Chapter I: Preface

There is the unfathomable fascination of romance connected with the construction of great railways, though little is known of the beginning and the growth of the great trunk roads of the world; of the heavy tax which their construction imposed upon the ingenuity, skill and resource of their builders. Speeding along swiftly in a luxurious Pullman car over a road-bed as smooth as an asphalt pavement conveys no impression of the perils and dangers faced or of the infinite labour expended in the making of that steel highway. To-day the earth is girdled with some 700,000 miles of railways, and there are few countries in which the locomotive has not made its appearance.

This volume has been written with the express purpose of telling in a popular manner this story of romance. It is obviously impossible to deal with every great railway undertaking in the compass of a single volume; but those described may safely be considered representative, and they are the largest and most interesting enterprises between the two poles.

In the writing of this volume I have been assisted by innumerable friends who have been identified closely with the introduction of Stephenson’s invention into fresh fields of conquest. I am indebted especially to the following gentlemen: Messrs. Norman B. Dickson, M.INST.C.E.; A. M. Cleland, the Northern Pacific Railway Company; the late J. C. Meredith, chief engineer, the Florida East Coast Railway; A. L. Lawley; R. R. Gales, M.INST.C.E.; H. E. Gwyther, chief engineer, the Leopoldina Railway Company, Ltd.; Francis B. Clarke, president of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway; William Hood, chief engineer, the Southern Pacific Company; F. A. Miller, the Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railway; the I. R. Austrian Railway Ministry; W. Weston, the Denver, North-western and Pacific Railway Company; the Pennsylvania Steel Company; W. T. Robson, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company; the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company, and Frederic Coleman of Darlington; the Swiss Federal Railways; H. R. Charlton, the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada; the chief engineer, the New Zealand Government Railways; the Peruvian Corporation; the chief engineers of the New South Wales, South Australia and West Australia Government Railways; the Minister of Ways of Communication of the Russian Empire; the Trans-Andine Railway Company; the chief engineer, the Imperial Japanese Government Railways; J. J. Gywn, chief engineer, and S. K. Hooper, the Denver and Rio Grande Railway; G. J. Ray, chief engineer, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad; Virgil G. Bogue, vice-president and chief engineer, the Western Pacific Railway Company; and S. J. Ellison of the Great Northern Railway, U.S.A.

FREDERICK A. TALBOT.

HOVE,
_September 29, 1911_.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I THE RAILWAY SURVEYOR’S ADVENTUROUS LIFE 1

II THE ROMANCE OF CONSTRUCTION 12

III THE BORING OF THE GOTTHARD TUNNEL 30

IV THE RAILWAY INVASION OF CANADA 46

V THE FIRST TRANS-CONTINENTAL ACROSS THE UNITED STATES 59

VI THE LONGEST “TOY” RAILWAY 76

VII THE WONDERS OF THE TYROL 88

VIII THE RECLAMATION OF ALASKA 102

IX THE HOLY RAILWAY TO MECCA 117

X THE HIGHEST LINE IN THE WORLD 128

XI CECIL RHODES’ DREAM--FROM THE CAPE TO CAIRO
(I. NORTHWARDS FROM CAPE TOWN) 139

XII CECIL RHODES’ DREAM--FROM THE CAPE TO CAIRO
(II. SOUTHWARDS FROM CAIRO) 152

XIII GRIDIRONING THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 162

XIV THE IRON HORSE IN AUSTRALASIA (I.) 175

XV THE IRON HORSE IN AUSTRALASIA (II.) 186

XVI ACROSS SIBERIA BY RAIL 198

XVII THE LEOPOLDINA RAILWAY 214

XVIII THE FIRST CANADIAN TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILWAY 224

XIX A RAILWAY OVER THE SEA 240

XX THE LAND OF REMARKABLE RAILWAY BRIDGES 250

XXI WHERE THE SNOW-PLOUGH WORKS IN SUMMER 260

XXII FROM BUENOS AIRES TO VALPARAISO OVERLAND 270

XXIII A LITTLE-KNOWN CENTRAL AFRICAN RAILWAY 281

XXIV THE INVASION OF THE FAR EAST
(I. EARLY DAYS IN CHINA) 289

XXV THE INVASION OF THE FAR EAST
(II. MODERN DEVELOPMENTS IN CHINA AND JAPAN) 297

XXVI THE CONQUEST OF THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS 308

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

_To face page_

Where the Union Pacific Railway strikes across Salt
Lake _Frontispiece_

Building the loftiest bridge in the world 6

Driving a cutting 100 feet deep by the aid of dynamite
and steam shovels through slate on the Delaware,
Lackawanna and Western Railway, U.S.A. 7

A Railway Construction Camp among the mountains 16

Building a high bank on the Delaware, Lackawanna and
Western Railway, U.S.A., by modern methods 16

The huge steam shovel which takes some 3 tons of spoil
with every bite 17

The drag-line shovel which scoops up the earth in the
cutting as it is pulled along 17

The Pecos Viaduct on the “Sunset” Railway, the highest
structure in the United States, the track being 321
feet above the water below 24

The track layer, whereby the metals are laid at a speed
of 3 or 4 miles a day, crossing a heavy timber
trestle 25

The Göschenen entrance to the St. Gotthard Tunnel 32

The wonderful Wassen Loop on the St. Gotthard Railway,
showing three tiers of track 33

The compressed air locomotive which hauled workmen and
rock blasted from the mountain in the cutting of
the Loetschberg Tunnel 36

What the working face in the heart of the mountain is
like 36

The lofty Amsteg Bridge, 184 feet high, spanning the
Maderan Valley on the St. Gotthard Railway 37

