The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1923-12-12

Laurel to Park City, Tx miles; and
Mission to Livingston, SO miles, are
all improvements for which the grad
ing was done in 1918, but financial
considerations have made it necessary
to postpone these improvements. The
economies effected by avoiding the
delays incident TO the present me-
thod of operation would easily Justify
these improvements. The same may
be said of the plan for additional
tracks, Central Avenue, Superior to
Anton, Ainsworth junction to Pasco,
and Great Northern crossing to Aus
tin.
The additional yard tracks, sidings
and siding extensions call for no
special comment.
improvements on Yellowstone
The improvements on the Yellow
stone division are indicative of how
the making of one improvement
gives rise to the necessity of another.
In opening the Rosebud field we are
providing for u locomotives a fuel
which, as it is lower in B. I. us
than that which we are now using,
will increase in some extent the diff
ficulty of firing in order to make
it's successful use. Therefore it will
be necessary to provide the locomo-
tives of the districts in which it is
used with automatic stokers. But it
is recognized that it will be inadvis-
able to equip with automatic stokers
power of the somewhat lighter char
acter now used on those districts, and
it has been decided that we will sub
stitute for this lighter power a heav-
| Ter class of power, however, it be-
comes necessary to strengthen the
bridges on these districts-which will
mean in some instances the building
of new ones. With the bridges
strengthened and the heavier power
being in use on these districts, it will
be possible to haul heavier tonnage
trains-indeed it would be folly not
to do so. But hauling heavier ton
mage trains means hauling longer
trains and means the lengthening OF
the sidings which such trains must
take for the purpose of clearing the
main line. Thus one of these i'm.
provements, as it is seen, dictates
the necessity for another.
The continual increase in the weight
of passenger and freight locomotives
has made necessary a general streng'
thening of our track structure, anC
last year the Northern Pacific adapt
ed as it's standard section for MAR
line work rail weighing 100 lbs. PEI
yard. except on mountain grades anC
districts of very heavy curvature
where we use a 100 pound rail. Oul
normal charge to additions and bet
terments on account of relays will
heavier rail amounts to approximate
| ly $35O,00O.00 per year.
Heavier Locomotives
| The continual increase in weigh
|; of locomotives has made %necessar.
the Improvements Of our ballast, whlcl
r we 1--we been putting into the tracl
: at the rate of about 100000 cubi
yards e. anr:lm. Pit run materia
rapidly C~isirtegr9tes and is pounds
into the ~ocdbed CEGer the enormou
= engine and train loads now in use
It became necessary, therefore, to i'm
prove the quality of our ballast a
I, we'll as the quantity, and about thre
!, years go we made a start on tn
: use of washed and crushed grave
for ballast purposes by installing
gravel washing plant at Darling
S Minnesota, having a capacity of abou
: 1900 cubic yards per day. A sim
r liar plant was installed during tn
present year at Edgar, Montana, an
at Kanaskt, Washington, a washin
f and sluicing plant was installed.
I think it unnecessary to say any
thing about the item of track faS
Jennings, ties, etc., or of bridges, e1
cept to state that in part for tn
reasons above suggested, and in pal
because the period of life has abou
expired, it will be necessary durin
the next three years to replace wit
heavier structures a number of oil
important bridges.
The items Of grade separations eI
turntables require no special mentio
The Northern Pacific at the pre-
ent time has 2,2O2 miles of autom
tic block signals. This covers Il
entire main line, st. Paul to the Goa:
with the exception of 80 miles, L
tie Falls to Philbrook, which is
our program for construction in t
season of 1924, at an estimated CO
of $120,000.O0. We are completil
this season automatic signals Chen