Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1912-07-12
Moving A Railroad Six Thousand
Miles.

4ullCos
The Secretary of the Interior favors
a trunk line, in Alaska, from tlde-
water at Resurrection Bay to b val
ley of the Yukon, connecting that
great interior waterway with the
coast, and so with the world. 1t Will
be a government-owned railroad.
Secretary Fisher calls attention TO
the fact that a coaling station has al
ready been established by the Navy
Department at Resurrection Bay, and
urges that the development OF a mar
Dor and the construction of a rail-
road starting from Seward as a south
ern terminus, to pass northward thro-
ugh the Matanuska coal fields, would
be justified by military and naval, as
we'll as commercial, considerations.
Incidentally, it would open up the
great agricultural possibilities OF
Alaska.
The most interesting suggestion he
makes, however, is that much or the
contemplated railroad and It's equip
ment shall be transferred from the
Isthmus of Panama by water, a dis
lance of nearly six thousand miles, to
Resurrection Bay. For it appears
that, incidentally to the digging OF
the ditch, the Canal Commission has
had to construct and operate many
miles of road for which there will be
no further use when the job Is hnish-
ed. An immense amount Of material
and equipment-rails, locomotives,
cars, etc.-will have to be sold at
| Junk prices unless it is utilized In n
way now proposed.
The canal-digging job is so nearly
! finished that the surplus machinery
and material can be released at Pan
anna as rapidly as employment for 1t
Is found in Alaska. 1t includes ex-
cavating and wrecking outfits, steam
drills, pile-driving machines, etc.,
well adapted for the construction OF
the proposed railroad. There are 250
miles of seventy-pound rails which
has been in service on the Isthmus
from three to four years, having
originally cost S3l a ton. Fifty miles
of this will be available for shipment
by the end of the present year; II
hundred miles moroccan be released
six months later, and one hundred
additional miles a year after that.
For an incidental item, there are n
thousand switches, complete.
Twenty-four locomoti yes, bought in
1906 at S11, 900 apiece, are to be re-
tired from service June 80, 1913. They
are of ive-foot gage, but could be
changed to United States standard
gage at a cost of $775 each. Also
there are thirty-two narrow-gage
locomotives, which will be available
at the end of the present year, to-
gether with other narrow gage equip
ment such as would be serviceable in
connection with spur tracks and ex-
tensions in coal fields or else where.
Five hundred steel fiat cars, which
cost 1881 apiece in 1905, could be
changed to standard gage for $27.5O
each. There are also eighteen hun
dred wooden fiat cars which cost
81, ITO each-the estimated expense of
converting them being $500. There
are no box cars, no gondolas, and no
passenger coaches. But some of the
steel fiat cars could be easily trans
formed into gondolas, for carrying
coal, and some of the wooden fiat cars
might be redecked and made yer in
to box cars and bunking and mess
cars.
~All of this material could be carried
by water to Resurrection Bay at very
moderate cost.-From Moving a
Railroad Six Thousand Miles," in
July Technical World Magazine.