The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-01-08
RAILROAD NEWS
Hartman Projected Line Seat
tie to New Orleans.
New Construction Through
Southwestern Kansas.
FIGHT HILL ROADS To SOUTH
Ambitious to Reap Benefits of
Panama Canal.
Other Items of Interest i'm the
Traffic World.

I railroad
been convinced by developments in the
past year that the Hartman system
contemplates building in the near flu
ture a connecting link which will give
it a short route between Denver and
Il Galveston and New Orleans and be-
tween Galveston and Seattle by way
II of Denver and southwestern Kansas.
II This move is expected to come as a
Il direct result of the purchase of the
Colorado & Southern by the Hill sys-
tenn and the establishment of a through
route from Galveston to Seattle and the
4 changed conditions in transportation
j systems which will be brought about
! through the completion of the Panama
i canal.
4 IT has been found that the Hartman
| system can build a connection between
| the Union Pacific's Denver Kansas
| City line and the Houston & Texas and
! Central which will give it a route be-
tween Denver and Galveston of an ap-
proximate length of LOIS miles as COM
pared with the Colorado & Southern
systems route of 1929 miles between
| the same POINTS.
| operation and it will require the con-
| struction of approximately AIS miles be-
tween the town of Kit Carson, in east
ern Colorado, and Denison, Texas,
north of Dallas,'to complete It.
This link can be built for approx
mately little more than the Burlington
paid for the Colorado & Southern. 1t
can be put into operation for approx
matelv half of what it cost the Hill
system to buy the Colorado & Southern
and build connecting lines in this state
and Wyoming in order to complete It's
gulf forecast route.
The Hartman system will find a wa
ter grade of rs per cent of the connect
ing link Kit Carson. in eastern Colo
RADIO is the most southerly town on
the Union Pacific.
Through a Corner of Kansas.
A line starting at that point will go
down the Big Sandy creek, across the
southwestern corner of Kansas and in
to Oklahoma. 1t will have the valleys
of the Cimarron and Canadian rivers
through which to build and will make
a connection with part of the South
ern Pacific at Denison, just south
of the Oklahoma border.
From Denison there is A direct line
through Dallas to Galveston, with a
connection with the main line to New
Orleans at Houston.
The entire territory through which |
this projected line goes is rich in nat
uraI resources which are rapidly being |
developed and which will furnish an |
enormous local traffic for the road.
1t is further shown that the Harrf- |
man system will. by building this |
link. have a shorter route from Calves |
of the Hill route. The Hartman sys-
tenn will have line approximately q |
697 miles long from Galveston TO Seattle |
and compared with 2785 miles for the |
Hill system.
Good Move by Burlington.
The purchase of the Colorado &
Southern by the Burlington was a
strategic move to shorten the haul
from the south, via the Hill lines, to
the seaport at Seattle
This business formerly went up
the Mississippi valley and out
ST Paul and Minneapolis The
late f. H. Hartman countered on
James J. Hill in that deal by getting
control of the Illinois Central, the
north and south line through the Mis-
sissippi valley, which fed the Hill roads.
That move on the part of Hartman
was followed by Hill acquiring the
Colorado & Southern and again secur-
ing the advantage over his rival. There
are few railroad men who do not expect
to see the Hartman system take the
next logical step in a contest of that
kind and obtain a north and south line
of it's own.
still greater argument in favor of
this move is the changed conditions
which are expected to result from the
of the Panama canal.
1t is believed that the canal will
prove handicap to the east and west
lines in the handling
of through freight and that their policy
in the future will be to build north
and south lines to feed the canal and
transport products from the interior to
the seaports.
There is little reason to doubt that
the Hartman system is fully alive to
the changed conditions when the op-
perfume moment arrives.