The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-06-24
A NOVELTY IN RAILROADS.
The Ingenious scheme of a COnneetI-
cut Yankee Down I'm Florida.
From Harper's Weekly.


From Harper's Weekly.
There is now building in South Florida
railroad peculiarly novel IN form and
economical in construction.
The company constructing it is known
as the Avon Park transportation Company
and the road viii run from Avon park in
De Soto county 10 Haines City in Polk
county about 40 miles due north. The capi-
tai stock Is $500, with which sum the
promoters expect to build and equip the
road Up north" that amount would hard
~ build mile OF road. That IL can be made
TO build and equip 20 miles of track in
Florida opens up new era In railroad con-
structiOn.
The credit OF originating the new idea,
belongs largely to Mr.. J. c. Burleigh, a
Connecticut Yankee transplanted to Flor
Ida, and now superintendent of the new
line that is being constructed. Last fall
Mr.. Burleigh was manager Of a steam saw
mill in Avon Park. The timber for a mile
around his mill had been cut and hauled
TO his saw mill by mule power. and could
no longer be furnished proftably by this
means. Either he must move his mill far
Their out into the forest, or find some other
agent Tor transporting logs. He sent an or
uer 10 the Lima locomotive machine works
for one of their 12-tOn Shay locomotives.
When word came that she was at Bow
ing Green, the nearest railway station, q
miles distant, Mr.. Burleigh went to Bow
ing Green with q force of u men, a cook,
camping outfit, and stock of by and
by timbers, built an inclined plane of
trestle work flush, with the floor of the box
car on which the locomotive lay, and on
this laid a tramway of the by rails,
which led down to the earth and out into
the forest. Then he Slowed the Crosby, as
Na loo 80
head pointed to the east, got her wheels,
which have an eight-inch tread, upon the
trans, and told his engineer to give her
steam. He did so, and inch by inch she
came down the trestle TO solid earth as
gracefully, if not as quickly, as a ship
launches herself from the ways into her
natural element When she had steamed TO
the end of the tramway, the rails behind
were taken up and laid down again in 'front.'
and in this way over creeks,
through marshes and sWamps, and the
comparatively level surface of the fiat
woods, she made her way in nine days to
the park. There an ovation was accorded
her. The citizens assembled to greet her,
the bells rang, the whistle footed, the band
played, Speeches were made, and great en-
thusiasrh was displayed
The motor had been moved so success
fully over the wooden tramway that il
suggested to Mr.. Burleigh a similar de-
vice for his logging road. For this he took
by beams and laid them in the sand
without cross ties, the ends being Joined
by wooden fishplates. Rails and fishplates
were held together by wooden pins IS
inches long, driven through both and into
the ground,
This road has now been in operation sew
eral months, without repairs and without
accident, although about 20 heavy logging
trains day run over it; the rails quickly
embedded themselves in the sand, which
packs about them and holds them firmly in
place.
When in January last the Avon Park
Transportation Company was formed, Mr..
Burleigh was elected superintendent, and
proposed building the new road on the lines
laid down in his logging road, Offering to
take any doubling Thomas over the line
and give him oocHiar demonstration of its
safety and efficiency. His plan, was adopt
ed, and the road is now being built
through the primeval forest to Haines CT
ty, where 1t will connect with the Plant
system for Jacksonville and the north.