The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1910-01-28
DASH OF RAILROAD DOPE
Cold Weather Did Not Com
pell a Complete Suspen-
sion of Work.
PREPARING TO RUSHTHE GRADE
With the Disappearance sof Frost
There Will Be Busy Time
Along the Branch.

Railroad contractors on the Oroville-
Wenatchee branch have not been idle
during the winter although the con-
tinuous cold weather has been a handi-
cap TO active construction work, that is
the exhibition of that degree of activ-
ity possible where and when atmos-
pheric conditions are favorable. Still
there has never been complete sus-
pension of road building at anytime.
The steam shovel in commission on
tending some eight miles south from
Oroville has been roofing out earth
since grading first began, late in the
fall. This mighty engine for scooping
out earth, doing the work of dozen
men, never loafing on the job, never
kicking on the grub, never showing up
blear-eyed and nerve-racked after a
mig ht out, never going on strike, is
plowing along building road bed even
with the ground deeply frozen. A few
shots of powder breaks way below
the frost belt, and then the nose of the
shovel roots under the crust biting out
great mouthfulls of real estate, and
dumping it wherever needed. The
crews employed are not numerically as
strong as they will be in the spring,
of ic fo h,,,,
rolls, taking in all the camps between
Oroville and Pateros. And, of course,
the boys are busy, for railroad con-
tractors are not in the business for
charity, and carry no drones to draw
salaries.
While actual hostilities in the mat.
ter of concentrated attacks on the road
bed may not have been feverishly an,
minated the contractors have taken
advantage of the sleighing and solid
roads to make preparations for ener.
getic movements when the season ia.
vors out door work. Tons upon tons
of grading accessories, provisions and
supplies have been brought in by the
railroad and distributed among the
contractors camps along the line. For
weeks professions of loaded wagons
have rolled out of town almost daily
headed southwark, and when spring
opens no time need be wasted freight
ing in supplies required in the prose
cution of the work. 1t means steady
plugging at the contract in hand and
speedier accomplishment in the end.
So to the contractors the winter has
not been without its advantages, and
hustling, pushing, energetic men OF
that class do not rest supinely and let
any advantage slip by without making
the best of it.
Down along the line these contract.
ors are keenly anxious for the break.
ing up of winter. With the disapper.
ance of frost will be initiated a cam
paign of do things. The force will be
increased and the right-of-way will
swarm with brawny dirt throwers busy
as the proverbial bee. The grade viii
walk right along, the iron will quickly
follow the grade, and the Strange
notes of the locomotive will fol
the first time awaken the echoes O.
the hills, establishing new order O
things throughout large and ricf
territory so long neglected by trans
portation companies. The operation
of the road will inject new life in {
district that has Jagged behind il
growth and development simply fol
the lack of modern means of ingres.
and egress, build up towns, enhance
the value of property, draw new blood
to the county, and hasten the day wher
the fertile lands of Okanogan county
will be coaxed to the limit of theil
producing capacity. Okanogan is about
the last county in the state to be ex
plotted by railroads, and the beneficial
effects will rapidly follow the spiking
of steel. People rail against railroads
charge them with all manner of sin!
of commission and ommission, paw the
air and yell ruthless robber, yet wher
the smoke blows away all must admi
that railroads are great civilizers ant
upbuilders, and if it were not for rail
roads the great state of Washington
today would be fifty years behind tn,
times.
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