The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-07-04
RAILWAY BUILDING.
Statement Of the Miles Built During
the Year.

The current number Of the Railway
Age has the following statement:
In our issue OF April last, when esti-
mating the prospects for new railway
construction in the United States this
year we said: 1T will not be surprisinb
if thetotal new mileage Of the year should
exceed 5000 miles, and il Is improbable
that il win be less than $500 miles" That
estimate, at the end of March, was, Of
course, made before the season Of con-
struction had fairly begun. 1t was based
entirely on our records and on our knowl-
edge of the various projects which were
at that time more or less before the pub
Tic. OF these projects We enumerated at
that time plans for 3D. different lines,
with an ostensible mileage Of over 2l.00J
miles. Guided by our acquaintance with
the merits or dement's of each individual
project, 1t was necessary 70 separate
the sheep from the goats and make our
own conjecture as 10 what would be built
and what not. 1t is some testimony TO
the completeness of our records that now,
when the year is half gone and when
three months of active construction have
passed, 1t IS Impossible 10 make our pre-
diction more accurate than II was in
March last.
The actual amount of new track laid in
1888 up to this writing is 1,lSl.b0 miles.
first six months of any year since 1892.
The figures TO June 80 for each of the
SIX years are as follows:
miles; 1895, Gal miles; 1885, 7SS miles; 1897,
622 miles; 1898. ! 1S1 miles.
The track laid, therefore, this year, has
been more than double that laid in the
same period Of 1884. and nearly double
that of the first six months of either 1895
or 1897. In 1S92-the last year of prosperity
before the panic-the construction up to
June 80 was 1,S27 miles. The new building
up to date this year, therefore, is within
200 miles of that of 1892.
The total construction of the last eight
years, from 1889 showing very clearly the
increasing pressure Of the hard times and
the subsequent recovery, has been as
1892, AIS miles: 1893, 2,635 miles; 1894, / 94S
miles; 1885, 1,72S miles; 1885, 1,S4S miles;
1897, 1.SS0 miles.
TIE construction in the last half of each
year is, OF course, greater than in the first
half. In only one year in the last ten
has the construction up to June 30 exceed
ed 80 per cent Of the total new track laid
during the year. On the doctrine of
averages. therefore, it is probable that,
with Isl miles already laid, there will be
But it is not necessary to have recourse
TO an argument based on averages, for
the books of the Railway Age show that
work is now actually in progress on lines
enough to bring the total up 10 slightly
over 5000 miles.
The geographical distribution of the
new lines being built is always matter
of interest. Slightly more than half the
new track laid so far this year has been
laid west of the Mississippi river-or 66G
miles out of the total Of 1,1S1. Of the re-
nainder, and east of the Mississippi l5S
miles only are north of the Ohio river and
S57 miles south of the same line. The fol-
lowing table gives the figures o fthe track
laid, and the number of separate lines on
which II has been laid. in each of the %
states ard territories in which work has
been done:
I