Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-05-31
RAILROAD BUILDING.
Big Amount Of Money to be Expend-
ed in Southern New Mexico.
THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC CUT OFF.

Although the El Paso & Southwest
ern railway has been completed from
Deming to its Arizona terminals. there
is still considerable active railroad
building going on in southwestern New
Mexico. In addition to the LordsDurg
4 Hachita railway, thirteen miles of
men and teams are stretched out be-
tween Strauss in Dona Ana county and
FL Paso building the terminals OlrtwO
great railway systems, one of Southern
Pacific cut OFF. and the other the FL
Paso q Southwestern railway. Al
though the length of line each is con-
5tructing is but comparatively few
miles. yet the work is of so heavy a
nature that it win take TO fall to COM
plete it. Fifteen hundred men are at
present employed on this work and
nearly LOO teams are kept Busy Ten
hours each day on the two roads par
alelling each other. over 81 500 600 is
being spent on this work to build thir-
teen miles into FL Paso and engineer
ing problems of extreme difficulty are
being solved. The El Paso & South
western railway will have a grade of
per cent into FL Paso while the
Southern Pacific cut off will have a
grade of 6 per cent. that means for the
and for the Southern Pacific q rise OF
31.7 for the same distance. To the
Southern Pacific the simple lessening
of grade means the saving of thou
sands of dollars each month in greater
and cheaper freight carrying capacity
and faster passenger service and justi-
fies the expenditure of S750.OO0. In tho
economy of railroads today there is
certain allowance in dollars and cents
for every foot saved in grade rise and
every foot saved in distance. Even
million dollars spent in reducing bad
grade is economy in the end.
The cut off on the Southern Pacific
in New Mexico. when completed will
abolish the double headers out Of I'll
Paso and does away with three helper
engines and crews now maintained for
that purpose. 1t will save half a mile
minute in the passenger time be
tween El Paso and Strauss. 1t gives
six months employment to 500 men
and distributes among them $4,000
each month in wages. The plan OF this
cut off was prepared by the late 9. 2.
! Huntington as early as 1895. Work on
/ il was begun in a small way last year
/ in November, and more than S15O,OOO
will be expended on the work. The
/ ola maximum BIduS Was go lSCl pNi
mile, the new grade is 3l.1 feet per
mile The present greatest curves are
| 10 per cent. Five per cent is the great
est on the new grade The new track
will cross the Rio Grande on a steel
! bridge thirty-five feet higher in the air
tnan does the old track. All the new
| culverts are of iron ard stone. The
| greatest fill is 1000 feet long and sew
enty feet high. 1t contains 10000 cubic
yards OF earth. The work is 50 per
cent completed. The old track is 1873
miles long, the new track is 1900
/ feet longer. Each day a work train
makes the rounds of the different
camps bringing new men. fresh beef,
| feed, flour, barley, and five big tank
cars filled with water. their capacity
being $4,000 gallons. The water is
| pumped into tanks of 1000 gallons ca
pacity built alongside of the track.
| They occur at convenient distances
from each camp. The men are paid
| from $3.50 to S1.75 per day for common
labor; 81 for dumping and filling and
$3.50 per day blacksmithing work.
They are charged from SO TO $3.50 per
l week for board.