The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1913-05-02

The most animated spot in the
county at the present time is the rail-
road yards at Orovile. A sight of the
bustling activity that is in evidence
along the long stretches of main and
| side tracks throughl the town, morn
ing and evening, is hxhilerating to no
small degree. At those periods of
the day something is doing all the
| time and the shriehs of the whistles,
the clang of the bells, the hizzing of
steam, the humping Of cars as they
are shunted from place to place,
strikes pleasantly upon the ear. The
town in a general way may be in a
measure rather quiet, but that local
inactivity is lost sight Of as attention
IS attracted to the work going on at
and around he depot, where multi
tudes of cars fill the sidings and az
certain hours Of the day are being
switched backward and forward in the
process Of making up trains, or shot
on a spur out of the way.
The reason for this extraordinary
amount of activity at this place is the
construction of the south branch. All
the material used in construction is
delivered here and distributed along
the new line, thus requiring men and
rolling stock to perform the work.
Three or four extra engines with nee
essary crews are s(ssgigned to Oroville,
and"the great amGtint to be accomp-
lished keeps engines and crews scoot-
ing around at high pressure. Morn
ing and night, at the time of the going
out and coming in of the regularly
made up passenger trains for Spo-
kane to the east and Princeton to the
west, there are five, and sometimes
SIX great locomotives painting, and
coughing, belching out smoke and
steam, docily responding to the touch
of the levers as they glide backward
and foreward along the rails. The
shunting Of cars over the various
tracks has the appearance of con-
fusion inviting head on or rear end
mix ups, but accidents do not occur.
The boys in charge know their duties.
and the twist of switch here and
there slips string of fulls or empties
over in the right direction, keeping
clear the main track over which the
passenger has right of way, while
IO1pinp CT rin nf bo; ;,1.
together by other crews.
When the railroad company located
the road through Oroville and laid
out the yards, provisions were made
for Just such contingency as has
arisen in a demand for larger track
age by the building of the south
branch. Several miles of siding wera
put in at the same time the main
track was laid, yet with even ell the
| room created for cars by these long
sidings others were put in during the
winter before actual work had com
menced on the Oroville-W -Wenatchec
| branch. There was surely an object
| AL thuo ~ dll t'llS tIdChtSt So
early in the construction of the main
line. Railroads do not spend such
sums as this great cost without ex-
! pectation of ultimately utilizing the
extra track, and the authorities must
have had something in view for the
future when this expense was as
sumed. Probably the expectation Of
building feeders both north and south
at some subsequent date, even at that
time, with the certainty of Oroville
being the distributing point inHu
enced this preparation for ample car
room. Furthermore, it may then have
teen considered that Oroville was the
logical division point and the cheap
est way of making ample yard pro-
force and tools were assembled on the
ground. But this is only theorizing,
for, anyhow, whatever the purpose of
the powers that had direction of the
, work at that time the present use of
the yards shows the wisdom of having
provided the means by which a num-
ber of trains and vast quantities of
material can be handled effectively
at this point
Let lis get back to the uses that the
yard is being put to at the present
time, for that is what we started out
to tell about, and have nothing to do
with what the original road builders
thought or did not think .entlon ', RS
ago AT the presen rom the ia 2 :
weeks back, the mil'anes' was ,,ina
thil place have besreat r~o"r<i77 unt
eveggnps,slption OF. + f. ~ 'ns'