The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-01-08
SALT LAKE ROUTE
TO BUILD NEW LINE
ROadbed Through Meadow VAL
ley Wash VIII Not Be
Reconstructed.
NINETY DAYS, AT LEAST.
BEFORE THROUGH SERVICE
Railway Out of Commission, En-
cept Local Service: En-
plOyees TO Be Laid OF.

Ever since the first railroad was
constructed. when strap iron was laid
upon slecpcrs for rails. railroads and
railroad companies have had to face
disaster in the way of accident and
of 1ood Calamitjes aud disaster have
come 10 all. but never in the history
of the railroad world has such 4
calamity occurred to a railroad as the
one which on Friday night last hap
pened 70 the Salt Lake Route, whsu
mile upon mile OF its roadbed was
washed away. its rails bcnded and
twisted and broken as if they were
reeds by flood of water which at
tanned a height such as was never
before known. 1t was like a cloud
burst, like All avalanche. aud nothing
could resist the awful volume of water
! that came down Saw Mill canyon,
! thence in the wash and on aud down
u CANYON for almost Que hundred
miles.
Wiped Of the Map.
| It. has for the time being, i'll so lar
as railroad is regarded as a through
| line connecting great cities with cach
| other. been wiped Of the map. II
means aD expense of millions of dol
| lars for reconstruction. IT. means mil
| lions OF dollars lost in freight aud
passenger traffic. II means the re
| building OF almost lis miles of new
road over another survey and the wlp.
| ing off the map of n number OF
small towns. villages and hamlets. 1t
means inconvenience To inc people ia
many ways, and it means the loss 60
employees who can i'll afford it, tbou-
sands of dollars in wages through
their being laid of until The steel
highway is again IN condition for
! through traffic.
Had Hoped Cor Best.
! When the Hood came which wiped
oui so much of the track of tbe Salt
Lake Route everyone minimized the
damage. Every friend of the road
hoped that thc wasbout would not be
| great and that repairs could soon be
made Reports have been slow in
coming into headquarters. this because
II was impossible or account of all
methods. Of communication being
cnt on, lt was 3 week last
and up TO Saturday morning the extent
of the calamity is nor fully known
! Friday night General Manager II. l..
! Wells made this statement;
Manager Wells's Statement.
''It is lbe worst disaster in the
history of the road. The full extent
of our damag gcs is not vet known. and
il may be n week before we know Just
how much the line ls damaged. From
what, information I have at band ]
sixty and ninety days before The road
will be ip romm lSsiou again.
Il DO not think that | am eSag-
Ccratlng when ] say that the daul.
acc doue is much worse than that Of
the food Of 1907 which cost the com
/ pany over u million and 3 half, We
surely that VIC would never be
troubled again, but it seems that NC
did not know. Men who have lived
in that part OF the country for many
wears declare that the food OF last
saturday was the worst that they ever
/ knew.
To Lay Of Employees.
The Indications arc that il will re-
ouirc a longer time than ninety days;
Meanwhile the road is at standstill
in so far az through trafhc Is con
ccrncd, and nothing is moving save
local trains TODAY Saturday notice
will, II is understood, be issued LAYING
! Oft train crews, Ysrdmcp. freight
! handlers baggaeemeu, trlegrapoers.
! hclperS, etc. all along the Salt Ia ha
I division. as also al many points on the
! trouble on that division should DC re.
paired soon, when trains will run east
as far as Lac Vegas.
On tho salt Lake division tbere are
nlnety.four stations on The main ilne
and fftY-eicb' on The hrauc hes-l5s
! liz all. In addition there are the ONCE
employees and the regular train crews,
which number thIrtyfour; hence II
! wil he seen that the order which Is
expected today viii affect a small
army Of men direct and business COM
muuties indirectly. Should this lay
of extend for ninety DAYS, as Genera
! Mapagcr Wells indicates. the loss IN
wages viii be very heavy. But the
COMPANY must do il for sclt-protection-
Hit Hard by Flood.
Since its completion the Sail Lake
| Route has suffered more severely and
more often from floods than any rail
! road in existence. The original data
from The engineering department in
cluded two routes for thc reccpstruc-
tion Of tho road rs Ear as what Is now
Moapa. One was n slightly higher line
than the old one down the Meadow val.
ley, ani the other one was high mp and
along the foothills Of the Meadow Val
lcv range. The question of eXpediencv
was forced on top of The one OF econ
omy (for tho foothill line was more eS
pensive IN construction and would take
more time to completely, and the lower
route was adopted.
And every spring since its completion
the Salt Lake Route has suffered. moro
OF loss. from no food waters of the
"Meadow Valley wash. = To those
who travelled through this section be
fore railroad davs. and those who trav-
clrd the old Short Line 20 lis ter.
nlipal in that region, it is almost in
comprehensive that so much water
could bc rounded up in that sertion OF
country NJ would he sufficieu, To DESTROY
milr after mile of heavy track, take
the rails and twist them, bend them and
DESTROY them for railroad uses--but 1t
di1 il. and over three millions Of dol
lars has becn spent in the two rc.
constructions which thc road has under
Continued on Page Eight.