The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-11-02
cANADA's QUEER RAILROAD.


No Locomotives and No Cars, and but
Little Roadbed Above the Right of
Way.
Persons who have recently returned
from the north shore and Lake Superb
or declare that the Port Arthur, Du-
luth and Western railroad, which runs
from Port Arthur southwest to the in
ternational boundary line, is without
an equal in the world In construction,
in location, in maintenance, in opera
ton, and in management it stands in
comparable.
1t is probably the only railway in the
world that neither owns nor leases roll
ing stock. Its roadbed wends it's pic
turesque and irregular way through an
uninhabited country-a vast stretch of
swamp and barren land covered with a
dense growth of spruce, tamarack and
balsam-until 1t reaches the terminus
at Gun Flint Lake, where there is
flourishing city inhabited by three per-
sons. These live by trapping and hunt
ing in the. streets of the future me-
tropolis" of the Pigeon River country.
This road is a result of the fostering
paternalsm of the Canadian govern
ment. 1t occurred to some one that it
was easier to take money out of the pa
ternal Dominion's treasury than it was
to dig it out of the bowels of the earth
in the gold mines of the Rainy Lake
country, whose resources were to be
opened UP by means of the railroad,
So the Parliament voted a subsidy of
several thousand dollars for each con-
structed mile. When the building of
the road began it was intended to have
it connect with an American line and
form q through rail route from Port
Arthur to Duluth, while the main line
was extended to Rainy Lake and Lake
of the Woods. If the subsidies had held
out long enough the road would I'M
doubtedly have been finished as pro-
jected But the subsidies We're ex-
hausted all too soon, and the contrac-
tors were not inclined to put the prof
It's from the construction of the first
half into the remainder. Seventy miles
of road were built, and the boomers of
the road won an enviable distinction in
constructing that much. They made
money In the actual building. To ac-
complish this it is said that the en-
bankments were built up of logs and
brush, and that all the debris of the
sIovenly cleared right of way was con-
cealed by a. sprinkling of earth. The
cuts were roughly gouged out of rock
andNearth, and We're never within a foot
of the depth demanded by the grade.
The bridges, instead of being supported
on trestles, We're placed on supports
made of cribs of timber piled up to the
required height. The rails, which were
probably worn out before they were
turned over to this company, are laid
on ties which ought to be twice as nu-
merous.
Considering these conditions, it is no
wonder that the contractors dreaded
the inspection of the government COM
mission, upon whose report depended
the payment of the subsidy. BY pur-
suing dilatory policy they were able
to delay the commissions visit till the
charitable SHOWS OF winter had con-
cealed the sins which they had COM
mitted against good railroad building.
Besides, by that time Jack Frost had
strengthened the entertainments to such
an extent that 1t was safe to run a
train over them. But, aware of the
iolts that the most unobservant man
could not escape noticing, the builders
cajoled the commission into making
most of the trip in sledges. All of these
precautions, supplemented and reen-
forced by a liberal use of creature COM
forts of stimulating nature, caused
the commission to report in glowing
terms of the new railroad, which, they
said, was favored by the whole popula-
ton. They neglected to add that there
were not fifty people along the whole
line.
Since the road has been finished it
has been in the habit of borrowing a
fiat car, caboose and engine from the
Canadian Pacific railway once a week.
This limited train takes a day to run
from Port Arthur to Gun Flint Lake
and another day to get back. When it
arrives at the lake it is welcomed by
the entire population. Between runs
the train hands stroll down to the lake
and pick out the best of the fifty gaud-
lily painted pleasure boats, which still
await the tourists who never come, and
go out fishing.
On the American side of the line the
road has 1Ouf-mlle extension TO the
Gun Flint Lake iron mine, which is
owned in Minneapolis. At one place on
this spur the woodwork Of a bridge
over a deep ravine has been burned,
leaving the rails hanging across the
chasm forming a useless suspension
bridge.
Some day this road may be useful to
commerce, but at present as the monde
script train rattles over the rusty rails
and flimsy roadbed, it serves only to
haul salt pork and beans to the three
inhabitants of the terminus and to I'M
necessarily disturb the sense of security
of the wild animals of the Wilderness
Chicago Record.
WHAT GIRLS ARE DOING.