The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-08-03

he had ever seen. The on'y draw
back was to get it cut. ara lie could |
see nt way to do that until the alr- |
ship became a commercial success; in |
transportion. Four Thousand feet
that timber stood above the railroad
tracks at BLACK Mountain, and on
steep moun--.;n SIDES that seemed 60
offer no foOthOld for railroad, logger
or team.
Dickey looked it over from one end
to the other, and then decided that
he could build a railroad from Black
| Mountain to Mt Mitchell. Dickey got
| hold OF r. l.. Sutton of PlumVille, Pa.
| (yOu notice the Pennsylvanians began
to drift in) and armed with d hatchet
they started to proWl over the steep
| slopes and by and by they had rail
road up the mountain side about hf
teen miles, and steam skidderS ana
log men were in the spruce forests OF
the peaks.
They built q railroad that is 4 pic
lture. 1t is now something over twen-
ty miles long, and 1t has not bridge.
nor grade crossing, on it's entire dis
tarce, for there are no streams and
no roads and no farms, and no settle
rDents and NO anything up that noun
tain ridge from one end Of the road
to the other. 1t is narrow gauge,
, blasted out OF the mountain side most
of the way, using 700 tons Of dyna
mite toIwork its way through. Bal
last is joke to this railroad, for the
, foundation is SO solid most of the way
: that ballast would be Of no more use
, than a tank Of ice water in the Arctic
, Circle.
I The grade Of the road is five per
D cent. most Of the way, never more.
& and not often less, except at curves
: where for the sake of the haul it is
: reduced to three per cent. Curves are
: they are startling in their abruptness
a An ordinary railroad tries to keep
curves down to eight degrees This
a mountain road has one as sharp as Sc
d Railroad mon say it is the crookedes
a railroad in the world, one place hav.
ing five 55-degree curves in succession
k In reverse. 1t would make a snake
d Jealous Because it cannot get up rht
e mountain with curve and grade it ha
h number OF switchbacks. where th'
l. read stops abruptly and goes back
! ward. stin pushing higher up tn
mountain by switch immediate1,
b above itself Nine times it adopts thi
II ingenious policy when it gets to an i'm
e possible point. and you can look dow
le from some OF the high spots and So
y strips Of your road weaving back an,
n forth below you along the mourtail
y side.
l. To travel this eccentric bit Of rail
-e road special equipment had to b
made SO to Cory, Pennsylvania. al
l. order was sent for mountain climbing
N locomotives, and half a dozen Of tn
,e sort that know nothing else tha
lg mountain climbing are here on thi
j. crooked steep railroad. They are no
ell like the famous side hill moojers the
Of used to tell about in Pennsylvani
l. years ago, which have short legs O
ay one side and long legs on the othc
q so they can walk on side hills. Blu
of they are mountain climbers, and the
ares hort coupled so they can tur
,k around almost like the old stage driy
IT ers of fifty years ago claimed to dt
1T on a postage stamp.
in Two hundred thousand dollar
IT'S Dickey and Campbell put into thei
o. railroad, and they made a way &c
to the fine timber of the mountains t
i'll get down to the mill at the Souther
,s railroad. AT the present they ar
he pushing farther up the summit a
an though their little trains climb owe
of six thousand feet up now, and GU
a class in pretension anything else o
ne rails on the eastern side of the cor
he tinent. Mr.. Sutton has 12O men sti
he blasting out narrow shelf on tf
elk mountain side for more track. 1t
he said this is the SmOotheSt lOggir
road in North Carolina and that SIC
Of mile will put it in shape to mai
-, q right fair passenger road, which
te. probably it's fate when the lumber
IN cut out, as it will likely be populs
)s- outing road, leading as it does to t.
ok summit of Mount Mitchell. the hlSi
lid est peak this side Of the Rockies.
asl Dickey and Campbell built con