The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-04-24
CONSOLIDATED OPENS
 IFS SPRING CAMPAIGN
REPAIRS AND IMPROVEMENTS
 ON THE SYSTEM.

ON 1hE DLSlEAs
 Sixteen Hundred Men at Work on ths
 Western Half of the Road Aione-
 Two of the Four Great RoIIer-nft
 Bridges Will be Completed This Tear
 Renewing of Other Bridge.--
 Double Tracking of Highland Dis
 yision--New Rails to be Laid.
 The Consolidated road has begun it's spring campaign of repairs and ina provements. On the western half of tha system. 1,sOO men are now at work practically twice as many as are ems ployed in keeping the tracks in good order during the rest of the year. This includes merely the ordinary ls,borers employed by the section foremen. and is entirely distinct from the force working on special improvements, such as the double tracking of the Highland divt- sion of the erection of new bridges on | the main line to Boston.
 This is the season when ties are re- neWed-an undertaking the magnitude of which is to be understood only when one remembers that there are 5000 kies to a mile, and that 1t costs from ona to two cents apiece to pile the old ones up where they will be out of the way or can be burned. Special gangi are also at work in every part of the territory, stringing wires, repairing fences, painting stations and burning dry grass along the tracks. In April and October, too, all bolts in the miles | of rails are examined and the loosas ones frightened. During these months the temperature is more nearly that of the average for the whole year than at any other period, and the rails are consequently neither unduly expanded nor contracted. No bolts are over frightened in extremely hot or extreane- ! ly cold weather. Not only, however, are the old rails put in order during the spring, but wherever necessary they are replaced with new ones. The New Ha- l ven road during the next few months I will lay 25,0O0 tons of rail, or, estinaalt- I ing lSO tons to a mile, 193 miles of steel
 I This year should see the conpletiou I of two of the great Scherzer roller@lift bridges, which the New Haven road is erecting between New York and Bos- I ton. Some time in the sumrner the. Cos Cob structure will probably
 be open for traffic and a month or so later the bridge at Westport will be l finished. On the Housatonic river < bridge east of Bridgeport two tracks a will in all probability be completed by the fall and the remaining two next iE spring. These improvements will give the company a complete four track road 4 bed from New York to New Haven, and will greatly facilitate traffic by renlov- ling the possibilities of delay to fast trains at the bridges.
 The fourth of the rolIer-lift bridges 1|that the New Haven road is Installing.
 the one over the Connecticut river at Lyme, presents in one respect the sirn-
 plest problem of all. The new struc- 3Iture can be erected without reference
 to the existing one, for 1t will be on q. different alignment, Strengthening the line. There are, however, other engin- eering difficulties to be encountered,
 such as the depth Of water and tho I character of the river bottom.
 These four bridges are by no means the only improvements of this kind under way, many of which will be fin- ( ished by this summer. For the past l two years the New Haven road haa
 been busily at work on all it's branches \. renewing bridgea-a modest technical { way of saying that old structures arc practically torn down and new and
 stronger ones erected in their stead. The necessity of such work is not al-s ways understood by the public, for few
 realize that every stretch of traok is lnot open to every locomotive owned by, Ibridge is permitted to sustain.
 The New Haven road has, in the past 1, two years renewed more than 1s0 briges, and it's activity in this respect Twill be greater than ever this year.. The capacity of all the divisions is be- 1, ing raised sufficiently, not only to meet lpresent requirements, but also to leave
 8 generous margin for the develop ment of it's territory.
 On the Highlanl division, from Pough- Ikeepsie to Derby, which is being dou-
 ble-tracked in order to provide a new
 entrance into New England for tha freight from the west, it will soon be possible to run 220,00O pound locomo- lives, the heaviest now in general use. |, This Improvement will take much OF the pressure off the tracks from New Haven to New York. Similar work is
 in progress over every branch of the iroad, and the colored threads on the engineers maps are being slowly turn
 ed into red lines, the symbol of com-
 pleted, standard road beds, such as : the Shore line route from New York to . Boston.