Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1913-08-16

could still accommodate traffic, that
made three tracks across the noun.
tains where they had been one be.
fore, and the system was unstrang
led The new tunnels cost nearly 81,
100000 each Before the new tunnel
at 1unnelton, called the Kingwood
tunnel could be built the old single
track one had got 50 hot and fun Of
gas from re traffic that had to be
crowded through that it was neces
sary to install yentilating plant at
a large cost, though IN less than two
years new double track tunnel
would be opened by its side. There.
too. at Tunnelton It was necessary to
move villa 10 one sne of the sur
Yey. Houses worth moving were NOV
ed by the railroad contractors. 9th.
er5 were demolished and paid for and
then to leave good feeling In Tunnel
ton town the railroad built It fine
brick paved street through the mid
die which II would never have been
able to build for itself A thing like
that Is lost in the balance sheet. Tile
accountants simply add it to the cost
Of property
Romance has not gone out Of rail
reading. if you look for it. The diff
ference is that people are accustom-
ed to see great works nowadays per-
formed as matter of course, and
waste not the time to make an ado
about them. When Thomas Swami, as
president of the Bait more and OHIO
that ran only from Baltimore to Cum.
berland, promised his shareholders
that he would carry their road to the
Ohio river it seemed a tremendous
thing to promise He did it. That was
heroic Later John w Garrett prom
ised to take 1t to Chicago, and did
and he is famous. Neither spent one
third as much as s60,00000o in three
years. ~ say tildb oilb uhlit tiic tb'u
from Cumberland to the Ohio river
and that the other built 1t to Chicago
is to allot to each an achievement
In physical proportions that every
one knows But to be able to say that
between Little Cacapon and Orleans
Road Daniel Willard eliminated a 05
per cent helper grade. established a
continuous eastbound grade of only
Oh per cent. and put four tracks
where there were but two before
that does not appeal irresistbly to
the imagination. Only an eglneer
can fully appropriate It, That is now
the biggest piece Of Improvement
work doing on the Baltimore and
Ohio. 1t is known as the Magnolia
cutoff and will cost S6,000,000 It eX'
tends over a distance of seventeen
miles.
Making a railroad greater, in this
manner without deranging the dense
traffic moving on the old line, is like
boring hole larger with an auger
bit. 1t is harder than boring a large
hole fresh, because there is nothing
for the gimlet point of the auguer to
take hold Of and-but unless YOU are
an amateur carpenter you win sot UNI
derstand In the railroad contractors
case, the old line in use is the hollow
centre OF his operat 'ons. He must
never occupy the space through which
the traffic IS passing. He has to set
off from il, or go over II, or dig under
it, In one place he may have to take
out thousands of yards of material
on the new survey higher on the
moustain than the old lse asd pass
all of that material over the busy
tracks below dithout obstructing q
train. The little narrow gauge way
on which his shovels and dump trains
run he may Irvine bout the noun
tains or suspend between trees but
he must not let It touch a real rail
road The work consists almost who'll
ly of moving material from where it
is to where the engineers want it
the same old story.
with one of the young engineers
you are on the rear end of n Balti-
more and Ohio passenger train, APP
nroach ng the easten slope OF the Al
leehauies. He says: There is where
the work begins on our Magnolia cut
off"
You look as he points. and see an
ugly litter on the mountain side. A
steam shovel is snawing away at the
material and dumping it by mouth
! fuls into queer little cars running "a
narrow gauge track that mas been
laid down in a very reckless manner.
/ Then comes a little engine from
1 "a rouud thp shoulder 0f tha mOuutai n