The Anaconda standard., 1899-08-12
AN IMMENSE WORK.
Furnishing Ties for the Roadbed of the
Northern Pacific.

Northern Pacific.
Missoula, Aug. 1.-THE finishing of
the tie contract on the Lolo calls to
mind the enormous business that the
ties are in themselves when it comes
to furnishing them for the entire line of
the Northern Pacific Railway company.
c. A. White. who has the work of look
ing after the tie work for the Montana,
Rocky Mountain and Idaho divisions, has
given to the Standard an idea of the
amount of work it takes from the time
the ties are cut down in the forest un-
til they are placed under the rails.
There are employed throughout the
year about 1000 men who do nothing
but cut down the trees from which the
ties are taken. These men are COM
PEELED to work during the hot seasons
as well as the winter time. They are
located in camps in all the hills where
there are timber lands of the railway
company. Some of these camps are
located a good many miles from sta
ton, but are usually on a stream so
that the ties can be foated to rail-
way station or some point on the line
where they can be loaded without
great deal of trouble. The work of
loading is let by contract the railway
company finding that it can get them
loaded in this way much cheaper and
with less trouble than if the work was
done by themselves
In addition to the 1000 men that are
needed in the woods for this work,
there are employed about 300 teams.
Their part of the work is to haul the
logs or ties, whichever way it may
happen to be, to the most convenient
place. where the ties will all be to-
gether or to be floated down a stream
to save additional expense of hauling
them a great distance. These 800
teams mean that there are about 100
1riv in q work
number of cases a driver is compelled
to drive six horses to a load.
The amount of money that the COM
pany- has to pay out for this one branch
of the business is a fortune in itself.
There is expended for the three divis-
ions above mentioned in the neighbor-
hood of 100000 a year. 1t will take this
amount of money to lay 100000 ties
under the rails of the three divisions
above mentioned. Now this is only
part of the line, for the three divis-
ions only extend from Billings on the
east to Ellensburg. Wash, on the
west, and in addition to the main line
there are thousands of miles of track
that are used for side tracks and
branches. These ties have to be re-
placed every six years, as that is the
time that a tie will remain in good
condition so as to be safe.
AS to the number of ties that are
produced in each of the three divis
ions they differ This is owing to the
heavy timbering in some of them, while
in others there is no timber at all. In
the Montana division there is cut an
nually about 10000 ties. while in the
Rocky Mountain and Idaho division
there is about 400, 900 from each of them.
The next best divisions other than the
three mentioned that are producing
| ties are located in the state of Wash
| ington. Here is where the company
| gets very good tie. as the state furn-
| ishes a better grade of timber.
The company is also under a great
expense in placing these ties under the
rails. as there are a large number of
| sections within the boundary of the three
| divisions A section is usually about
| six miles long, and each section has
| from six to 10 men each. This means
! a big outlay of money when 1t comes
| to the paying of the section hands.
Mr.. White has at times from three to
! five men who assist him in the work.
| They are continually travelling from
| one end of a division to another, in
specting the ties, and seeing that they
are in tirst-class order. They also see
| that those that have contracts for the
| loading of the ties on the cars carry
| out their work as agreed. The number
| of ties that are placed to mile aver
| age about 1850. He also states that the
| Standard has been misinformed as to
| the number of ties that were brought
| down the Lolo the right number be-
| mo az OOO