Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1892-10-06

atlng the Ontario Ship Railway Com
pany. The project of this company is to
oelld three-track railway from Toronto
on Lake Ontario to Collingwood on
Georgian Bay in Lake Huron for the
purpose OF hauling lake vessels between
tnose Two points. The plans are sub
stantlally the same as those prepared
lor the Iehuantepec Ship Railway, prof.
ecCed by the late Capt James B. Eads,
and OF which Mr.. Corthell Is now the
engineer.
Simply stated the plans provide for
basins or docks at the terminals, which
can be emptied and filled at will, and
where the vessels can be floated on and
on the enormous car designed to trans
port them. On the car the vessels will
rest securely on cradles. The car itself
VIII De drawn by six or more powerful
locomotives.
From Toronto to Colllngwood the
proposed route is practically straight
line, but on the Tehuantepe, route
there are several reflections which give
rise to the necessity of building water
turn tables, it being impossible to haul
The long car around curves. At the
turn table the vessel is hoated. turned
In accordance with the direction of con-
Meeting line, reloaded, and sent on its
way
Mr.. Corthell said the completion of
the Ontario line would save 300 miles of
tortuous navigation through the st.
Slalf River, Lake Erie, and Niagara
falls- 1t would take directly from Lake
huron into Lake Ontario traffic which
now stops at Buffalo. Vessels from
chicago to Duluth drawing twenty feet
could go to Ogdensburg and down the
81. Lawrence, nearly 200 miles farther
east than they can go now.
Zen important ports on Lake On
tarlo and the whole Atlantic seaboard, !"
said Mr.. Corthell, would be vastly
benefited, to say nothing of the West
ana Northwest, because loads could he
carried SO much farther before breaking
bulk.
The length of the proposed line is
slxty-slx miles through q comparatively
level country, where no rock is en-
countered. Mr.. Corthelis estimate of
the cost ts SIS, 500, 600.
= Conception of the scheme.
The Ontario Ship Railway is devel-
opment OF the Ontario ship canal. As
lar back as 1876 an examination was
made Of the territory between the
Georgian Bay and Toronto by Mr..
hivas Tully, one of Toronto's best
known citizens, so as TO decide as to the
Feasibility of building a ship canal be-
tween these two points In 1851 and
1890 he made further examination. It
must here be borne in mind that this
was the old Indian route between Lake
Ontario and the north Mr.. Tully's
examination was made at the instance
of the Toronto Board of Trade. Col. r.
b Mason nr ChinooO IL.
along with Mr.. Tully in 1866, and maps
and plans Of the project were published
In 1858. The estimated cost of the
canal was fixed at $22170, $50. The
length OF the route by the way of Lake
Simcoe was 100 miles, with fifty locks
zoo feet in length, fifty-fve feet in
width, and twelve feet lift. A com
pany was formed in 1856 for carrying
on the project, but in 1865 the charter
was amended under the name of the
Huron and Ontario Ship Canal Com
pany.
In 1881 the late Captain James B.
Eads, one OF the greatest engineers in
the world OF his day, when projecting
the snip railway across the Isthmus in
Mexico, was requested by the Hon. d.
Blain, Mr.. Tully and others to give an
opinion as to the practicability of the
Ontario ship railway project. He pro-
nounced it entirely practicable, and
that the land was admirably suited for
the purpose. This opinion was given
by Captain Eads after considering the
matter for several years. The length of
the proposed road will be sixty-si
miles. There will be three tracks of
standard gauge, with rails Ito pounds
to the yard. Associated with Captain
Eads at the time was Mr. E. L. Corthell
OF Chicago, who is one of the promoters
OF the present road, and who is finish
ing the works projected by Captain
Eads and left unfinished. After exam
ming the route, and before becoming
one of the provisional directors, Mr..
Corthel read paper before the Cana
dian Society of Civil Engineers in 1891.
In this paper he discussed the various
schemes that occurred to him as likely
to relieve the congested condition of
the carrying trade from the West. In
this paper Mr.. Corthell, while not ex-
pressing any decided opinion, shows by
his conclusion that the Ontario ship
railway scheme is by far the most prac-
ucaole, the cheapest, and in fact the
only feasible one, while at the same
time holding out the promise of good
profits.
Huge Water Turntables.
Mr.. Corthell says he estimates, on
the basis OF ship railway of larger ca
pacity than was contemplated by Mr..
Eads, that is for vessels of displace-
ment weightof 5000 tons, with draught
of twenty feet, and the railway to be
capable of transporting during the navi-
cation season 5000 600 tons of traffic.
:" 1t is impractieable, except at great
cost, to build the railway on straight
line between the two terminal points.
There will necessarily be in the center
part OF the route two and perhaps three
reflections, tables for changing direc-
ton. The grades, as ascertained from
all available data, will be thirty three
feet per mile of u maximum, although
on the larger part Of the route the
grades will be eleven feet and fourteen
feet per mile. The summit to be sur
mounted is GO feet above the mean
level of Lake Ontario. The cost OF the
railway, fully equipped for the kind and
extent OF the traffic contemplated, is
SIS, $50, 31S.09
The work, Mr.. Corthell thinks. could
easily be finished in three years.
Better than a snip Canal.
A ship canal would undoubtedly serve
Il. a