Part 29 (1/2)

DRIVING A LAST SPIKE

There are noo lines crossing the Aoes through on the thirty-parallel-far enough south from the Rocky Mountains for the current of the train's own rateful relief in June

Beginning at San Francisco, the additional line runs south through California to Fort Yu the southern border of the territories of Arizona and New Mexico, and across the centre of Kansas, until it joins the lines connecting the Southern States with New York The undertaking is a vast one, and has been one of some difficulty; but its completion has been the occasion of very little display Never was a great project of any kind brought to a successful result with so much of active work and so little of actual talk A cable o to European readers, and none of the American papers appear to have dealt with theout of the ordinary run of daily events

Far otheras it with the finishi+ng touch twelve years ago to the other Transcontinental line The whole world heard of as then done All the bells in all the great cities of the United States rang out jubilant peals as the last stroke sent hohway of travel The neas flashed by telegraph everywhere throughout the Union, and that there ht be no delay in its transmission and no hindrance to its siiven and all the wires were for the ti kept free of other business There were cases in which, to save tie was conveyed on special wires right up to the bell towers; and everywhere there was a feeling that a great victory had been won Preceding the consummation, there had been some wonderful feats in railroad construction From the Missouri river on the one side and from the Sacramento on the other, the two coainst each other in friendly rivalry The popular idea was that the length of the line of each company would be measured to the point at which it joined rails with the other This was hardly the case; but an arrangeiven this notion the strength of a tradition The greater part of the Union Pacific route was over coround, and it was not until the Salt Lake region was being approached that any serious constructive difficulties presented the eastward The line had to be carried over the Sierra Nevada, the ascent beginning al seven thousand feet in a hundred e, the descent was in turn formidable Over this part of the road it was impossible to proceed rapidly The as surrounded with difficulties, and there were coineers who had no confidence that it could be carried out Progress could only be made at the outset at the rate of about twenty miles each year; but in this sloork there was time to profit by experience, so that eventually, when it became a question si of an arorously into the race of construction In one day, in 1868, the Union raph that they had laid asA few days afterwards the response came from the Central men that they had just finished as their day's work a stretch of seven miles Spurred to fresh activity by this display, the Union men next reported to the other side a complete stretch for a day's work of seven and a half miles! The answer came back in the extraordinary announcement that the workers for the Central Company were prepared to lay ten ard this as , and the Vice-President of the company implied as much when he made an offer to bet ten thousand dollars that in one day such a stretch of railroad could not be well and truly laid It is not on record that the bet was taken up But the fact remains that it was made, that the Central arood the pledge given in their name So a day was fixed for the attempt From the Union side men came to take note of the work and to measure it, and their verdict at the close of the day's toil was that not only had the promised ten miles been constructed, but that the measurement shoo hundred feet over! And this, on the words of an authority, is hoas done:-When the car loaded with rails came to the end of the track, the two outer rails on either side were seized with iron nippers, hauled forward off the car, and laid on the ties by four men who attended exclusively to this work Over these rails the cars were pushed forward and the process repeated Then ca of men who half-drove the spikes and screwed on the fish-plates on the dropped rails At a short interval behind these ca of Chinamen, who drove home the spikes already inserted and added the rest A second squad of Chinale track, the innerpicks, their duty being to ballast the track Every ed, and there was no loss of tie rate of speed at which the as done was 1 min 47 secs to every 240 feet of perfected track There was, of course, an ar up the reat feat of construction more than four thousand men found employment in various capacities When they had carried their line four miles further east, the Central and the Unionknown as Proement whereby the Union Pacific relinquished fifty-three den as the western terminus of the one line and the eastern terminus of the other The popular belief is that the fifty-three miles were obtained by the Central Pacific directors as an acknowledge difficulties they had to overco their part of the track, and that they served a handicapping purpose at the end of this wonderful railroad co of the final tie on the Pacific lines, as has been hinted, was a cere The event took place on Monday, March 10th, 1869 Representatives were present from almost every part of the Union, and the construction parties, not yet wholly dispersed, reater crowd than had been seen at Proain-for, with the fixing of the terlory of the place has departed The connecting tie had been made of California laurel It was beautifully polished, and bore a series of inscribed silver plates The tie was carefully placed, and over it the rails were laid by picked men on behalf of each coold, silver, and iron, froold, from California

President Stanford, of the Central Pacific, armed with a ha precisely at noon, and the news of the co flashed abroad as it fell Then the two locomotives, one from the west and the other fro into gentle collision, that they in their way, in the pleasing conceit of their drivers, ht symbolise the fraternisation that went on It does not spoil the story of the ceremony to state that the laurel tie, with its inscriptions and its s, was only formally laid, and that it became from that day a relic to be officially cherished; and it should be added that the er to have some memento of the occasion Other ties for a time shared the same fate, until splinters of as claimed to be ”the last tie laid” becareat commander is said to have left behind him at Waterloo

With the junction of the two lines, it became possible to make safely in one week an overland journey that not many years before required months in its execution, and was attended by ers It was, however, a route better known even in the days when the legend of the pilgriion crossed by the new southern line This line opens up what is practically an undiscovered and an unsettled country, but the region traversed has been ascertained to be so rich in resources as to fully justify the heavy expenditure involved in the construction of the line In another year the line will becoent in the development of the Union, for it will then be connected with the lines that run through Texas into Louisiana, and New Orleans and San Francisco will be brought into direct communication with each other This, in fact, has been a pro The effect of it will be to cheapen the tariff on goods from the Pacific Coast to Europe, and will, it is believed, have the effect of controlling a large share of the Asiatic trade

