The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-09-04
VILLAGE TO DIE WHEN
TUNNEL Is COMPLETED
Laconia, on Milwaukee at Summit
of Cascades, Will Pass Out Of
Existence After 1915

IN the SnOQualmle pass through
the Cascade mountains, through
which the early cattle rangers of the
state of Washington drove their
beeves to Puget Sound, is a village
with a population of 100 or more
which Is doomed to die. 1t is not Yet
four years old and it will live three
years more, for that is the length Of
time 1t will take to complete the two
and-a-quarter mile tunnel the Chica-
go. Milwaukee & Puget Sound rail-
road is driving to shorten it's trans
continental route four and half
miles and to get rid of eight miles OF
heavy grades and curves.
The village is Tacoma. where the
C. M. & P. S. trains now discard the
helper engines" which drag them up
the mountain from either side. 1t IS
railroad town of tanks for the oil
the Milwaukee engines use as fuel
water tanks and round house. Its
residents are the men who drive and
care for the big Mallet engines.
Quarter Mile Below 1t
Nearly quarter of a mile below
1t and three miles in q direct line to
the south will pass the tunnel which
will in 1915 carry freight and pas
senger trains through the Cascades
without the helper engines. The track
over the summit will be maintained
put only as an emergency route in
case OF an accident to, the tunnel. or
for trains which will be sent that
way to give travellers the benefit of
the magnificent scenery of Snoqualmie
pa@s.
The tunnel will replace with a
grade of four-tenths per cent on an
absolutely straight line a stretch of
eight miles of track on a grade of
two and a half per cent with ten de-
gree curves.
The big bore is being pushed $50
feet month through the mountains
south of the pass from Rockdale, the
first station on the road after the
trains begin their drop from the sum :.
init toward Seattle. Rockdale has an
altitude of 1858 feet above sea level
and in the four miles between that
station and Laconia the track rises to
an attitude Of 1925 feet.
blue print of the present tracks
across the summit, with the line of
the tunnel given would show it the
base of an isosceles triangle, of which
each side would be nearly twice as
long as the base. The tunnel will be
11,S42 feet long and 1900 feet of that
has been run. One hundred and
twenty men. working six-hour shifts.
are driving a heading 16-feet wide
and 10 feet high. AS fast as it is
bored it is tim'bered on sides and top
~ Oh loi1 h n 10
rock which is trapped out to the
full height of "a feet which the tun-
mel will have. The timbering will be
replaced with a concrete lining, arch
ing across the top.
Are lizard Rock Men,
Most of the men operating the COM
pressed air and steam drills which
hammer at the breast of the tunnel
are hard rock men, from the Occur
d'Alene mines. who make child's play
of the gray quartzite and black lime
stone. The drillers and mechanists
are paid $3.50 a day; machine help
ers get $2.75 and muckers, who
handle the broken rock get S2.25.
They are all charged rs cents a day
for meals and the bunk houses.
heated with steam and furnished with
running hot and cold water. are pro-
vided without charge.
To supply the water the railroad
has damned mountain stream.
which formerly poured past the pres
ent portal of the tunnel Steam
pipes from the boilers have been laid
through the long row of bunk houses,
Offices and dwellings on the hillside
above the present tracks