The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-04-26

SON viii proye 4 banner year IN rail-
road building In North America rs
covering from the panic Of 1907. the
United States has opened the throttle
OF railroad progress again ana ione
list OF new projects formed ana OLD
ones re-undertsken - the result IN
ada never felt the panic 20 far - rail-
road builders were concerned. and
will have shout thousand miles OF
new and up-to-date roadbed to show
for the years work. Mexico 10 also
alive to the need for new railroads.
ana 10 adding many miles of important
connections to Its list OF roads. Ine
average amount OF new line opened up
in the United States each year = about
ave thousand miles. 1t IL probable that
the present year will exceed the aver
age by more than q thousand miles.
there are several hundred new projects.
great and small. on foot. In the south
alone there are no less than thirty
ave new projects which have besn an
nounced since the first Of the year.
That the day Of profitable railroad
pioneering has not passed 10 amply
shown by the expsrience OF the new
Coast Extension OF the 81. Paul. That
part Of the new line extending from
the Missouri river to Butte. Montana.
has been opened up for trafhc. It 10
estimated that its cost was t40.0oo,o0o.
The line has paid all operation ex-
penses, with q dividend Of . per cent.
on the Investment. with the through
line completed. II 10 expected that even
. better showing will be made Fur
fhermore. settlers are filling up the
newly opened country with q rapidly
which exceeds anything dreamed OF BY
those building the line. 1t Is expected
that the whole extension will be OPEN
ed to freight tramc within about two
months. but that the line will be al
lowed to '.ripen'' for about SIX months
before passenger trafiic 10 put on II.
The recent opening Of the virGinian
Railway marks what railroad men be-
lieve to be q new epoch in railroad
construction. It Is said that its builder
looked farther into the future In its
construction than any other builder In
the history OF raffroading. Completed.
at a cost far above the ordinary out
lay for construction work. everything
has been done to make 1t big enough
TO not only care for all trafic now IN
sight. but for the possibilities of
half century. No other piece OF con-
struction, extending through noun
ever offered so effective a protest
against grades and curves % this Of
fers. Someone has said that the Rog-
ers road - an inclined plane from the
West Virginia coal fields TO the sea,
and he did not miss II much. Only at
one place IN the whole 443 miles of
the road has the maximum grade of
OF per cent. been exceeded. The new
Clinchfeid road has been built with
largely the same ideas, and has crossed
high mountains with less grade than
was made by the roads Of thirty years
ago In skirting a water course.
John r !. Wallace former chief en-
gineer of the Panama canal, has fgur-
ed out that It will require q billion doll
lars to meet the Southern demand for
railroad improvements and extensions
million dollars year. He has found
that at present only 1,134 miles Of
Southern roads are double tracked,
and that the demands of trafic will
require 10000 miles of doubie-track
before 1920. BY that time he thinks
that the South will have $4,000 miles
of railroad, and that 1t will require
gross earnings OF $4,000 mile with
TO per cent. thereof going to operating
expenses. to make the Investments
represented yield 5 per cent.
A new road which will be remark
able In many respects Is the Western
Pacific. extending westward as the
coast outlet Of the Denver and Rio
Grande. On the line between Denver
and Wendover 1t runs across q bed OF
pure salt containing nearly half q
billion carloads OF that material. Some
person has figured out
that this Ia ten tons to every inhabi-
tant OF the globe, and that II allow
ance is made for those who use but lit
tie salt lat three pounds per year to the
individual, the supply would last for
1000 years, thus assuring the western
Pacific q good income to q time far be-
yond the interest of the living genera
ton.
The activities of the Geological Sur
vey are felt in many lines OF enter.
prise, but in none more than In rail-
road construction. The great topo-
graphical map OF the United States.
which will take quarter of century
in its making, has proved good boon
to the builders Of railroads. In local
tiles where this map has been compiet-
ed the, protector Of a new line has
practically all Of the information as to
elevations, character of soil, etc, that
a preliminary survey would give In
fact 1t Is possible to estimate with
approximate accuracy the amount of
filling and excavation & projected line
would require. with this great supply
of topographic knowledge at hand 1t
Is much easier for the engineers to Sc
Iect the most feasible route than II
would otherwise be. =
1t is not improbable that the flying
machine will yet be made a part OF
the equipment of the surveying corps
of railroads. With a birds eye view
of stretch of territory the engineer
can do In day what might take weeks
to do with the ordinary facilities
Aided by the highly developed view
cameras of the present, he could make
such a record OF construction condf-
lions as would be otherwise impossible
Serious minded railroad men are al
ready. discussing this method of using
ably be one OF the earliest commercial
uses to which these machines are nut.
The tendency OF the year in new con-
struction as well as in repair work
has been to make roadbeds safer. The
rail question has become the one of
prime Importance. and most of the
railroads are writing out the specifica-
tions In their rail orders much as the
physician writes out prescriptions for
his patient. The vadinum rail. the
manganese rail. and the nickel rail- are
all meeting with favor. They cost
about fifty dollars per ton as comnar-
ed with twenty-eight dollars for the
ordinary steel rail, but in safety and
durability they are said to Justify the
difference. In steel rails the omen
hearth process rails are meeting with
the more favor. and their production
mas gone forward by leaps and bounds.
while the production of the other
kinds has been falling behind former
records. New manganese frogs have
been made, and 1t is found that one OF
them outlasts ave of the ordinary kind
A rail testing nlant racar4i, 49,