The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-12-28
new RAIL Line
TO BREAK LAST
ARCTIC BARRIER
Road to Hudson Bay Will Be
Completed by Next
Spring.
BIZ Times SpcciaL

C11CAGO, OeC. Ao,-OOIIlS GlII1S
next spring, ,.:ong about May Is,
golden spike will be driven into
cedar crosstie on the shores of bleak
Hudson bay, and all the United
States. Canada and Mexico will
have direct railroad service to the
Arctic and the land of the midnight
sun.
For the first time in the history
of North America, two weeks
summer vacation may include an
Arctic trip into the land where the
sun never sets all summer long, a
trip rivaling the European journey
to the famous fjords of Norway,
writes j. Earle Miller in Popular
Mechanics magazine.
1t will pass through the land of
the CTeeS, over the Height of Land
and down through the Great Bar
renS, where no trees can grow, and
out to the land of the Eskimo, on
the shores of the great bay.
Unique in Rail Building
TO get the steel rails to the in
aand sea the famous navigator
found, and where he died when
cast adrift by his mutinous crew,
the weirdest, Strangest railroad job
ever undertaken in North America
has been going forward.
1t has progressed across the
frozen north in winter, with tenn
peratureS of so below zero, and over
the oozing muskeg swamps in sum-
ner, when the thermometer rises
to the ninetieS.
Instead of steam ShovelS, graders,
tractors and horSes-all the modern
equipment usually associated with
railroad building-the contractors
first built "duckboardS" to lay across
the Swamps, the invent back to the
days when the first tranScontinental
line was pushing across the plains.
They built their railroad through
the wilderness with wheelbarrows,
picks and shovels, for nothing
heavier could navigate the muskeg
in safety.
Drill Huge Wells
To get a permanent water sup
ply for the tanks supplying the loco
motives, huge wells we're dynamlted
down below the frost line to reach
seepage water from nearby lakes
and Streams, covered over with
triple insulated roofs, and the
water tanks themselves are sur
rounded by houses and heated
throughout the winter, with the
Stovepipes passing up directly
through the tank of water.
Wheat, and not tourists, sent the
steel to Hudson bay. From Saska-
toon, in the center of the Alberta
and Saskatchewan prairieS, to Liv-
elpool by way of Hudson bay is only
1891 miles, whereas it is 5,213 miles
by way of the Great Lakes and the
\. st. Lawrence, the present rail-and-
Water route.
All construction supplies had to
be freighted into place during the
winter months, using sledS drawn
by either horses or tractors. Every
ten miles a construction cache was
placed in a log ana canvas camp.
Each cache, to supply the work.
ers for five miles in either direction,
contained sixty tons of supplies,
forty tons being food, and twenty
tons wheelbarroWs, picks, shovelS,
tents, bedding, clothe sand other ar
ticleS.
Toll Is Strenuous
The workmen themselves were
brought in over the snow before the
spring breakup of ice. The workers
were mostly BelgianS, Firms, Rus
slams and Swedes.
Each man was an individual con-
tractor, working under subcontract
from the construction company.
Sometimes eight or ten would
band together, buy tent and food
supplies II ,ommon, and take con-
tract for a mile of grading.
The workers who went in last
spring and spent eight or nine
months in the north, averaged SIS
to Sc a day above their expenses.
To do that, though, they worked
sixteen, eighteen and as much as
twenty hours day, which is easier
to do in a land where the sun sets
around II o'clock at night and rises
again at a. M.
The north country probably will
not be ready to welcome tourists
and settlers before 1880, as all the
coming summer will be required to
get the final miles of railroad in
eJaoyOa for fT-o fir