The Alaska daily empire., 1922-12-04
MEARS CONFERS WITH GOV. BONE
 ABOUT RAILWAY
Revenues Ahead of Estimates Will Ask for $2,000,-
 900 Appropriation.

IttNcuucS bulS veal liUul1 tue Opti I- tions of the Alaska R3i;road will exceed S700,000, according co Col. Frederick Mears, head of the rail road and the Alaska Engineering Commission, Tn charge of both opera tion and construction of the govern ment's railway project Colonel Mears disclosed this estimate in a conference held last Saturday with Gov, Scott c. Bone.
 The railroad builder is a passen- ger on the Alameda. en route to Washington to confer with Secretary Fall and to appear before Congress sSonal committees in support of his estimates for appropriation of money already authorized by previous acts of Congress. He will ask for approxi- mately $2,000G00 for the next fiscal year.
 Three Main Items
 The bulk of this fund will be largely expended on three main items -'the big Tanana River bridge, stand ardizing of the narrow gauge, Fair. banks-Nenana section, and operation of the river transports, the former army river steamers Jacobs and Davis, as river division of the Ala ska Railroad.
 Work on the big steel bridge, the second largest of it's kind in the world, is progressing satisfactorily. Panel work was completed late last month and a freight train crossed on steel laid on false-work, delivering a carload of rails from Nenana to the north side of the river on No- vember 4. Beginning about that time all freight for points was transferred by train over the bridge to North Nenana during the night hours when train operation was possible without interfering with the bridge builders It is expected that the entire struc- ture will be complete early next year. unless extremely cold weather should prevent continuation of tue work. So far there has been no delay on account of weather con- dItions.
 Widen Track in Spring
 AS soon as is possible next spring, Colonel Mears will put gangs to work widening the narrow gauge track between Fairbanks and North Nenana to standard gauge. It is expected to have this completed by early in the season and the operation of through trains from Seward to Fair banks started before summer breaks. There is about 5 miles of track to be standardized on the main line.
 While Colonel Mears expects there may be some criticism of the request for $3O'0O0 for boat operations on the Tanana and Yukon rivers next l season, he is confident that the item Will be approved The two steamers nave already been turned over to the | Alaska Railroad by the army au- | thorities and are now on the ways at ! Nenana undergoing alterations and repairs. It is expected that the boats operating in conjunction with the railroad, will maintain regular p'uN teu NeulHd ana Ia mana River points to it's mouth, and up and down the Yukon River be- tween Eagle and Holy Cross. Coli onei Mears hopes to make the river dfvisfon seif-snstaining from the out set and 10 derive from it consider able traffic, both freight and pas senger' that would otherwise not be handled
 Re-opens Eska Mine
 colonel Mears also announced the reentry or the Alaska Engineering commission into the coal mining in- aus'ry. It re+opehed the Eska mine two days after fire broke out in Ine Evan Jones mine and now has Aoou' so men at work. The work is anuer the supervision Of Sumner
 ~n' The re-entry is said to have 'een made necessary by the cessation \ production of coal at the Jones'i'