Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1903-04-01
THE BIG IMPROVEMENTS
On the Cotton Belt in Arkansas NJ ar
ing Completion
Reducing of Grade Nearly Finished and Tracks Beine
Gravel Ballasted---New Equipment Soon
to Be Put On

w. =. Green, OF Tyler, Tex, general
superintendent. and +. a Peck, of
Pine Bluff, Ark, division supcrintcnd-
eli OF the Cotton Belt route. spent
yesterday in Momphis says the Mem
pills Morning News They stopped
day here while making a tour of
fhc Cotton lfctt system through Texas,
Arkansas and Missouri This tour
49, Instituted so That the two Off
sials= =es2Iltt see JUST the extent of the
e.fyejs aa The Gotten Bolt lines from
tep 6lah water troubles in the Ms
Is .iNli a9d Bel river valleys. Nh
s-oeH Geut o49r tic ToNas lines and
ss=as Joined at To&arkana by Mr.. Peck
- tie teut i'll Arkansas and Mis-
sauri The Texas part Of the system
s operated senaratclE from that in
tie Other states.
The Cotton Belt has 10 tracks di-
rect to Memphis but has trackagc
rights over the Iron Mountain sys-
tenn from Fair Oaks to Memphis Yes
terdaN morning. as the two officials
came in they looked over the Iron
Mountains line just west of Bridge
Junction. which was out of operation
for more than a week from high wa
ter. The officials stated they found
tho rood in ofto 4
had been repaired than they had
thought possible in SO short time,
Judging from the extent of damage
done by the flood
Before the crest Of The flood reach
ed Memphis the Cotton Belts tracks at
Birds Point, Mo, just opposite Cairo,
were washed out and traffic at that
point was only resumed last week
The two officials left last night for
Birds Point and Cairo to inspect the
tracks in that vicinity that had been
water damaged. From Cairo they will
go to Gray,s Point. another Cotton
Belt point on the Mississippi river,
from where they will return to their
respective headquarters.
Incessant rains for several weeks
in Texas and the Red river country
greatly damaged the Cotton Belt and
all other roads in that territory, but
Mr. Green stated that those damages
had been fully repaired and the road
was experiencing no trouble on that
score.
just now the Cotton Belt is engaged
in considerable repair and improve
ment work to its roadbed along the
entire system. Mr. Green talked in
torestingly to a Morning News re-
porter of what is under way in that
connection He said:
"The Cotton Belt route is replacing
all the main line steel of fifty-six
pounds to the yard with seventy-fve
pound rails from Gray's point, Mo-,
to Fort Worth, Tex, distance Of
Gas miles. This work was commenced
last fall and will be cor pleted with
in about ninety days. The new steel
has been laid from Mount Pleasant,
Tex, to within ten miles OF Paragould,
Ark, 306 miles. 1t has also been laid
from Fort Worth to Wiley, fifty-four
miles. The remaining 1S5 miles can
be put down in the next three months
with good weather.
Besides the new steel. the entire
line is being gravel baliasted. The
ballast has been put in from Jones'
boro, Ark, to Texarkana, Tex, 294
miles. Ballasting is now in progress
from Grays Point south to Jones'
bOro.
Another important piece Of work
now in progress is the reduction Of
grades in Arkansas. This will be
completed in thirty days. The loca-
tion OF the most important work just
now is between Mcneil and Stamps,
seventeen miles long, Stamps being
thirty-fve miles north of Texarkana.
When the grade reduction work will