The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-06-17
Moving Railroad Six Thousand Miles

The secretary OF the interior favors a
trunk line. in Alaska. from tidewateI
at Resurrection bay to the valley OF
the Yukon, connecting that great in
terror waterway with the coast, and SO
with the world. 1t will be a govern
ment -owned railroad.
Secretary Fisher calls attention to the
| fact that a coaling station has already
been established by the navy department
at Resurrection bay, and urges that the
| development of a harbor and the con-
struction of a railroad starting from
| Seward as southern terminus, 10 pass
northward through the Matanuska coal
fields. would be justified by military and
naval, as well as commercial, considera-
tions. incidentally, it would open mp
the great agricultural possibilities of
| Alaska.
The most interesting suggestion he
makes, however, is that much of the
contemplated railroad and its equipment
shall he transferred from the isthmus
of Panama by water, distance OF near
" six thousand miles, to Resurrection
bay. For it appears that, incidental
to the diggings of the ditch, the canal
commission has had to construct and
operate many miles of road for which
there win be no further use when the
job is finished. An immense amount of
material and equipment--rails, loeomo-
tives, cars, etc.--will have TO be sold at
junk prices unless il is utilized in the
way now proposed.
The canal-digging job is so nearly fin.
ished that the surplus machinery and
material can be released at Panama as
rapidly as employment for ii Is found
in Alaska 1t includes excavating and
wrecking outfits, steam drills, pile-driv-
ing machines, etc, well adapted for the
construction of the proposed railroad.
There are $50 miles of seventy-pound
rails which have been in service on the
isthmus from three to four years, hav-
ing originally cost S3l a ton Fifty
miles of this will be available for ship
ment by the end of the present year
one hundred miles more can be released
six months later, and one hundred addi-
tional miles year after that. For an
incidental item. there are one thousand
switches. complete.
Twenty-four locomotives, bought in
1906 at sll 900 apiece, are to be retired
from stfNiCt JUNE w. lblD. lNeN are
of fve-foot gage. but cauld be changed
TO United States standard gage at
cost of S775 each. Also there are thir-
ty-two narrow-gage locomotives. which
will be available at the end of the pres
ent year, together with other narrow
gage equipment such as would be ser
viceable in connection with spur tracks |
and extensions in coal fields or else
where.
Five hundred steel fiat cars. which |
cost 1881 apiece in 1905, could be changed |
to standard gage for $3.50 each. There
are also eighteen hundred broad gage |
dump cars, and sixteen hundred wood |
EN- fat cars which cost Sl.ll0 each-the |
expense of converting them
being $3.50. There are no box cars,
no gondolas, and no passenger coaches.
But some of the steel fiat cars could
be easily Transformed into gondolas, for
carrying coal, and some of the wooden
flat cars might be redecked and made
over into box cars and bunking and
mess cars.
All OF this material could be carried
by water to Resurrection bay at very
cost-From Moving a Rail
road Six Thousand Miles," in July /
Technical World Magazine.