The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-12-26
SINKING SIX WEEKS.
A hole Without a Bottom IN the Allie
gheny Valley.
From the Pittsburo Dispatch.


gheny Valley.
From the Pittsburo Dispatch.
Yesterday the Allegheny Valley Railroad
Company increased its force OF laborers at
Johnston station, fifteen miles from the
Union depot. It is trying to surmonnt a
strange difficulty there. Before IL succeeds
it may have TO call into play more engineer
ing skill than was necessary to scale the
Allegheny mountains with the tracks of the
Pennsylvania railroad.
A hole has been discovered apparently
without any bottom. 1t is only about $50
feet long and about forty feet wide. For
six weeks the company has been trying to
ill this up. Every day, Sundays included,
it has dumped into it an average of thirty
carloads Of blast furnace Stag. The pit has
thus ingulfed 1860 carloads of the cinders,
which, on an average Of eight tons per car.
would make 10, 0S0 tons Yesterday, when
a reporter visited the spot, there was not the
slightest indication of where this vast
quantity of Stag had gone to. The ground
was still sinking beneath the workmen's feet
nearly three feet in twenty-four hours.
WHERE THE TROUBLE EXISTS.
From Hutton to Logan's ferry the val
ley railroad runs along what ia known as
"she narrows.h The roadbed was cut from
the side of a mountainous range of hills,
aud there is but one track. These hills are
the highest between Pittsburg aud Kittan-
ming. II is the steepest incline imaginable
from the summit to the waters edge. The
railroad trails along this hillside probably
thirty feet above the river. The trouble
lies midway between Hutton and Logan's
ferry.
Six weeks ago the edge of the embank-
ment near the river was leveled off, and
Stag unloaded at the spot for the purpose of
making" ground for the second track
which the railroad has projected. Next
morning the Stag had practically disap-
peared and another trainload was brought
up from the city. It's forty loads sank OUT
of sight in two nights time. Three or four
| trains we're then dumped in quick succession
| aud line of railroad track constructed
| over it's surface. II was of no use. The
| ground continued to sink and the railroad
siding went with it. It was feared that an
ugly job was on hand, and a gang of ten
men was stationed at the spot. 1t has
never left it since, being kept busy shovel
ing Stag and shifting cars, only to see the
earth swallow it all.
THE TRACKS SINKING ALSO.
The worst feature OF the trouble is that a
week ago the ground under the main track
ordered to ''slow up" upon approaching the
pitfall and pass over cautiously. Saturday
morning there was a sheer drop of seven
inches on the main track and a heavy
freight train was wrecked. Now two
watchmen make soundings on the track all
night, and the company is resortiug to
heroic measures to find the bottom of that
hole. The Stag OF all the furnaces in Pitts
burg will be dumped there but what it gets
81 stationary rOadbed
''Some days we put in forty carloads Of
slag,n said Section Boss Joseph Morgan,
yesterday, land some days only twenty.
Yes, thirty carloads per day for the past six
weeks would be a fair average In the
mornings we find the side track, and all the
ground between it and the main track, sunk
| from two to three feet. Lately it has been
sinking as fast as three feet every night. I
| am sure don't know where all the stuff has
gone. The ground practically sinks before
our eyes. Look here"
| And he took the reporter to the south end
of the break, and pointed to the ground
right at their feet. Sure enough, there was
a creyice, or crack, in the earth two inches
wide. Over the Stag every day is dumped
soma thirty or forty more carloads Of earth.
and it was In this earth that the crevice sp-
peared.
CAN ALMOST SEE IT GOING.
"That crack has come there since day
! light, sir" q workman said. 1t was then IL
| O'clock a. N. only.
"The main track does not sink quite that
much, - replied the section boss In response
| TO questions. "You see now have IL
really higher than the track beyond the
break. Well, that is TO allow for the
amount it will sink. By night it viii be
lower than the other part of the line. In
twenty-four hours, probably the main track
| sinks ten inches or foot. II you had an
accurate measure you would discover that il