Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-16
fearless and skillful bridge builders drfv-

fearless and skllful bridge builders driv-
ing piles. and laying cross pieces. spik-
ing braces and laying ties and rails
until they had restored the connection.
when Supt Mccall gave US switch en-
CINE and a caboose to go to the end OF the
track. We crept along for tWenty-SiX
miles through the pass over half-spiNed
rails and often stopped to watch gangs
of men with pile drivers, travelling der
ricks. big steam shovels and graders
building bridges and embankments and
protecting the right of way against ava
lanches and washouts. and all day the
wonder grew concerning the ease and
rapidity with which railways are built
these times when everything is done by
machinery.
There are construction camps all along
the line. which contribute to the pic
turesqueness of the scene. Several thou
sands of men are living in tents and log
cabins with corrals where animals are
kept beside them. and long trains of
box cars and fiat cars filled with rails and
other building material lie on the side
tracks.
We got our first glimpse of the proud
and magnificent Athabasca river at the
point where it widenS and forms Brule
lake: and Just beyond where the track
skirts Jasper lake 1t passes Jasper House.
Hudsaon bay trading post for more
than a century. Then turning south it
deserts the Athabasca and joins the
!Miette. which flows the other way into
the Pacific.
The Grand Trunk Pacirlc company pro-
poses to take advantage of the scenic
beauties of the pass and has obtained
permission from the government to de-
velop Jasper Park as the Yosemite and
the Yellowstone have been developed
And on the site of the ancient Hudson
Bay station it will build MOTEL. to be
called Jasper House, which hereafter,
will be one of the show places of Canada.
The track is pushing on at the rate of
iy-o mil ba of
G. w. Miller of Sac City, Iowa. who has
one of those wonderful track-laying ma
chimes which can do the work of $50
men. and yet as the Irishman said SO
contemptuously. ut can't vote"
Builds Five Miles Day.
The old way of building railroads was
to distribute the material along the
grade for several miles beyond the fin
ished track by teams of horses and
mules; then place the ties and rails into
position by hand and spike them to-
gether. In this way we'll trained gang
could lay mile day, but the Roberts
pioneer track-laying machine. which is
being used here, has revolutionized the
business. and with gang of 100 men
can build five miles a day.
1t consists of a train of ten or twelve
fiat cars. laden with ties. rails, spikes.
fishplateS and anglebars, with one loco
motive at the head and another at the
TAIL and in advance of the former a far
reaching derrick, operated by a young
man who sits in a revolving chair
On each side of the cars is a continu-
Gus trough containing an endless belt
running slowly on spoois. One of the
belts is made of chains and the othAr of
heavy leather set with spikes On the
fiat cars groups of men roll the steel
rails into the trough of chains and they
are carried slowly to the front, where
the derrick seiZes them and, carefully
guided by the young man in the chair,
lowers them into position upon ties that
have come little earlier i'm the trough
on the other side of the train and in the
same way.
There is a stream of ties always pass
ing through the trough, and gangs of
men stand in line at the end. two and
two, who grab the ties as they fall, place
them on the right of way and then re-
turn quickly to get another load. Other
men are waiting to straighten them into
position, and when the rail Is lowered
into place the spikers come along and
drive their big rough nails as fast as you