The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-06-26

unkett & Webster Company Has Laid
1900 Feet of Steel Rails Almost Per
pendicular to Reach Winters Cut of
Logs.
BENNINGTON, June 26.-Mount
Washington, Pike s Peak, Mount Lowe
and all other skyroute railroads that APP
proach the perpendicular on their way
to the high places of the earth have all
been put into the "once was' class by
the timber hauling line that Is being
completed on Hell Hollow mountain by
the Plunkett & Webster Lumber com
pany The road is less than l ,4O0 feet
long, but one terminus is all of 1000
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 like a painter climbing the
side of a tall building on a ladder and
the sensations are similar.
The railroad is one of the results of
the snowless winter of l91S-19 To lum-
bcrmen in northern New England snow
in winter is as essential as rain in sum-
mer to the farmer Without CONCEALED
and uncongealed moisture neither is able
to harvest a crop. In normal years the
snow lies from four to eight feet deep
on He'll Hollow mountain and it remains
on the slopes and in the deep and mar
row valleys until long after the dust be-
gins to fly in the low lands.
( Last winter there was but little snow
l hardly enough at any time to make good
Shedding, but the company put its gangs
Of choppers on the mountain and the big
! yellow birches. the naples, beeehes and
! ash trees continued to fall until nearly
three quarters of a million feet of tim
Der was on the skids.
In this high altitude a winter without
snow was practically unknown and thu
work went on with the reasonable cxpcc
tation that before spring the conditions
would be right to permit hauling tn,
logs to the mill at the foot of the noun
! tain. This hope was not realized how
ever, and when the buds began to swell
= and the yellow adder tongue and tn
pink and hita hypatas began TO do
the sides OF the narrow gulches the fla
top of the mountain was surmounte
by a heap Of logs valued as it stood a
$4,000.
! Hard wood that is allowed to renal
on the ground for an entire year is prat
tjcally ruined, 1t is discolored by tn
fermentation of the sap and the process
of decay begins in single summer |
the logs were permitted to remain on til
mountain the labor of year would /
lost and it was therefore necessary [
make a further investment to retricy
the capital already tied up. An attcmT
was first made to shoot the logs dow
p the mountain. A trench was cut IN
T. graded as well as possible under the ci
= cumstanccs and some of the logs WEI
sent down. Because of conditions
q was found impossible to make straigl
X chute. The logs soon after being startt
: attained the speed of the goth Ccntul
=, Limited and when they reached Il
IL turn they would fly 40 feet into Il
10 air and come down with the ends spl
and pieces Of stone driven into the til
Der to the depth Of two and three inchs
l. 1t would then he necessary to canthoC
e the logs back into the chute and Il
1t extra labor added so much to the e
pense that the experiment was aba
" doned.
% Then it was decided to build the ra
~ road. Some of the iron of the old Be
Sc nington and Glastonbury railroad w
! still attached to the right of way al
le was taken up. There was not enou,
rs rails remaining for the work howev,
$, and some of those that were pulled
and hauled to the village last fall a
winter by Truman Mallory were TAX
IL back into Glastonbury again to co
"a plete the work.
~ The road is operated with a cable a
'g is equipped with two small fat ca
" The loaded car in it's run down t
mountain hauls the empty ear TO t
to top. At the halfway point there is
he overhead switch where one ear pass
H. directly over the other The cable
he worked through a brake at the top
he the mountain which permits compl
l,control of the car. which always III
al at a slow rate of speed.
,lc 1t viii be necessary to haul the l.
NO from the lower terminus of the T;
re road to the company = mill, dista1
NO of about half a mile. There is a fai
NC good road and it is being put in bet
shape for use, to begin in a few days
The company has been operating
Hell Hollow mountain during the p
three years 1t is estimated that til
rg is timber, for the most part hard wo
20 on it's tract to cut 15,O0O,0O0 board f
The railroad will eliminate a long h
oe- haul from the top of the mountain
mo- future seasons and win largely red
ne the cost of operation. There are at
rt- present time few logs at the mill
nm. saving will begin as soon as the r
road begins to deliver.
hat
the