The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-07-28
RAIL AND CROsSTIE.

General Passenger Agent W. NJ. David
son of the Sayennah. Florida and Western
railway, was in the city yesterday.
The Central railroad sleeper formerly
Leaving Savannah at $40 p. IN. for Mont
gomery via Macon and Columbus, has
been discontinued.
J. r. Kenly, general manager of the At
lautic Coast Line, has issued a circular
announcing the promotion of E. Borden to
la~.ii e intendent Of transportation of the
Is r.ington, Charleston and Columbia
rs with headquarters at Wilmington.
l- the full management of the Geor-
ga tacIfic from Greenviile, Miss. to
Atlanta. Ca, and the Columbus aud West
ern will be under the direct management Of
Supt. w. B. Ryder 1t has not been given
out whsther the assistant superintendent of
the Third district will be continued or not.
The Montgomery Advertiser SAYS of Mr..
Cecil Gabbett's trip to the southwest: THE
appearance of Mr.. Gabbett, late general
manager of the Central road, in this city,
has set the railroad circles alum with spec
ulations and rumOrs as to what this railroad
maQnate is going to do. Some seem to think
that he is making his Californian Mexican
trip with view of accepting the general
membership of some big system of south>
western railroads that may have been
offered to him recently. Others are of the
opinion that he is on more of a pleas
ure than prospecting trip. He wants
to see the west. They seem to think that
MIR. Gabhett would not accept a manager
ship in Mexico or whereabouts in preference
to the fat systems that are alleged to
have been offered to him in the north west.
Not few are looking askance at Mr.. Cab
belts actions, evidently anticipating his re-
turn to this section of the country to accept
what he wantS-a general managershlp. A
reporter saw Mr.. Gabbett at the Union de-
pot fer few minutes and asked him as to
his trip and mission He said he was en-
route for California and Mexico and that
his mission was that of business but of
what nature be didn't want to say right
then. He said further there was no truth
in the recent rumor that he had been offered
the general managership OF the Plant sys-
TEN. His stay was very brief, coming in
on the western road and leaving for New
Orleans on the Louisville and Nashville"
The highest railway in the world has just
been completed up the rugged sides of Pixies
Peak from Manitou, Col. Starting at an
elevation Of @ 400 feet above the line climbs
up by winding course 1850 feet to the
tremendous hight of Ia, l47 feet above the
sea. This requires q grade averaging $40
feet to the mile, with a maximum of l 1920
feet or 25 per ceut.-twenty or more times
sleeper than what may be called the aver
age steep grade on an ordinary railway.
OOiIJdi6u WIFI TIC ObuoE pTluClDhl
tain railways in the world, gays the Rail-
1cdy Age the climb Of the Pixies Peak road
is enormous Thus the Vitznau- Rigi rail-
way, in Switzerland, rises SAP feet,
TO hight of 5000 feet above the sea; the
Arth- Goldau line reaches the same level on
Mount Rigi by rise Of only 4, 1871 feet; the
Pilatus railway, on another Alpine noun
tain, climbs about $500 feet to hight of
something over 5000 feet; while the Mount
Washington railway, which has hitherto
been the marvel of railway mountain
climbing in this country, extends to an
elevation of only 6,293 feet by climb of
$3.50 feet. To be able TO ride IN a passen-
ger coach to point lacking only 1858 feet
Of being three full miles above the ocean
level, aud at this awful hight, in the
rariied air and amid the rocks and snow
wnich have hitherto maize the ascent Of
Fixes Peak q work of much labor and suf-
1erlng, to look out over the SUBMITS of the
Rocky mountains and the plains Of
Colorado. is wonderful achievement.
Probably the most unique railroad ever
built IN this country was The old Bradford
and Foster Brook. 1t connected Bradford
with Derrick City and was only five miles
long, but did an immense business during
the Doom days in the oil regions. II was
quilt IN 1876, and two years later went down
IN smash that killed a number of people
The road was appropriately named the Peg
Leg" from Its peculiar construction, for it
was built on stills, and passengers entered
the cars from the second stories of the STA
tons Frank Campbell the travelling aud
itor of the Plttsburg and Western. was one
of the officials OF the old Peg Leg and
gives the following interesting account of
its construction and how it was operated:
There was but one main rail, which
was of iron; but there were two auxil-
larry wooden rails. The main rail
ested on strong wooden beams supported
by massive stanchions strongly braced.
About two feet below the top beam were
two wooden rails about eight inches in
width which were securely nailed TO the
supporting stanchions. The wooden rails
were mainly for balancing purposes. The
hight Of the odd little road varied from
twelve to twenty-five feet, according TO the
lay of the land in the valley through which
1t was built. Without this elevation the
scheme of the inventor would have been
impossible. The cars fitted on the rails like
saddle bags, hanging down on
each side, and were really two-story
cars, the upper portion being used for pas
senger and the lower story for freight. The
grotesque-looking train was headed by
TWO engines, connected with each other,
one on each side of the main rail, the two
balancing like the cars. When the fireman
put on more coal he was obliged to descend
to the furnace by a ladder. The engines
and cars ran on set of central wheels,
which protruded through the floors into
wooden hoods put on to prevent their dam
aging passengers. The cars were narrow
aud the main rails were broad. Whenever
the car tilted, side wheels caught the
wooden rails aud aided to preserve the
equilibrium of the train.