The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-06-24
LOGGING BY RAIL-
ON HE'LL HOLLOW
MOUNTAIN TOP
Plunkett & Webster Company
Builds New Skyroute
ALMOST PERPENDICULAR
Work Made Necessary to Save Tim
Der Held Up by snowIess
Winter of te1s-f9

Mount Washington, Pixies Peak
Mount Lowe and all other skyroute
railroads that approach the perpen-
dicular on their way to the high
places of the earth have all been nut
into the "once was" class by the tim.
Der hauling line that is being com.
pleted on Hell Hollow mountain by
the Plunkett G Webster Lumber COM
pany The road is less than fourteen
hundred feet long but one terminus
is all OF thousand feet higher than
the other No survey to determine
the grade was made but any man who
hits the ties" on this line uses both
feet and hands to keep from falling
over backward. He makes the ascent
Ike painter climbing the side of a
tall building on ladder and the SEN
sations are similar.
The railroad is one of the results
OF the snowless winter of 1888. To
iumDerman in northern New England
snow in winter as essential as rain
IN summer to the farmer. Without
congealed and uncongealed moisture
neither is able to harvest crop. In
normal years the snow lies from four
to eight feet deep on He'll Hollow
mountain and ii remains on the slopes
and in the deep and narrow valleys
until long after the dust begins to fly
in the low lands.
Last winter there was but little
snow, hardly enough at any time to
make good shedding, but the company
put its gangs OF choppers on the noun
tain and the big yellow birches. the
naples, beeches and ash trees con-
! tinued to fall until nearly three quar-
ters of million feet of timber was
on the skids.
In this high altitude winter with
z out snow was practically unknown and
the work went on with the reasonable
, expectation that before spring the con-
: ditions would be right to permit haul
ing the logs to the mill at the foot of
the mountain. This hope was not
realized. however. and when the buds
began to swell and the yellow adder
. tongue and the pink and white hypa-
tias began TO dot the sides of the
: narrow gulches the fat top of the
: mountain was surmOunted by heap
of logs valued as ii stood at $4,000.
Hard wood that is allowed to re-
main on the ground for an entire year
is practically ruined. 1t is discolored
by the fermentation of sap and the
process of decay begins in a single
: summer. If the logs were permitted
to remain on the mountain the labor
of year would be lost and ii was
therefore necessary to make further
investment to retrieve the capital al
ready tied up. An attempt was first
made to shoot the logs down the
| mountain A trench was cut and
graded as well as possible under the
circumstances and some of the logs
, were sent down. Because of condi-
tions il was found impossible to make
straight chute. The logs soon after
being started attained the speed OF
the goth Century Limited and when
, they reached the turn they would fly
40 feet into the air and come down
with the ends split and pieces OF stone
; driven into the timber to the depth
of two and three inches. 1t would
then he necessary to canthook the
logs back into the chute and the ex-
ira labor added so much to the ex-
pense that the experiment was aban-
doned.
Then it was decided to build the
! railroad. Some OF the iron of the old
I, bennington and Glastonbury railroad
was still attached to the right of way
and was taken up. There was not
enough rails remaining for the work
however, and some OF those that were
pulled up and hauled to the village
= last fall and winter by Truman Nal
, lory were taken back into Glasten-
! bury again to complete the work.
The road is operated with a cable
: and Is equipped with two small HAT
cars. The loaded car in its run down
the mountain hauls the empty car TO
the top. AZ the halfway point there
Is an overhead switch where one car
/, passes directly under the other. The
ItAnlt ~ WOlh'N ~ hhoffN -
the top of the mountain which per
mits complete control of the car which
! always runs at slow rate of speed
II will be necessary to haul the logs
! from the lower terminus OF the rail-
D. road to the company's mill. a distance
of about half mile. There Is a
= fairly good road and II is being put
in better shape for use, to begin IN
:. a few days.
The company has been operating
on Hell Hollow mountain during the
past three years. II is estimated that
there il timber. for the most part
hard wood on It's tract to cut $1,000. /.
600 board feet The railroad viii
eliminate long hard haul from the
b top of the mountain in future seasons
and will largely reduce the cost OF
operation. There are at the present
time few logs at the mill and saw.
ing will begin as soon as the ran
: road begins to deliver.