The Nenana daily news., 1918-09-30
VISITORS WITNESS
 RAILROAD BUILDING

! Yesterday morning a party com posed of Messrs G. H. Gamble M. C. Edmunds, Supervising Engineer H. K. Ward, Pete Mcdonald, Joe Fisher, E. D. Bresnahan and the News rep resentative went out on the D line with w. L. Packer, whose guests they were, and were given an op- portunity to view the construction operations under way at the end of steel and the work of the Bucyrus dragline excavator.
 Ideal weather favored the party during the entire rtip. The jour- ney to the end of steel was made on one of the big gasoline speeders of the A. E. C., operated by Walker 1 Blakey. The machine worked smoothly and after fast run thru the crisp air the party landed at camp 15 shortly before the noon hour.
 At camp 15 another party com posed of Mir. and Mrs. Leroy Mover, Mrand Mrs. R. E. Burns, Mrs. Alex Fowler and Mrs. J. R. Bowen were met. They were on their way back from the end of steel, where they had been interested spectators of the railroad building operations in progress. The end of steel at noon yesterday was over mile away from camp Is, and was steadily drawing farther away.
 i On short spur branching off the main line near camp 15, a string of cars were being loaded with gravel for use on the grade, by the big Bucyrus dragline excavator, the string of cars being pushed back as each car received it's capacity load, and in an amazing short space of time the string of about a dozen care were loaded and ready to be hauled away and unloaded on the grade.
 l One of the party timed the big excavator and it was found that she placed the gravel in the cars at the rate of three cubic yards a minute, using bucket with capacity of a yard and a half. The capacity of the gravel cars are from 30 to 35 yards.
 AS soon as the loads of gravel had been hauled away to be un. loaded on the grade, a string of empties were switched on to the ], spur and the big excavator resumed her work after brief spell of in. activity. Unloading the cars is done by the Lidgerwood unloader. This big machine, which is mounted on a flat car, is hooked on to the rear end of the locomotive, from which she gets her supply of steam. A heavy steel cable from the drum of the Lidgerwood unloader is strung out the entire length of the gravel cars and is hooked on to a heavy box blow mounted on a car attached to the rear end of the string of flat cars. At given signal the Lidgerwood begins winding the cable, the blow is drawn slowly through the gravel cars and the material is unloaded evenly on either side of the track while the train moves slowly forward. ! Underneath the flat car imme- diately to the rear of the Lidger- wood in the gravel train, a new de vice built recently under the direc. tion of Superintendent Packer gath. CTS up the gravel unloaded by means of the blow and spreads it between the ties on either side and in the center of the track The device consists of an inverted V shaped blow with notches to fit over each rail and arms extending a short dis. tance beyond the rail on either side of the track. In one operation the gravel for the use of the surfacine gang is unloaded, gathered and spread properly over the track, the rails being left clean; and when the train has passed on and left the