The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-10
CUT OFF IS COMPLETED.
IMPORTANT RAILROAD CON
 TRACT NEAR SELMA.
Trains Will Enter Central City by a Different Route and Schedules Will Change on Peasa-
 cola Division.

0lAGEGAb As90tg 8AA0 ~~~~~~~~N
 Will Change on Peasa-
 cola Division.
 Shortly after noon yesterday the West ern Railway cut off from the Selma line over to the Louisville and Nashville's Pineapple branch was completed.
 The cutoff begins at Soapstone Creek, just this side of Gulf Junction and runs for seven miles to a junction with the Louisville and Nashville one mile east of Selma, entering that city over the hand some new Louisville and Nashville bridge.
 The grading was done by contract, B. O. Watkins of Birmingham getting the contract for the seven miles cutoff, and 1t was finished some time ago. Building and surfacing the track was done by the Western Railroad workmen. the last of the work being done yesterday morning and the big steam shovel which has beenl steadily at work there for several months reached Montgomery at 3 o'clock yester- day afternoon.
 Gulf Junction was the point at which the Pineapple branch of tho Louisville and Nashville formerly connected with Selma division of the Western and entered Selma over the Western tracks. Now this has been reversed. The Louisville and Nashville track to Gulf Junction has been abandoned, the building of their new bridge over the Alabama River putting them into Selma in a straight line over their own tracks. The Western will abandon their track from Soapstone Creek into Selma, taking the seven mile cutoff at Soapstone Creek and getting into Selma over the Louisville and Nashville bridge.
 This week will be the last that the present track of the Western will be used, l the cutoff and Louisville and Nashville bridge being used beginning next Mon day morning.
 The ten miles of track between Gulf Junction or Soapstone Creek and Selma now used by the Western will, after next Monday, be abandoned together with the Western bridge over the Alabama River. Some weeks ago 1t was rumored that the Western Railroad bridge would be sold to the Selma Street Railway Com pany which would use the Western track as far as the river and make a suburban resort somewhere in that vicinity. Superintendent Cox said yesterday that nothing definite had been decided about the bridge and that it would be sold to | the highest bidder. He also said that | he had notified Superintendent Saltmarsh | Of the Pensacola division of the Louisville and Nashville. of which the Pineapple branch is a part. of the completion of the cutoff and that Mr. Saltmarsh will at once get out a new time card for the Pineapple branch to take effect next Mon l day.
 l Mardi Gras Trael Begins.
 The annual carnival tickets for tho New Orleans, Pensacola and Mobile Mardl Gras went into effect yesterday morning, and while the big day, February 18th, is just one week of. the travel is already assuming the dimensions of "coming events"
 The tickets that were put on sale yes terday morning are one-fare for the round trip. plus 25 cents, with a limit to Febru- ary goth. though by the payment of SO cents the holder of the ticket may have it extended until March 3rd.
 In order to relieve the congestion of travel on trains No. ? and No 3, the ex- tra sections run between here and Bir- mingham during the holiday rush and taken on in January were put on again yesterday. The extra trains will run just as they did during the holidays, as first sections of trains No. 2 and No. g.
 When the regular train, No. 3. due :n Montgomery at 7:25 p. m., is on time the extra train will leave Birmingham twenty minutes behind 1t. the regular, No ,. stopping only at Calera and Clanton be, tween Birmingham and Montgomery The extra section will do all the local work between Birmingham and Montgomery, and if the regular, No. 8, is late, it will leave Birmingham as the first section of that train. the regular, No. B.. coming to Montgomery as the second section. When the regular. Mo- 3. Is on time the special will run as the second section, reaching Montgomery behind the regular train. The extra, No. 3, made its first run yes- terday afternoon. reaching Montgomery last night and this morning the first sec tion of No. will pull out of the shed for Birmingham. This train takes all the To- cal work off of No. between here and Birmingham that its companion train takes off of No. 3 between Birmingham and Montgomery. It will leave Montgom- cry at S:2S a. m. and will do all the local work between here and Birmingham. The regular No. 2, will leave Montgomery at S.35. ten minutes behind the first sec tion, and will only make two stops be- tween here and Birmingham-at Clanton and Calera.
 The same crew that ran the extras dur ing the holidays will run them again. Conductor Ferguson and Engineer Hayes but 1t is said that the trains will be taken off after the carnival rush.
 The rush of travel to the St. Louis Exposition will begin to set in aboue March, and 1t is a question whether they | will be taken off until after then or not While there has been a desultory travel
 
 has been composed mainly of people who had been on the right side of the cotton market long enough not to care about | waiting for the cheap carnival rates. It Is a coincidence. however. that with the | inauguration of the carnival rates yes- terday morning the advance guard of the carnival rush set in last night, and will probably continue until Sunday night. Train No. that left for New Orleans and Mobile last night left here with the unlucky number of thirteen cars, seven Pullmans. three day coaches. two bag gage and express cars and a postal car. l Last night was the regular night for the flight of the tourist sleeper that runs be- | tween New York and San Francisco once a week, making four instead of three sleepers on the Western, the Pensacola Pullman and a extra coach being forced on to accommodate the heavy travel out of Montgomery and the Chicago and Cin- cinnatl Pullmans on the regular, No. 8, with the two day coaches on that train, making the thirteen cars.
 Conductor Felix Mulin and Engineer Dawsey, with engine 265. one of the large passenger engines received by the Mobile