Newport daily independent., 1902-07-21
A REMARKABLE RAILROAD.
It Has Been Operated at a Cost of $25 Per Day and Its Daily Receipts Have Only Averaged One
 Dollar.

For seventeen years the people of Colorado have wondered why the Colorado and Eastern Railway com pany operated road at a cost of $25 day when the receipts, all told, amounted to less than $1 day. The problem has at last been solved. The company owned rights of way worth probably $5,0Oo, ,000, and to suspend operation meant to lose the franchise.
 Purchasers of the road 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 Denver, Northwestern & Pacific is, says the Philadelphia Rec ord, about to begin the construction work on it's line from Denver to Salt Lake, and the Chicago and Rock Is- land company wants a right of way into Denver, and, as a result, the two roads have purchased the Colorado and Eastern, which has most inter esting 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 con- tained millions of tons of coal, and for time it looked as if the market would be flooded, but before the world knew what had happened the company was buying coal to burn in it's lone engine, and it 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 inn mediately after it was exposed to the weather the stuff went through a chemical process similar to the slaking of burned limestone.
 The railroad had hardly been fin ished before this sfsrtling announce ment was made public. A million dollars had been expended. The franchise was granted with the un- derstanding that the property was continuously in operation and from that day to this, with few exceptions, the one train, consisting of dinky engine, combination coach and flat car, has made trip to the Elyria coal fields and return every twenty-fou hours. Hundreds and hundreds of times the engineer and fireman made up both crew and passengers.
 From the 1st of December, 1898, un- til the last of March, 1899, it is said the train did not make a single through trip. The snow during those deep all over the mountains of Col orado, aad for three months not run was made. One entire week of the time the train and crew were lost and searching parties were sent out.
 In 1888 Jay Gould made a trip to Colorado with the hope of securing a right of way into Denver for the Missouri Pacific, and probably but for one little incident his road would to- day be running into Denver, and the idea of the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific might never have been con- ceived. Mir. Gould had heard of the Colorado and Eastern and determined to buy it. One morning he notified the officials that he would take trip over it.
 The engineer got 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 impression of the road, and that was to run his train not much faster than horse car.
 The officials of the road and the then great railroad king got aboard. But few miles had been covered when MT. Gould, who stood on the flat 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 MT. Gould asked that the train be run faster, but the engi neer, knowing what the result would be, kept the even tenor of his way.
 sPull that throttle wide open and let her gol" demanded Gould, and the engineer obeyed. The engine shot along the track at fearful rate. Sometimes the fiat car was foot