The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1908-02-11
Cars Filling Embankment from Cable
way.

Cars Filling Embankment from Cable
way.
too soft a nature for the maintenance
of a pile t~restle, and the described
method was adopted only after several
other schemes had failed; the second
fill was over a deep gorge with good
solid foundations, and the galloway
was adopted primarily because 1t
seemed to be the cheapest and most
efficient mtehod.
about rs miles south of Cleveland
> the line of the new railroad
crosses a swamp on an embankment
from Is to 80 feet high and one and
one-fourth miles in length. The bot
tom lands across which the line is To-
Gated are used for raising celery and
are overlaid by a black, d~ecomposed
vegetable soil, incapable of sustaining
any material weight. Soundings
showed the greater part of the ground
to have a mud crust about Is feet thick
then Quicksand for Is feet, then ten
NtEl VI sui clay OhGllg An5 sit liaA1
blueclay bottom. At intervals the
mud crust was only Is feet thick, and
under it was a heavy underground
stream flow so great that the water
spurted several feet out of the sound
ing pipes. These subterranean lakes
were so numerous as to make imprac-
ticable the ordinary methods of fill
ing"
Two unsuccessful attempts at cross
ing were made; one by laying track
on a trestle built on a foundation of
crossed timbers and brush. and anoth-
er by constructing a pile trestle on the
ordinary plan. In both cases the
track sank into the mud, and the cable
scheme was tried as a last resort. Says
the writer:
Two OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES steel
cables, about five feet center to cen
ter, We're stretched from an anchorage
In the fill already made, over the near
est bent of the pile trestle remaining
and on to the farther bents, to which
the other end was anchored. Upon
these cables ties were fastened, 1"
and a track laid, upon which the
loaded cars were pushed and dumped.
one at a time, at the end of the fill.
Inc first span used vas over 200 feet,
covering the hole into which the tres
Tie mad sunk and which was at this
ume a pond of water It's long and IA
Ieet deep. On account of the large
EM CUd0 mQhn nnnnGanwrr 49, Al -.w--z-s
ollty OF driving a trestle bent in this
pond, the sag in the cable was very
sreat, n the instability of the cars
quite marked. This. together with
lne great depth of the fill, necessitated
tne constant lacking OF the track I'M
der the fill.
AS soon as this sinkhole was
crossed a large trestle bent was
erected and the long spa decreased
W guy supports and timber grillage
Siocks. The material deposited in this
uoie t25.OOO cubic yards in a month";
suoVed ahead and completely carried
away the remaining portion of the pile
Nesue which was serving as forward
auchorage for the galloway. Timber
overs were then built ahead and
oocRed up and skidded forward as the
Nork progressed. This is the manner
winch the work is now being carried
Permanent towers. founded on
pues' have been erected far ahead of
work to act as anchorages, and
e movable towers are used as sup.
pUr's Tor the galloway"
~ me second place where cables are
ling used there is a deep gorge with
hnu bottom, but calculation showed
= Ihe cable method would be cheap
lnan the ordinary plan, saving
oOut Sl,700, or more than half the
ost. The illustration is from the
squeezing News.-Literary Digest.