The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-08
IN RAILROAD CIRCLES
A New Fast Freight on the Great
Northern.
ST. PAUL TO THE COAST
Less Than Four Days to Butte - The
Policy of the Northern Pacific.
Will Improve Track and
Equipment

In addition to the new passenger ser
vice, the Great Northern has also put
| on new fast freight between St. Paul
and the coast. 1t leaves ST. Paul at
| O'Clock p. m. and arrives in Butte in
the morning of the fourth day. The
train takes on no freight for any point
east of Havre. The company has also
Just completed new freight transfer
station at Hamline for handling freight
freight for Helena, Butte or Anaconda
will be transferred at Hamline to
through cars for the points named.
President Mellen has started on MS
| return trip from the coast. In a re-
cent interview he said the policy of the
Northern Pacific at present was to so
improve and perfect it's road and equip
ment that it could handle the largest
amount of traffic at the minimum cost.
The roadbed of the Northern Pacific
| is one Of the best in the West" said
he, but all new roads require many
years and large amount of work to
bring them up to the standard of the
| older roads in the East, like the Penn
sylvania, for instance. The Northern
Pacific has been laid with heavy steel
| rails, curves have been straightforward
grades cut down, trestles filled in
wooden bridges and culverts replaced
by stone and iron, and the roadbed is
now in excellent condition. The rolling
| stock is much improved and the road
IS in condition to handle a large
traffic"
The Burlington road set a pace that
would be hard to beat and broke rec
md -hn,, :fc
made the run between the Union Pa
cific transfer in Council Bluffs and the
Union station in Chicago in nine hours
and % minutes Monday night. The
train was delayed in Council Bluffs one
hour and two minutes because of the
non-arrival of the Union Pacific mall
but it made up the lost time in an I'M
paralleled run across Iowa and Illinois,
The schedule shows some unusually
fast bursts of speed, particularly to-
ward the latter part Of the run. From
Burlington to Chicago, a distance of
2o6 miles, the run was made in 213 min
utes, including all stops. Thirteen min
utes were required for stops, and tax
ing these out the showing is that the
actual running time for the FOG miles
was 200 minutes, an average of over a
mile minute.
from the time locomotives We're first
built in 1882 with a speed of 70 miles
an hour, attempts have been made On
the great railroads of the country to
set new marks for the fastest running
time, both for long and short distances.
The fastest record time for one mile
was made on the New York Central
railroad express, and a mile was made
out of Crittenden, N. Y, west, in O:32,
the rate of speed 1925 miles an hour,
Sept. IA, 1891, a train on the New York
Central ran from the Grand Central
station in New York to East Buffalo,
distance of 1855 miles, in 1880, in
Guiding three stops, or 7:O5:15 in motion,
averaging 81. sc miles an hour, the fast
est time for so long a distance.
Closely approaching this remarkable
run is that made by the Burlington
railroad from Council Bluffs to Chicago
Monday night, when the distance CT
5O0.2 miles was made in 9:23.
The record for a fast continental trip
was made in the centennial year, 1875.
when the Jarret & Palmer train of
theatrical celebrities made the run from
New York to San Francisco in three
days. seven hours and 80 minutes.
The great eastern railroads are not
alone in making record breaking trips.
Runs across Illinois and Iowa on what
are known as the granger roads have
been made in fast time. Feb. Is, 1897,
the Burlington ran a train from Chi
cago to Denver, covering the distance
between Chicago and the Missouri riv-
er in sos. April %, 1891 the North
ern ran train with Jay Gould on
board from Council Bluffs to Chicago
in $50. The Union Pacific, which hauls
the fast oriental mail from Omaha to
Ogden, has done some fast running it.
self. A train on that road has cover
ed 290A miles in 246 minutes. Feb. 1,
-
was delayed at Cheyenne by a broken
engine. In order to get the mails to
Omaha in time for it's Connections. a
special train. consisting of an engine
and two mail coaches, was made ND
The distance between Cheyenne and
Omaha is SIT miles, and the run was
made in exactly eight hours On this
occasion the run from North Plat to
Omaha, 29O14 miles, was made in 246
minutes
The Southern Pacific is the only road
between New York and San Francisco
which has refused to shorten the time
of the fast mail on the Southern roads
Thirteen hours We're cut off the time
by the eastern connections of the
Southern Pacific, but the latter would
make no change in its schedule and the
$50 miles from Ogden to San Francisco
were made at the Southern Pacific rate
of n miles an hour. The people of san
Francisco expect to bring pressure"
to bear on the Southern Pacific to
shorten it's time. but the Southern Pa
cific will not improve its service until
it finds it to be to its interest to do SO.
The Great Northern "Flyer" was
again four hours late in getting into
Butte yesterday. The Short Line was
on time and the Northern Pacific vas
one hour late.