The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-08-03

REMARKABLE RAILROAD.
Has Been Run for Years at Cost Of
$25 a Day, Receipts Averaged 81

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For seventeen years the people OF Coz
orado have wondered why the Colorado
&c Eastern Railway Company operated a
road at a cost of SIS a day when the re-
ceipts all told, amounted to less than u
a day The problem has at last been
solved. The company owned rights OF
way worth probably $5,OO0,0O0, and to sus-
pend operations meant to lose the fran
chise.
Purchasers of the property have been
hard to find until now, from the fact that
the owners had nothing to sell except
rights Of way and little real estate, and
neither has been of any value. The Dem
yer, Northwestern & Pacific Is, says The
Philadelphia Record. about to begin the
construction work on its line from Dem
yer to Salt Lake, and the Chicago &
Rock Island Company wants a right of
way into Denver, and. as a result, the
two roads have purchased the Colorado 81
Eastern, which has most interesting
history.
The road was built in 1885 from Elyria,
a suburb of Denver, to the Scranton coal
fields sixteen miles east of Denver The
company before building the road secured
several thousand acres of land which
contained millions of tons of coal, and
fora time 1t looked as If the market
WOulQ De nOOOeQ, Out before inc WOTlu
knew what had happened the railroad
company was buying coal to burn In its
one lone engine, and 1t has done SO ever
since.
Great bodies of this Scranton coal were
opened up, and It appeared to be the best
on earth, but almost Immediately after 1t
was exposed to the weather the stuff
went through a chemical process similar
to the shaking of burned limestone. Sci
entIsts were puzzled, and the only con-
clusion they could reach was that Nature,
in her dealings with that particular por-
ton of the earth had not done her whole
duty. In other words, that the material
has not yet matured, and that 1t will be
hundreds of years before 1t Is available.
When 1t is ready for use there will be
enough of 1T to supply the whole State
of Colorado for century.
The railroad had hardly been finished
before this startling announcement was
made public. A million dollars had been
expended. The franchise was granted
with the understanding that the property
was continuously in operation and from
that day to this. with few exceptions,
the one train, consisting Of a dinky tn
CINE, a combination coach and fiat car,
has made trip to the Eiyria coal fields
and return every twenty-four hours.
ana HuIluTGuS OL llAleS Tie eIl-
gineer and fireman made up both crew
and passengers.
From December 1, 1893, until the last OF
March. 1899. 1t is said the train did not
make a single through trip The snow
during those months was from ten to
forty feet deep all over the mountains of
Colorado. and for three months not run
was made. One entire week of the time
the train and crew were lost and search
ing parties were sent out.
In 1888 Jay Gould made a trip to Colo
RADIO with the hope of securing a right
If way into Denver for the Missouri Pa
cific, and probably but for one little Incl
dent his road would today be running
Northwestern & Pacific might never have
been conceived. Mr.. Gould had heard of
the Colorado & Eastern and deter mined
to buy it. One morning he notified the
officials that he would take trip over it.
The engineer got a tip. He knew his
rolling stock was light and that the rails
weighed but eighteen pounds. There was
only one thing to do If he wanted to
avoid a wreck and give Gould good i'm
preston of the road. and that was to run
his train not much faster than a horse
car.
The officials of the road and the then
great railroad king got aboard. But a
few miles had been covered when Mr..
Gould, who stood on the fiat car not far
from the engine, asked the engineer to
run faster, but there was no change in
the rate of speed. Two or three times
Mr. Gould asked that the train be run
faster, but the engineer, knowing what
the result would be. Kept the even tenor
of his way.
Pull that throttle wide open and let
her gor demanded Gould, and the engi-
neer obeyed. The engine shot along the
track at a fearful rate. Sometimes the
fiat car was a foot from the rails, and
then again it was high up in the air.
From that day until the day he died he
never said another word about buying the
Colorado & Eastern.