The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-03
CENTRAL AFRICA RAIL WAY
Engines Built in Philadelphia
Draw the Trains.
ELEVATION OF 5000 FEET
Great Victoria Lake Will Be Connected
With the Indian Ocean at Mombasaa
and Uganda Will Become as
Accessible as Jerusalem

for the Uganda railway.
The Baldwin Locomotive works
shipped last week to Mombassa, on the
Indian ocean coast of Africa, five of
the 36 locomotives ordered for the rail-
road line to the Victoria Nyanza. This
renders the enterprise of especial inter-
est to the people of this city.
The enterprise is difficult one, be-
cause of the high altitude to be over
come, but the English engineers have
kept within the original estimate hav-
ing completed rather more than half
the line for a trifle over half the sum
voted for the whole line. There is no
reason at present to believe that the
total sum of $15,0oO,00O will be appre-
Gladly exceeded. The main object of
this railway is to connect the great in
land sea known as Lake Victoria with
the Indian ocean. Lake Victoria covers
as many square miles as the whole of
Scotland, and around its shores are
countries of conSidera Bile fertility, and
many of them thickly populated. The
most important of these is Uganda, and
hence the popular name of the railway.
But there is not, and never has been,
any intention of carrying the line round
the shores of the lake into Uganda
itself. Equally fantastic is the idea
that the Victoria Kiindini line-to give
the railway its accurate name-will
make an actual junction with the Cape
to Cairo line that Mr.. Rhodes is so
anxious to build. This latter line, If
ever 1t is made, will pass on the west
ern side of Lake Victoria, so that the
whole lake will intervene between the
two railways. All the talk, therefore,
q nf &c bo
moonshine. The gauge of the Victoria
Kilindini line is metre-a happy Sc
lection, which has enabled the en-
gfneers to use a certain amount of sec
ond-hand rolling stock from India, and
thus save a good deal of money and
much time. The gauge of the still neb-
ulous Cape to Cairo railroad is three
feet six inches. Even if some succeed
ing generation with millions to throw
away should want to connect these two
railways, the difference in gauge will
be matter of trivial Importance In
India there are four different gauges
and there, as in all countries where
traffic is small and distances are long
the advantages of adapting the gauge
to local conditions far outweigh the
disadvantages of want of uniformity
| The actual cost of transferring goods
from one set of trucks to another is
| two cents a ton, and one ton can be
| transferred in one minute.
The railway opens up to commercial
| ism-the world is more precise than civ
| llzatlon-an immense area of territory
which may prove more valuable than
Uganda itself. A great part of the
/ country between Lake Victoria and the
coast lies at very high elevation. The
! lake itself is nearly 1000 feet above the
/ sea level, and the route of the railway
crosses ridge 1000 feet higher These
| high levels, of course immensely i'll
| crease the cost of building the line; but,
on the other hand, they reduce the nor
mai temperature to point at which
| Europeans can 1--we in comfort. AL
ready English colonies are springing up
along the route of the railway, and
| even an English baby has appeared.
| A traveller who recently travereed the
| route that the railway will follow de-
| scribes the scenery at the higher and
| moderate elevations as thoroughly
! English" Ferns line the banks of the
| streams, blackberries grow wild, while
| in the gardens of the English residents
are found potatoes, cabbages, cauli-
| flowers, parsnips and turnips." And all
this actually upon the equator!
The engineering difficulties have been,
| and still are, serious. 1t is not an easy
| matter to carry a railway up a height
of 5000 feet. crossing first a waterless
| desert, and then country broken with
| hills and streams and covered with
! dense jungle. The top of the ridge ia
now nearly reached. Beyond the high
est ridge comes what is known as the
Great Rift a gigantic depression run
ming roughly north and south for sew
| eral hundred miles. The sides of the
| Rift are too steep for descent in the
ways usually employed by railway en-
| g.neers, so it has finally been decided
| to let the train down by a wire rope
| fixed to a revolving drum. similar
| contrivance will be necessary to get up
the other side of the Rift. When that
| has been done, there is a fairly easy
| descent to the lake beyond.
The site fixed upon for the western
| terminus Is Port Florence, in shell
| tered inlet named Ugowe bay. A care
full survey of the bay has been made.
and an excellent chart prepared. The
| bay is shallow, but there is an ample
! depth of water for the lake steamers
| that will complete the journey to Port
| Alice the harhor of Uganda