Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-04-04
THE NEW SIBERIAN RAILROAD.
Old American Locomotives Operating
on the Section Completed.

Old American Locomotives operating
on the Section Completed.
Mrs. Bishop in st. James Gazette:
After returning to ~NladivorstOk. l
made the trip, as lar as it is at present
open, by the Ussuri railway (the east
ern section of the Trans-Siberian line)
to this hamlet on the Ussuri river.
Few things in Siberia have surprised
me so much as this railroad and the
country through which it passes. The
eastern TERMINUS is close to the sea-,
and the government deep-Water pier
below the town. The station is large
and very handsome. of dark-gray
granite, with the architraveS of the
windows and doors in red brick. Buff
fets and all else are in efficient work.
ing order. The administrative offices
are also of stone, and very spacious
and handsome. At present only third
and fourth-class cars are running, the
latter chiefly ~patronized by Cinnamon
and Coreans. Each third-clasS salon
is divided into three compartments
with a corridor, and has a lavatOry
and steam-heating apparatus. The
backs of the seats are raised to form
upper berths for sleeping, and as the
cars are nine feet high they admit of
luggage sh>1r~ IS above these.
TTne engines which run the traffic at
present are old American locomotives.
Those which will shortly be intro
duced, along with all the rolling stock,
are manufactured in the Baltic prov
inces. SO also are the rails, the iron
bridges, the water tanks, all b iron
work required for stations, and all
else. Large railway workshops, with
substantial houses for artisans, have
been erected at the prosperous town OF
Nikolskoye, sixty miles from Vladi-
vostok, for the repairs Of rolling stock
on this Ussuri section, and are already
in full activity. There is nothing
about this line of the newness and
provisional aspects which distinguish
American lines, not even excepting
some parts of the Canadian Pacific
railroad. The track is already bal
lasted as far as Ussuri, about 1856
miles; steel bridges span the minor
streams; substantial stations, either of
stone or decorated wood, with we'll
kept buffets, at fixed distances, sue
~cesSful1y compete as to stability and
appearance with those on u branch
lines. The tank houses are of heWn
stone. The houses for the employees,
besides being decorative, are most sub
stantiaI, being built of logs and
10~onn+ Dnin+AI with fT-n annfC of
paint. Culverts and retaining walls
are of solid masonry; telegraph wires
accompany the road, which is worked
strictly on the block system. The
crossings are we'll laid and protected.
The aspect of solidity and perma-
hence is remarkable. Even the tenn
porary bridge here over the UsSuri,
1850 feet in length-a trestle bridge
of heavy timber to resist the impact
of the ice-is so solid and massive as
to make the great steel bridge, the
granite piers for which are already
built. appear a work of supererOga-
ton. Up to this point there are no Sc
we're cuttings or entertainments and the
gradients are easy. The cost Of con-
struction is $4,000 rubles (ruble now
equals a dollar per verst $500 feet.
This includes rolling stock, stations,
etc, and all the bridges, except those
over the Amur, Yenesei, etc. The
Amur bridge is to cost 5000, 900 rubles.
Convict labor has been abandoned
and Chinese act the part of navyies.
earning about 50 cents a day. The
work is to go Oh throughout the win
ter, and at this moment about two
hundred men are working here in a
severe snowstorm. The line as far as
NikoIskoye, 102 yersts, was opened
thirteen months ago, and earned
within a year 100000 rubles. The
last 103 versts have only been open
eight weeks, and speed is strictly