Arizona republican., 1901-12-28
RAILROAD B BUILD|NG
The Completion of HeIl'S
Canyon Cutoff
The New Line Will Be Thrown Open
to Traffic Tomorrow Prospect of
Railroad Construction of the Com
ing Year.

! Prescott. Ariz.. Dec. 2G.-tSpecial cor
respondence of The Republican, On
/ Sunday. December 29th. the Santa Fe.
Prescott & Phoenix Railway company
will begin the movement of its trains
I over what is known as the Hell Can
/ yon Cut-On. This is an Improvement
of the company's roadway which be
+ gins -four miles from Ash Fork and ex-
; tends to near Mile Post 30 on the old
! operated line. that is TO say. the COM
! pany has built an entirely new road
| covering twenty-siX miles OF its Old
| line. The stations of Meath. Wicklow.
! Rock Butte. Lime Kiln and Cedar
/ Glade. on the old road. viii be dis
! continued; corresponding stations on
/ the new road will be Meath. Wood Sid
! ing, Rock Butte. Cedar Glade and Lime
7 Kiln. The only traffic for the old line
; originating at the former sta
! tions was that in cedar wood.
! fence posts and lime: the traf-
! fic in wood VIII he continued on
I larger quantities than on the old: lime
from; the same lime kiln will be hauled
! by wagon to the new road; and con
, sumers Of this well known and first
! class lime viii not be inconVenie:C ed
! in the least.
President Murphy. accompanied By
| members OF the city council. and the
board of supervisors. prominent citi-
zens and officials Of the road will make
an inspection trip over the cutoff on
Saturday. The party will be accom-
! panied by Mr.. Murray Nelson. q mem
Der Of the Commercial club of Chi
! caso.
The new line is twenty-three miles
long, or three miles shorter than the
old line which it takes the place of.
The maximum northbound ascending
grade is 1le per cent, as against per
cent on the old line; or. in other words,
the same power will perform consider
ably more than twice the service that
it did on the old line. The virtual
southbound grade ascending is re-
duced from n ! per cent to u Of ! per
cent. The maximum degree OF curva-
ture on the new line is only degrees
per 100 feet as compared with IL. and
! the total degrees eliminated is q little
more than 800 The summit of the
mountain on the new line IS 4I9 feet
| lower than that on the old-in fact
| the line becomes i prairie road in place
OF mountain road. and the summit
| is approached by an undulating grade
from hoth directions instead of n con
I tinGous maximum grade, as on the old
line. The old line about TO be torn
the Hen Canyon steel viaduct and
Little Hell Canyon bridge. there are
but eight pile and trestie bridges on
| the new road; these are short and low.
and when compared with the immense
! wooden structures on the old road.
seem worth little thought.
Work on this Improvement was be-
| gun early in February of che present
year. although the grading progressed
quite slowly until nearly midsummer
Mr. J. w. Thurber of Williams was the
| contractor for grading the roadway.
! and the track was laid by the com
pany's employees in charge of Mr.. 5.
! w HigIey; al the wooden bridges
have been constructed in a like man
ner by the general foreman Of bridges
and buildings. Mr.. George Tisdalc The
! engineering was in direct charge of
Mr.. J. \. Jaeger, assistant engineer.
The most notable feature OF the
! He'll Canyon Cut-Off is that of the He'll
Canyon viaduct. crossing a deep can
yon, which-to to the time this i'm
provement was conceived-has been
generally conceded - practically i'm
! passa BILE The viaduct is n fine steel
structure, erected by the Missouri val
ley Bridge and Iron Works, \. J. Tul-
lock. proprietor. of Leavenworth, Kan.
1t is 645 feet in length and crosses the
| canyon ut an elevation of 1856 feet-or
1SO feet above the foundation of the
sub-structure. The track is carried by
steel 6irders from thirty to ninety feet
in length. supported on steel towers IN
the usual manner of construction OF
railway viaduCts. The Viaduct is
constructed to carry the largest loads
OF modern railway traffic. The sub
| structure of this Viaduct consists OF
concrete piers and abutments=built by
| the we'll known firm OF Il. Lantry Sons
| in charge of II. Houser. superinten-
dent.
The travelling public cannot be other
wise than much interested in this rail-
way Improvement; it not only shortens
the road. but obviates the necessity
of a mountain ride. which-while it
might be considered beautiful from a
scenic point of view. will be much
more satisfactory 10 travellers gener-
ally if they are taken over a road which
crosses fewer high bridges and trains
are not compelled to run so slowly on
account of steep grades.
This Improvement was conceived
and carried to completion by the orig
/ NAL owners of the road, under the di-
rCct supervision of Chief Engineer w
n. Drake. and had the full support OF
the original corporation. The i'm
provements seem to have been made
| necessary by the great increase in the
| volume of traffic moving over the Santa
Fe. Prescott & Phoenix Railway com
pany's lines. \; the time the old road
! was made. all the freight and passen-
gers were moved in one short. daily
mixed train. while at the present time
two freight trains daily, in addition to
the passenger service. are frequently
necessary-and thirty-six cars con-
stitute a full loaded train.
Further improvements on this road
will, of course, be made from time to
time by the new owners as traffic
Jusufies.
This has been a very active year in
railroad building in this county. and