Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1905-12-04
RAILROAD NEWS
Santa Fe Spends Ten Millions to Save q
Few Hours to California By
Belen Cutoff.

One of the most gigantis railway
projects ever carried out In the west
Is being rapidly pushed To completion
by the Santa Fe railway in New Mex.
leo.
Few people who have not visited
the scene OF the building of the Belen
cutoff realize the magnitude of the
WORK which the great corporation Is
doing there TO save a few hours In
the run against time ana competition
ccross the bread west from Chicago
to California,
Ten million dollars has been appro.
priated by the Santa Fe to build this
air line across the territory and be.
fore the work Is ended, II viii take
some vigorous stretching of that ten
millions to Owe IL.
Ten millions Is n good deal OF mon.
G 3-lofo perhaps than the ordinary
man VINO reads this newspaper can
appreciate, and ten millions Is a sum
that a railroad will not part with
without a good cause.
The most modern methods OF that
marvellous wizard. che American civil
engineer, are being used In the build
ing of this railway two hundred miles,
almost as the bird flies, across the
central part Of New Mexico from Tex.
leo on the Texas line to Rio Puerco
on the present route of the coast lines
OF the Santa Fee system.
Fifteen hundred sturdy laborers.
some skilled and some less skilled,
a small industrial army, are busy as
bees along the line Of the cutoff at
present. Six hundred and fifty are
at work on the Belen end OF the line.
as many east of the mountains,
and hundreds more in the rugged fast.
nesses Of Abo canyon where the rail,
road pierces the Manzano range in q
dizzy whirl around the edges Of preci.
pices, GRO lofty bridges and through
bottomless cuts. through anything and
everything to "get there first"
Expense Is nothing in the breakneck
race Of the big railroads to the coast.
The first hundred miles of the cut.
off from Belen east, practically com.
pleted, will likely average in cost
fifty thousand dollars a mile.
The work on the Eastern Railway
OF New Mexico" the corporate mann
OF the cutoff. has been going ON In.
termittently for the last four years.
Had a force Of men as big as the pre-.
sent n been working steadily the
work could have been done In two
years. With plenty Of men and IA.
vorable weather conditions the cutoff
should be completed In another year.
Fifty miles from Texico west Is fin.
ished. Fifteen miles from Epris west
is done, and seventeen miles from
Willard west. The work is divided up
among q number Of contractors and
sub-contract0rs, each working On his
own individual unit Of the survey.
More men are being employed ey-
cry day. Not a day passes but what
a consignment Of a dozen or two or
perhaps more men are sent south
to go to the east end of the work via
the Santa Fee Central to get employ
ment in the grading and track laying
camps.
A battalion of steam shovels groan
and creak and puff and regiments Of
Missouri mules strain In the harness
before the big Fresno scrapers.
The bridges in the tor
tuous Abo canyon are in themselves
marvels Of mechanical construction.
The tall and graceful piers are com
posed Of solid concrete so that each
pier forms one solid block when fin
ished. The long steel trusses are pro.
jected onto the piers with the incest
mechanical skill and every modern
device of the engineer is brought into
requisition. Once In a while a man
is crushed under a heavy girder. or
falls to his death from the top OF a