The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1914-02-20
Railroad Rumblings

side OF Cascade tunnel mas mad It's name
changed to Imbro.
The Great Northern's ice crew which
will load their ice houses in this city is
expected to arrive here the latter part
of the week. The ice will come from
Loon lake about fifty miles east Of Spo-
kane and in all about $500 tons will
be stored.
Raleigh Mccain manager OF the
Western Union Office in this city an
nounced the first OF this week that due
to adyices received recently the local
branch has been made money chang
ing office. 1t is possible now to tele-
graph money to any part of the United
States or any foreign country.
That the Great Northern is figuring
on solid sleeping car train between
Seattle and Chicago to be put on this
summer is the present talk among rail-
road men. At present there is only
one train OF this class running out OF
the state, which is from Spokane east
over the Northern Pacific. 1t is the
belief of the railroad officials that the
travelling public wishes better service
and the new train service contemplated
which would probably run on the pres
ent No. rs time would shorten the
time between the two points at least 8
hours.
i The fastest time on the mountain di-
vision, between here and Skykomish
} for long time was made Wednesday
morning by No. 81 the mail train,
which covered the distance OF 81 miles
in one hour and IS minutes, beating
their former time by so minutes. There
is no speed limit for those pulling the
mail trains, it being left to the judg-
ment of the man pulling the throttle.
While the average made on the trip
was only % miles an hour it is con-
sidered a remarkably good record for
mountain work.
| A special train carrying colony OF
Russian farmers numbering 152 bound
for the Big Bend country passed thru
this city early Wednesday morning.
The Russians come from lower Cali
fornia where they have been engaged
in farming for the last ten years, and
will take possession Of ready made"
farms worth $50, 900 purchased from
the Big Bend Land Co. The farms lie
in Grant county between Hartline and
Wilson Creek which is said to be the
best wheat land in that section. The
deal was made by former Governor M.
E. Hay who has recently returned from
the south.
To make estimates on the charges
OF carrying United States mail by the
Great Northern railroad, whose con-
tract with the government will expire
in the near future, special veighers
have been put on all mail trains. The
weighing Of the mail began Wednesday
and will continue for "a period of four
months. This will give the railroad
company an idea of how much mail
they are carrying and they will base
their bid accordingly. The mail con-
tracts are let for four years. 1t is ex-
pected that the charges for carrying the
mail will be considerably higher than
in the past, due to the new parcel post
service, for which there has been no
extra charge as yet.
For the benefit of our many readers,
especially those whose calling is rail-
road work, we print the following story
of what happened to one engineer who
was superstitious. This is supposed to
have happened in Alton ILL.,, and if any
OF you have ever been there maybe you
are acquainted with this unfortunate
man. Peter Houseman has lost his
| job as engineer because a black cat
sped across the track in front of the
train. There was no chance Of the cat
being hit, but Houseman reversed, put
on the air and made a sudden stop.
When the surprised train crew and pas
sengers looked from the windows to find
out the trouble they saw the engineer
throwing snowballs at an Usage hedge
tree, wherein was perched black cat.