, and from the plains
it appears to be an interesting piece of
work, being OIL Il vertical curve, with 81.
per cent. gradients on the Pacific slope of
the Cordillcra, and just enough for drain
age on the Atlantic Slope, where the line
runs for 81. kilomctcrs with gradients of
from 2 To ! per cent, and then for the rest
of the distance to La Oroya, 43 kilometers
over easy ground.
The summit tunnel of the Puso lie Gal
ERA is the iifty-eighth from Lima: il is dis
art from Callao by the rails 104 miles,
ans. stands at a height of 4,Sl4 meters, or
Ii, 7C0 feet above the level OF the sea, thus
making the Oroya the highest of all the
projected transandine NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Child in Harper's.