Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1927-05-27
srthem Railway Building Nations
Longest Tunnel. American Magazine
Widely Heralds Northwest
Achievement

s,r, St Paul Minn-In the May number of the American Magazine. Keen.
no now , in course of sonst,uctio. for the Great Northern Railway. This is ' to- be
t t1ssnis5 ,l in E marked s1s asssss the ABILITY s q + Hi line to handle M sr ran nj s@
from ,s sash other tassd by 40 thar a thousand miles are two groups Of mn ~So
ton We ought { feel Dsosd Of them for aet they s are so Say a e 5ren ntaSSaS
" ins, men sa,, in o me Of O. these two ssoaD may be tound1at least sometime.
towering is' CASCADES aS@s NJ %oa n tast Of 4 fhe s%ts of 1 Wss Sans5 group is out in the
driving nwn s tuna asy tSao sns m 9s easssd / T Rsars just i that, For s,, these 81 m srs
Longest in the Western Hemisphere and One Of the five longest in the world.
err Railway; and both comp eo%pa a IS h S0@f their head S% oniess 10 in St. ST. ' Paei h M III.
Saaa president q he ,s 1 road - and ~ J RE- !. v "a Ds Sisai is chief hi 's sasiass'' R''''
.urpdsnsiy brief document, considering sn the u mas si Se' of the eS 1o5. BUT. s. ssor :
he wanted to have charge of Of the he work aas ""' i DS NJ" d n n'n SA'"
-That man was J. C. Baxter vice president of the Guthrie Company
in nsof sMh a s ana to ss at sn a foot an Of :, 'm I'll ens as ss ,s,, ladder ass means M an work work,
N Northern ner . j C. Baxter aa sv worked worked under him; ot in those yer mountains. by
-Bazters name "a written into the Cascade Contract, because Nj.
So So the story Of the ' tunnel mel s. ONE e o O. Machines i%s and Of fi mst ! s' mn
years 1 oa. ne Ss tor TO- Salt alt Hs e ' cty a 4 fss years ss California iates aa r ns been ss IA mof fSas
Or -w vi an he s@ V a a y q msss1 baxter '1 became a maeAlnsss apprentice:
humble Sal b task ask . ,m sho vel @ DIRT With 10 a aa construction Sshea' san an9ns 1 rSha t ns i hTs
rose out of the very dirt which he shoveled. he determined TO stick . that
he ever has taken a technical course in college. When he directs
a !. ccnst''0d p lob Job to-day to-day, he does it as a graduate from the school Of ex
sinking tunnel tn l driving railroad and bridge burdng-an the way from the
n': X Z - as y ~i 1850 1 tsss f' John F r. Stevens ss As ssa chic. engineer of the or,a,
searching ssasasl i s1 a . soats BY 1 aasy t sns1 ranro sas n aatss'' cross o' sA the ca @oasia hsns'
). ,IsS two points point, vassa later, became the stations sslas and Scenic
Daat there, climbing over the pass by a series Of sSHchbacas. In 1900 this
THE he between Scenic and Berae rs about eighteen miles long
Coming east from Scenic it has t, climb 1a25 4eet pass through six TUNE 81
and TX miles Of nOwsheds. Five OF the tunnels are very short The sixth
is almost three miles in length making the total length of covered track
about nine miles. When the line reaches the summit elevation at $3.50 it
descends SAG feet to Berne.
1.-THE weight Of a railroad trains n into hundreds Of tons! And to
drag this weight up hundreds of feet is a n herculean job. 1t costs money
too; and 1t takes time. As both money and time ara the great factors ii
modern railway operation, that eighteenmle bit Of Dad has always given
Great Northern officials something to think about
Moreover, there were those six miles of snowsheds. In themselves
the snowshedh of our Western railroads are a triumph OF human ingenuity
over the forces of Nature Built of concrete walls and great nmbers.
their roofs are almost Al integral part of the mountainsides which they
follow.
The conception and building of these showsheds formed n OF the
dramatic chapters in the history of III railroads But when Nature built
a mountain side, she turned out a permanent job: whereas, a snowshed has
to be maintained. repaired, and occasionally rebuilt To do this work on the
six miles of sheds between Scenic and Berne costs hundreds of thousands
win eliminate those sheds entirely. win cost about ten million dollars But
the saving. on the upkeep of the sheds alone. will moret than pay the inter
est OF this investment
That liz not all which the tunnel will accomplish. The line between
and Scenic will be ten miles long instead of eighteen. The climb
will be SOL feet less each way. II all the present curves we're added to-
gether, they would form just about six complete circles; but the new tn
mel viii be straight from end to end AS for the important factor of time,
the tunnel will save hour in the running time OF passenger trains. and
three hours OF freight trains.
these results may, o. many not, sound important 10 you. 1t depends
have no real understanding of this job, which calls for billions Of dollars.
uses the labor of hundreds of thousands of men, and without which on
modern life would be utterly impossible.
"As for the days of railroad romance being over, let's read thso new
chapter, with its story of the ten million dollar Cascade tunnel.
1T was in November, 1925. that the plans were submitted to the Great
Northerns boardoof directors and approved by them. But that had been
preceded by months of study, consultation, and calculations
And these men have made a world record sc TAR as tunnel driving s
concerned. When the work started. 1t was estimated that three years would
be required to finish it. But at the present rate of advance the tunnel will
yAE m up"