New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-12-16
"CUT-OFF" READY FOR USE
LackaWanna will Run Special
Trains on Christmas Eve.
SHORTENS RUN TO BUFFALO
In % Miles 100000 Cubic
.l'.s Were Blasted Out and
100000 Used to Fill In.

Passengers aboard the big specials and
regular through trains which will pull out
of New York and Buffalo on the night
of December "A on the Lackawanna Rail-
road will be able this year to retail to
families and friends AT their Christmas din
rers their part in celebrating the compile
ton OF one Of the greatest engineering UNI
dcr,akings In this country Although this
participation will actually consist in moth
ing more exhaustlnC than lying back in a
fast moving train and being Whried over
four hundred miles of country in record
time, IT Will on the other hand. he notable
as marking the opening Of a twenty-eight
mile section Of road the building Of whuch
furnishes an interesting story to people who
do not know much about modern engineer
ing accomplishments.
For purposes Of conversation. however. If
nothing else. the passengers who will make
the trip will be able to say they rode over
the highest railroad embankment in the
world. Although the top Of a mountain
was blown OF TO make it possible. the train
which speeds them over this twenty eight
miles will not encounter grades Of more
than $500 Of l per cent There is one
three-mile stretch OF road which required
for its making 6,625.65O cubic yards Of ma
terial TO break this short pathway
through the mountainous country It
pierces more than six million pounds of
dynamite were used and for part of the
trip these passengers will fly along solid
concrete vaduct at q height Of 10 feet
above the surrounding country.
From the point Of view of the business
man and tho engineer the new Lackawanna
cutoff between Lake HopatconE. y. j.,
and the Delaware Water Gap, Penn. is a
railroading event The line runs from
Slateford. Penn, on the Delaware River
two miles below the Water Gap. to the
crest Of the watershed at Lake Hopatcong.
1t departs from the Lackawanna's custom
sry practice. and lies high up on the hills,
instead Of I'm the bed Of the valley.
To get through the hills that blocked the
path of the road in all directions tremen-
dous quantities Of dynamite were used. An
idea OF the semi-mountainOus character Of
the country may be had from the fact that
fourteen million cubic yards Of rock and
earth were blasted and dug out and TO
cross the big depressions another fifteen
million cubic yards OF rock and earth were
used for embankments. The company could
not get enough earth for this purpose and
had 10 buy 16O acres Of farm land out Of
which to dig the material for the fills. The
earth and gravel were scooped out TO
depth of twenty feet and hauled up the
embankment The deepest cut was l5o feet
deep and the largest was 100 feet deep and
a mile long. mostly through solid rock.
So far the up-and-doEn country through
which the railroad army was moving helped
furnish material for the grades. While the
engineers might blast through thousands
Of feet Of rock. they would then come TO
valley into which this rock could be dumped
and used. When they got into the Pequest
Valley il was a different proposition ana
for three miles near the towns of Andover
and Huntsville they had to build an en-
bankment 10 feet high. breaking all rail-
road records.
The next record tackled and broken was
in the wholesale use Of concrete. Every
culvert and bridge Of the entire seventy
three scattered along this twenty-eight and
one-half miles was built Of concrete. The
concrete bridge record went by the board
when the Iackawanna engineers threw the
great viaduct. 1850 feet long. across the
III Delaware River. To build the abutments
y excavations 81 feet below the surface OF the
ground. down to solid rock. were made Al
Paulin's XII another bridge, much higher
though only / 100 feet in length was built
Every signal tower station and overhead
crosswav of the entire section Of road was
built OF concrete
The means used to accomplish the sur
prisipg results achieved by the Lacka-
wanna on the new cute Off line are al
most as remarkable as the results them
selves In making the fills the engineers
cu,nloyed "a suSneuded aerial cahleWaV
81 the aid of cables and towers movable
bridges capable Of supporting dump cars
were put up. and when the work was in
progress presented the astonishing spec
tacle Of loaded dump cars suspended from