The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-03-12
FROM FROST LAND
TO ROSY BOWERS
A Railroad Journey from Cold Winter
Into Budding Summer.
DELIGHTFUL JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH
The Beautiful Scenery of the Island
OF the sky'--AshoviiIe and Its At
fractions RaiIroad Engineering
Fsats--stray Notes OF a Charming
usiuerorv

New Orleans, March while
crusts. of ice cover streams, while
waterspouts are choked and overcoats
are in demand in the goldfish North,
down South roses are climbing vineclad
balconies and the latest summer fash
ions are being studied When the
fierce, chilling, penetrating cold-pro-
ducing winds of blowy March begin to
oe rampant, Northeners begin to sigh
for the summer skies, the soft air and
the Dolce far niente" of the land of
oranges and cotton. Although the
Mardi Gras, which only the other day
illuminated and bedecked New Orleans,
was the immediate cause. of the ad-
vance rush toward the region of the
equator, yet the actual army of depar-
ture does not fairly start until after
the first of March. Then all the rail-
road companies whose locomotive
headlights are turned Southward have
all they can do to move the immense
traffic that is thrust upon them and
those folks who go South at this time
of the year are not the ordinary travel
ers; they have leisure, they have
means, and they have travelled every
where. They demand, and are will
ing to pay for the best service that
can be, given by the modern perfection
OF railroad transportation.
A FINE ROUTE.
Among the many corporations whose
tremendous flyers rattle down toward
Florida and to New orleans none has
proved itself more able to handle salts
factorily the great crowds and please
everybody than that enterprsing lib
wal -,s, Ill
date system of railroads known as the
Southern railway. Practically en-
braced in this system may be included
the Pennsylvania railroad, whose
tracks are used as far as Washington,
where begins the Southern railway it
self. which then takes in, before the
Gulf is reached, the following other
railroads: Western railway of Alaba-
ma, Louisville and Nashville railroad
New Orleans and Northeastern rail-
road and Alabama Great Southern rail-
road. 1t may be a matter of interest
to state that the Southern railway OPP
crates, controls or has the privilege Of
tracks amounting in all to over five
thousand miles. AS an instance of
what this company can do it may be
said that their through trains run
from Philadelphia to Florida in TWEEN
ty-three hours and to New orleans in
thirty-sX. Their service to Florida
has not only gained a reputation among
tourists to the orange groves, but the
remarkable equipment of it's various
trains, their superb appointments,
splendid conveniences and unheard of
comforts have given them a fame that
is now spreading to the four corners
of this country. and has also gained
the attention of all Europeans visiting
here. Recently the International
League Of Press Clubs, which is COM
posed of all the journalistic clubs of
America, held a convention in the city
of New Orleans, and the northern
delegates travelled to New Orleans by
the way of the Southern railway, and
the route followed going and coming
made one of the most pleasant. pictur-
esque and enjoyable trips ever mapped
out by any railroad in this country.
ENGINEERING FEATs.
On the trip southward the train flies
through Baltimore, Washington, Dan
vile. Charlotte, Atlanta, Montgomery
\ and Mobile, and the time of departure
from the North is so fixed that the
most beautiful scenery along the route
lOlll " We" uullllS udyllSHl
hours, Coming back from New Or
leans a detour was made, the train
taking the tracks of the New Orleans
and Northeastern railroad as far as
Meridian, then going through Birming-
ham, Chattanooga, and making q stop
at that famed winter resort, Asheville
N. c., which hangs on the tops of the
mountains like a grand lamp in the
skies Hara ha N
throne for herself and shares her king
dom with her sister. hes tn.
Amid the environmer IS of cloud
kissed Asheville we finL some of the
most phenomenal railroad engineering
in this country. The rails that run
up the mountains and run down the
mountains We're placed there in the
face of the most extraordinary kind OF
difficulties. 1t may be mentioned that
the average cost per mile of construc-
tion was sixty thousand dollars, re-
quiring in time an additional outlay
OF forty thousand dollars per mile One
little stretch of rails, covering but a
distance of three hundred yards, anC
familiarly known as Mud Cut" has
cost the company in round figures -four
hundred thousand dollars. Here the
mountain lowered one hundred and
eighty feet above the track, and after
the first girders had been laid it was
found that the bed showed quicksilver
- formation and everything began tC
(side like a thermometer. A force OF
4 one hundred men was employed night
and day for years in order to keep the
tracks in an absolutely secure position
Everything is all right now, as the
mountain washed back for two hun.
dred yards, leaving the tracks in 6
positively safe and secure position ant
free from any possible encroachment
upon them. The men employed to dc
this labor were secured under contract
from the North Carolina penal commits
sioners, and the price paid for the WORK
of the convicts was therefore very low
but as the total amount exper2ed wac
four hundred thousand dollars, il i.
easily reckoned how much labor wa.
enlisted in order to clear the tracks.
TUNNELS.
In and about the region Of Ashevillt
we find the grade is about ~ feet tC
the mile for a run of twelve miles. Nine
large tunnels are whirled through by
the various trains, and the longest o.
these tunnels, 1900 feet, was cut anC
constructed at the tremendous cost o
one million dollars. One-third of thi,
tunnel was pierced through solid rocl
and the rest was arched with soliC
brick, the whole affair being certainly
a triumph of modern railroad egineer
ing. This tunnel is known as tht
Swannanoa, and has become historic il