-_Leeds Mercury_, April 23rd, 1881

MARRIAGE AND RAILWAY DIVIDENDS

Marriage would not seem to have any close connection with railroad traffic, but we find an officer of an East Indian railroad coer receipts of the year (1874) by the fact that it was a ”twelfth year,” which is regarded by the Hindoos as so unfavourable to e that no one, or scarcely any one, is reat occasions in Hindoo life when there is great poreat deal of travelling

SECURITY FOR TRAVELLING

A civil engineer, of long experience in connection with railways, gives so state the lines in order The majority of accidents occur, not froents who have charge of the signals and other arrangein at the bottoer of the 'beat,' a man selected from the waymen after several years' service for his aptitude and steadiness, whose duty it is to patrol his length of two or three s, etc, afterwards superintending his gang in packing, replacing rails, sleepers, and other necessary repairs Over the ganger is the inspector of per their duty, who generally goes over all his district once a day on the engine, and walks one or ain, are under the district superintendent or engineer, who ine The ganger, if in want of men or materials, reports to his inspector, who, if they are required, sends a requisition to the engineer, keeping a sent deineer in his turn keeps the whole in har the e the materials, the only check upon the nu the total half-yearly expenditure Directors never within ood order; but, should they limit the expenditure from financial ineer to recommend a reduction of speed to a safe point Occasionally, idle gangers areforwith refusal

THE NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY

Lord Ly tale of his experience with an inquiring and hospitable gentleman in Arkansas:-”He introduced hi that I was a traveller and an Englishman, and offeredof him, but unfortunately I could not stay, so we had a chat while I aiting for the train During this chat his eye fell on a portmanteau of mine which I had caused to be marked, for convenience sake and easy identification, with the cabalistic figures 120 This he scanned for so to me, said rather abruptly, 'If I am not mistaken, you are a nobleman, are you not?' I admitted that such was my unhappy lot 'Then,' he said, 'I presume that number there on your valise is what they call in the nobility ars, is it not-in fact, your crest?' 'Hardly that,' I modestly replied 'A number is only borne as a crest, I believe, by much more illustrious persons-for example, the Beast in the Apocalypse' 'Oh!' he replied, and then, afterin England?' 'Yes,' I said, 'they have been there for some time But why do you ask?' 'Perhaps the nuenerations, just as they recite thely and with prompt mendacity replied, 'that is exactly it, and I don't see how you hit it so cleverly' He sht as the train rushed up, and waved kind farewells to ht”

ENGINE DRIVING

But the regulator once in his hand, the engine-driver has only begun his experience He goes through an apprenticeshi+p with different varieties of engines He e he can himself, and he must always be on the alert to benefit fro ”moods” must be his constant study, and he e share of a ulations The best position in the service, apart froine, and the greatest honour that can be conferred on an engine-driver is to select hie of the locomotive on a Royal train Only the best ine on the road is detailed for the Royal service; and although on those occasions railway officials, who are the superiors of the driver, get on the foot-boards, the latter is for the ti master of the situation Should the locomotive superintendent dictate to him, it would be to confess that the driver was unworthy of his high trust, and so the superintendent is content to look on; but it is the contentment born of the conviction that he has chosen for the task a driver whose experience is great, and whose watchfulness and care and knowledge of enginery have given him a claim to the chief service his co the Queen's train than in running an ordinary passenger express In fact, the risk is reduced to a one before to keep the way clear The pilot engine is fifteen es at every station, and the space travelled over in that fifteen minutes is kept free and unobstructed The speed of the train is carefully regulated, and a points are for the uarded froine until the train follows in its wake Everything is done to ehten also the pride athe Queen's driver

So far as the companies are concerned, it may be said that there is a fair field and no favour all the way fro-shed up to the footboard on the locomotive that takes Her Majesty from Windsor to Ballater Promotion comes practically as a result of competitive examination The mistake of a weak appointment is soon rectified, and the precautions taken to test ahim to another are an absolute barrier to incompetence But there are circumstances under which a man's chances are weakened His responsibilities make hio to his discredit Then if he is not companionable, or is over-confident, tricksforward as rapidly as he otherould Mr Reynolds tells the story of a driver who had come to a dead stop on a journey because he was short of stea with the engine or the fire, and apparently the boiler was also in trim It was eventually found that some one had put soft soap in the tender, and the water there being hot, the soap was gradually dissolved and introduced into the boiler, with the result that the grease covered the tubes, and together with the suds prevented the transmission of heat to the water An enemy had done this, but under the rules the driver was responsible for his engine, and he was suspended; only, however, to be reinstated when once the mischief was traced to the perpetrator Even an act which to the ordinary spectator is a marvellous example of presence of mind may, interpreted by the coine-driver An engine attached to a train broke from the tender in the course of its journey, and beca the mishap, the driver slackened speed, allowed the tender and carriages to come up, and while the train was still in motion he and the fireman adroitly secured the runaway, and no harm was done

The men interested did not think it advisable to report the occurrence