Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-01-22
Railroad
Is Doing
Great Work

Such startling progress is being
made by the Portland, Eugene & East
ern railway construction throughout
the Willamette valley that 1t would ap-
pear that somebody around the big
Portland headquarters at the Wells
Fargo building must have been swing
Ing a magic wand President Strahorn
may have landed few pords from the
business end Of big stick, but certain
1t is that the results Of the last few
weeks have been marvellous Aside
from the hundreds of men employed
in grading operations by Flagg &
Standifer contractors, the company
is carrying 200 men on its payrolls, all
of them engaged in replacing old steel
with new, laying new tracks on con-
structed grades, ballasting, setting
poles and stretching the wire which
will carry the Juice" for the opera
ton Of the 100 trains which the COM
pany plans to run in and out Of Port
land as a starter.
The company has unloaded 2i0 cars
Of steel rails during the past two
weeks, many Of them being stretched
along the right Of way Of the old West
side steam lines Of the Southern Pa
cific company, while thousands of
tons Of the materials necessary for
track building are stored in the mate
rial yards at Candy, Eugene and Cor
Wallis
Seventy-five pound steel has already
replaced the lighter rails of the old
steam lines between Oswego and Nc
Coy Polk county the track being
raised with heavy ballast to give addi-
tional safety to fast moving trains.
Practically all Of the overhead con-
structlon is completed to St. Josephs,
by way of Forest Grove and Hills
boro, while two crews are engaged in
similar work between Portland and
st, Josephs, over the Newberg di-
vision.
From Mccoy to Corvallis the new
steel is lying on the right of way and
will be placed as fast as men can lay
II down.
Forty thousand yards Of ballast are
being taken out of the Corvallis pit
every "a hours, and are being distrib-
uted over the new system, and sec
ond large pit will be opened at Inde.
pendence by Chief Engineer Guppy.
The latter plans to raise all tracks of
the $40 miles Of the new Willamette
valley electric interurban, placing
them on bed Of the finest gravel and
thus affording a hard, level roadbed
which rains and high water will in no
wise effect A popularity Of the Cor
wallis river bed is that the material is
taken from the bottom Of the river !
where 1t Is constantly being replaced |
through high flood waters washing |
other gravel into the excavations. The
supply appears to be inexhaustible.
The transformer stations at Forest
Grove and Corvallis are well under
way, while new depots at McMlnn-
Vile and Forest Grove are practically
completed Flagg & Standiver have
shipped a large steam shovel to Mon
roe, and accompanied It with 1G car
loads Of grading materials to be used
in finishing the grade between Mon
roes and Eugene.
At Eugene and at Candy materials
are now assembled for laying tracks
and constructing bridges over the Mo-
lalla and the Monroe divisions, and
every effort will be made to get the
into use.
Contracts for the construction of
the grade Of the new main line, from
Portland to Salem, will probably be let
as soon as President Strahom returns
from San Francisco. The first 30 miles
out OF Portland will be double-tracked. L