The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-02-07
LUCIN CUTOFF SURE
TO Be ABANDONED.
Enormous Damage to Southern
Pacific May Mean a
New Route.
TRAINS VIA SALT LAKE
RUMoRED THAT COMPANY WILL
COME THIS WAY.

Alarmed by the recent damaging storms
on Great Salt Lake, and the rise of the
waters, officials of the Southern Pacific
are contemplating radical changes in the
route west from Ogden, while the fate of
the famed Lucin cutoff hangs in the
balance.
1t is persistently rUmored in railroad cir
cles that the Southern Pacific will soon
choose a route around the southern end
of the lake, which means that all trains
to and from the coast would run through
Salt Lake. This will necessitate a COM
plete abandonment of the Lucin cutoff.
1t will be some time, however, before
this drastic action is taken, and, in the
meantime, the elements will have to prove
conclusively that they are going to con-
tinue the assaults upon the entertainments
and the trestles of the great shortcut
across the lake.
Recent storms on the lake have dam
aged the cutoff to an alarming extent,
and the loss to the Southern Pacific has
been enormous. This expense is constant,
for work train and crew are kept busy
on the cutoff all the time, making fills
have made inroads. The waters con-
tnue to rise, storms become more fire.
quent and severe, and the result is that
there is not only considerable damage to
the cutoff, but traffic is often delayed as
well.
In addition to the current expense of
keeping the line in repair, it was re-
Gently announced that an appropriation of
100000 would be made by the Hartman
system to radically revise the cutoff.
This action, it is said in railroad circles,
has been held up, owing to a more re
cent determination to abandon the cutoff
entirely, If 1t can be shown that the south
ern route is more feasible, and that the
cutoff will continue to be kept out Of re-
pair by the tapping waters of the lake.
The route Of the Southern Pacific, west
from Ogden, until 1904 was around the
north of the lake, and over PromontOry
point. The grade over the point was about
three per cent, which necessitated a hard
pull. When the cutoff from Ogden to
Lucin, 125 miles distant, was opened, there
was saving of Il miles in trackage alone
ana the heavy grade was completely elm
mated. At the east and west sides Of the
lake the track is laid upon high embank-
mentS or stone and gravel The rising OF
the waters of the lake has extended far
inland from the actual trestlewOrk, wash
ing away this embankment and the great
force OF the water dashing against the
trestle has weakened it considerably.
1t is far more probable that the South
erin Pacific will choose the route around
the south end Of the lake before even con-
slderfng a return to the old route over
PromOntory. providing it is definitely de
cided to abandon the cutoff entirely,
Means Much for Salt Lake.
1t is pointed out that the Southern Pa
cifiC trains could be sent from Ogden
over the Short Line to Salt Lake, and out
of Salt Lake through Garfield on the San
Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake rail-
road, which is controlled by Hartman in
terests. From a convenient point in
Tooele county, it is claimed, a line could
be extended northwest to again connect
with the main route.
This new routing would consume no
greater time than was consumed when the
route was around the north end of the
lake, and the additional advantage would
be that Salt Lake would be on the
through line of the Union Pacific and the
Southern Pacific roads to the coast.