The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-03-17
ny FI,EDnI,IC \. IIAsKIN.

ny FREDERIC y. HAsKIN.
To-day there will assemble In CHI
lcago body Of sturdy. kecn-cycd. ca
lpnble mon. soldiers OF fortune. advance
| Railway Engineers and Maintenance
Of Ways Association. II Is composed
things In the way of railroad building
and who mean to do more. They nrc
the men who have pierced wildernesses
where few other -,en have dared 70
go who have brayed the, dangers Of
/ hostile Indian bands. who have breast
ed streams that were deemed iinpass-
liable, who have hung for hours over
n hs sfer nGr s e Rpsc e ,n hs and
| health that a new railway might cross
| tho continent and open UP new lands.
new homes, new cities for the ever
restless vcr-pioneering population OF
the country.
torprisins inventor laid a small wood
en- railway. track in tn, yard of the
invited all tho city to come and see
how great weight could be moved
over this with small power. Americas
railway system had Its beginning.
Mas. quarry in 1926. and the Mancli
Chunk switchback in 1927. and then
wien the ungainly "Stourbridge Lion"
pufed along the Carbondale Road In
to that great supremacy that it now
enjoys, In 1880 the United States had
twenty three miles OF railway. In
there Wsre 2sns mles IN
states has approximately 100000 miles.
And over every one of these miles. be-
fore the track was laid. walked men
with compass and sextant. to find the
follow.
Until recently the East offered less
spectacular engineering feats than the
West. for the Western railways had
the Great Divide to cross. and it pre-
scented apparently insurmountable diff
hculties The Appalachian system was
more amenable to mans uses. and with
the exception of the Hoosac Tunnel. In
and wonderful loops OF the Southern
road over the Swannanoa Pass Of
North Carolina. and the incline roads
IN Mt. Washington. Lookout Mountain
and In the Catskllls.> tho skill of the
Eastern engineer was not so sorely
taxed until the bridging OF the Florida
Keys called into force all his inven-
tive genius.
u was the far-sighted Flasler that
ward Cuba. realized the future posi-
bilities of the island trade, looked
stepping stones OF coral reef and lime
stone and decided to build railroad
far out toward Cuba on these natural
WIN forty lone OF tneSe Keys
for foundations, the road is being
built. until It Will reach within ninety
miles of Cuba and put New York IN
touch with Havana in forty eight
the cost Will be s15ooo.Ooo, and tho
passenger of the future who looks
from his train window along concrete
viaduct and steel rail will rarely stop
of the men who surveyed this route.
and in whose brains the minutiae of
detail for combating wind and sea
were all planned out. Like long
Roman aquednct. the road stretched
out into the waters. and in a few years
1t Will he reckored only as iaudabie
achievement very like that of the
Lucin Cutof.
two arc very like. the LucIn Cutoff
probably entailed more work. for where
the Florida Keys offered natural foun-
dations OF good limestone. the men
from Ogden to Lucin, across the upper
end OF Great Salt Lake. had more
treachcrous sea bed to contend with.
When the Union Pacific built it's road
back in the sixties. II circled around
the upper ed~e of Great Salt Lake
crossing two small mountain ranges,
With heavy grades and sharp curves.
IN eleven miles. on the other 1t was
500 feet in five and a half miles. The
tax on the rolling stock was heavy.
the delay OF freight often great. So
the brains of the road building pro-
fession We're called upon. and. "a survey
made across the lake. j seemed prac-
ticable. the enterprising Hartman
gave orders to go ahead and machinery
and material began to move lakeward.
Among the items used were $4,000
Oregon pines for piles, and many more
thousand feet of lumber for stringers,
TWEEN tyfive giant pilc drivers were
put to work, and all the available
railroad dump carts in the country
were in requisition.
Day and night, week day and sun
day, 5000 men in ten-hour shifts. la
bored increasingly at dumping rocks
for nils, bridging long spaces with tres
tie work. and then coming next day
to find that the lifting power of tho
salt sea had made sport Of the stones
and the wood work. and 1t must all be
done over again. 1t took two years
to build this piece of road. and there
is nothing really spectacular in It's
appearance, yet year was spent in
making firm foundations in apparently
bottomless places and in streng then
ing other suspected, places: Now one
locomotive can haul 1890 tons of
freight from ogden to Lucin in less
GaIeski. Eowned in crepe de chine.
warbled "NNaitlng at the Church" Miss