Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-12-23
The Building of This Road VIII Be the
Most Difficult and Expensive Under.
taking Ever Attempted in the Rocky
Mountains for an Equal Distance
Some of the Plans.

| that Senator Clark should not build the
| San Pedro line. But like Clark, Moi.
I fat had the money, and he will build
| the road.
Wall street also has decreed that
John C. Coombs shall not build a line
westward from Sioux City, and that
the community of interests shall not
be disturbed by such a road as the
proposed Omaha Northern. 1t now
seems a certainly the Omaha Northern
Will be built next year, and the BELIEF
has been expressed in some quarters
that the Boston crowd of the Credits
Communication company will be able in
the course of a year or two to swing
the Sioux City-Denver proposition.
The proposed Coombs line, taken If
connection with the Great Western.
together with the Moffat and Clark
pendent transcontinental railroad, but
the shortest line from Chicago to the
coast
Work on the Moffat road will be COM
menced this week. The first section of
nine and one-half miles is to be com
pleted by the first of July next, and the
entire construction to the head of
Boulder park is to be completed by the
first of December, less than a year
from the present time. 1t is estimated
that the contractors will employ 1000
men almost continuously, in order to
complete the work within the tine
specified. The construction is the most
difficult and expensive ever undertaken
in the Rocky mountains for an equal
distance. Other contracts on the line
to Salt Lake viii be advertised ano
awarded at as early dates as are con-
sidered advisable by the company.
A Great Enterprise.
Regarding this great Moffat enter
prise and its promoter the Denver
News says:
Within a few months the shining
steel links in a new railroad to the Pa
cific Will point the way to Salt Lake.
The honor for this great achievement
TO David H. Moffat, the wealth.
lest man in Colorado and the most sue
cessful mining man the state has ever
known. The ambition OF Mr.. Moffat
IA Colorado pioneer-is to complete
this great railway
The Orman & Crook outfits are three
in number. One of them is at Pueblo,
q second is just completing 1870 miles
of road between Deming, n. NJ, and
Ell Paso, and the third has just COM
pleted thirty miles of road between
Ariz.. and Tombstone. For
for the firm, the entire force
can be assembled at Denver without
with contracts entered up
on some time ago. This firm will build
divisions No. 1. 2 and 3 of the road.
Good & Co. will build divisions No A
and 5, which are further up in the
The Good outfits have been engaged
on the Ell Paso-R Rock Island route, in
southern New Mexico, and will be
brought thru by special trains to Den
Yer. Orman & Crook will undertake to
build nineteen and one half miles of the
road, and Good & Co., sixteen and one
half miles.
According to the estimate of the rail-
way engineers it will be necessary to
remove 100000 cubic yards of grading
The tunnel excavation, in adj
dition, will require the movement of
215.000 cubic yards of rock. There will
be twenty-six tunnels on the route, the
shortest tunnel being $50 feet in length
The longest tunnel will be 1,700 feet n
length. The railway grade enters South
Boulder canon on the side of the cliffs,
S25 feet above the stream, and the bed
of the road continues in the cliffs until
Boulder park is reached. The surveys
lead along the south side of the stream
to the park, when bridge will conduct
the road across the creek.
The problem of grade was one of the
difficult feats to overcome, and after
several surveys had been run a maxi
mum grade OF per cent, was decided
upon. BY the elimination of sharp
curves this percentage represents nine
ty-five feet to the mile. The maximum
is eight degrees, so that this
new railway will have the best grades
apd curvature of any railway crossing
the Rocky mountains in Colorado. All
grades are reduced to the level at sta
tons and sidings. AS a great portion
exceed four degrees. high rate of
speed may be maintained by the pas
senger trains. 1t was pointed out last
eN6iltIS lllll the DIT MdiSiltili pass
is per cent, at Tennessee pass, per
cent, and in Echo canon, near Salt
Lake, the grade of the Overland route
of the Union Pacific is % per cent 1t
has cost large anou.s- of money TO ar
rive at the figures attained by the en-
cheering corps of the Moffat road, but
officers of the road are sure the expend-
iture was we'll made.
The altitude ofthe great tunnel which
is to be bored thru the continental di-
vide is 10000 feet, and the raise" will
therefore be about a mile. The train
will ascend 1900 feet in passing from
Denver to the base of the mountains,
and the total climb in order to reach the
aorthern end of Boulder park Will be
1925 feet. A remarkable fact is that a
check line which was run from the Dem
yer depot to the mouth of the proposed
tunnel gave a variation of only three
inches in altitude from the results at
,ained in the previous survey. This
shows the accuracy of modern en-
as the distance is about sixty
niles and is over one Of the toughest |
on the globe
AS there Is no road that can be tray
,rsed up South Boulder canon the most |
/