No. 2, “The Toronto,” the first railway engine built in
Canada by James Good in 1853 48

The Niagara Cantilever Railway Bridge under construction 48

“The Eighth Wonder of the World” 49

The bridge as reconstructed 49

The magnificent single span bridge across the Niagara
River below the Falls 50

A view of the iron tube, 2,290 feet in length and 23
feet in diameter 51

The 2000 h.p. electric locomotives hauling the
“International Limited” through the tube 51

The massive bridge of the Union Pacific Railway over
the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, from which
point the first railway across the United States
was commenced 62

The timber trestle across Salt Lake, by means of which
the Union Pacific saves 57 miles 63

Building the Otavi line through the German South-west
African Bush 80

The passage of the first train, gaily decorated for the
occasion, over the “toy-like” Otavi Railway 81

The workmen cutting and blasting a narrow path on the
steep mountain slopes for the Karawanken Railway 92

The massive steel bridge which carries the railway
across the Drave River to approach the tunnel
through the Karawanken range in the background 93

The northern entrance to the Karawanken Tunnel 93

The Tauern Railway, showing winding character of the
line 96

The entrance to the Tauern Tunnel 96

One of the huge loops on the Tauern 97

The first hour’s work: navvies preparing the grade
along the main street of Skaguay 106

By railway to the Klondike--the White Pass and Yukon
line under construction 106

The dismal tract of swamp and river through which the
Alaskan Central Railway makes its way 107

The wonderful horseshoe timber trestle, 1,240 feet
long, varying from 40 to 90 feet high, on the
Central Alaskan Railway 112

A wash-out caused by the Placer River in flood 113

The obliteration of the line by a landslide 113

A striking piece of railway building in the Yarmuk
Gorge 118

A bird’s-eye view of a chasm in Palestine, through
which the line follows a winding path on the left 119

A masonry bridge on the Holy Railway, showing
solidity of construction and mountainous character
of the country 119

A heavy steel bridge in course of erection between
Haifa and Deraa, the branch from the main sacred
line to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea 122

The engineering wonder of the Hedjaz Railway--the
sudden descent into “The Devil’s Belly” 123

The railway in the domain of the Genii 124

The lonely path of the Pilgrim’s line through the
silent, rocky and sandy wastes of Arabia 125

Meiggs’ masterpiece--the V-switch by means of which
the railway is lifted from one level to another,
showing turntable and method of operation 130

The Infiernillo Bridge 130

A horseshoe curve in a tunnel 131

The first Verrugas Viaduct, which was destroyed by a
cloudburst and rock-slide 134

The highest tunnel in the world under construction 135

A British locomotive in the realm of perpetual Andean
snow, 15,865 feet above sea-level, on the Oroya
Railway 136

Looking through the tunnels on the Oroya Railway 137

The greatest bridge in the world 144

Setting up the world’s railway building record in Africa 145

Construction train on the way to the railhead crossing
a temporary timber bridge 154

The longest bridge in Africa, 1,300 feet in length,
across the Kafue River 154

The “Hanging Bridge,” one of the railway wonders of
the Denver and Rio Grande, in the Royal Gorge of
Colorado 155

The railway two miles above the sea 166

A “double-header” climbing the cliff of Animas Canyon
on the Denver and Rio Grande Railway 167

Crossing the continental “divide” on the “Moffatt” road 170

The Moffatt Railway playing “hide-and-seek” among the
tunnels in Gore Canyon 171

The gigantic snowplough, the largest yet built, which
keeps the higher levels of the “Moffatt” line
through the Rocky Mountains free from the heavy
falls of snow 172

A deep cutting 173

Boring one of the ten tunnels 173

Before the explosion 180

The blast 180

The cliff-face dislodged 180

The cliff-face broken up 180

The Puttapa Gap Bridge, 200 feet in length 181

The Hookina Creek Bridge 181

The entrance to the tunnel, 1,096 feet long, through
the Darling Range 188

The dearth of suitable water was the serious problem in
the early days of the Coolgardie gold-fields. As
the railway could not haul supplies from the coast,
this novel condensing plant was erected 189

How the Western Australian Eastern Railway cuts through
the Darling Range 194

The Leopoldina Railway is a maze of curves, twists and
bends, owing to the rugged character of the country
traversed 195

A steep bank showing the central rack rail 216

Train on the rack section of the Petropolis division,
showing the curious type of locomotive adopted 216

Rebuilding a bridge on the Leopoldina Railway 217

A flood on the line 218

A derailment caused by the train colliding with a cow! 218

An interesting engineering achievement 219

Bridge over the Parahybuna River, showing height of
river in flood and force of water surging round the
piers 219

The bridge over the Parahybuna River at Campos under
construction 220

The Parahybuna River Bridge completed. Total length
1,113½ feet 220

The rockbound shore of Lake Superior severely taxed the
engineers in the building of the Canadian Pacific
Railway 221

The “Gap,” the eastern entrance of the Canadian Pacific
Railway to the Rocky Mountains 226

Where the “Big Hill” was cut out on the Canadian
Pacific Railway, between Hector and Field 227

How the Canadian Pacific line creeps round towering
precipices along the Fraser River 230

In threading the Fraser River Canyon the engineers
were compelled to hug the waterway, though it
involved the boring of numerous short tunnels 231

The steel arch bridge across Stoney Creek in the
Selkirk Mountains 234

The railway traversing the tumbled Thompson River Canyon 235

The Cisco cantilever bridge carrying the Canadian
Pacific Railway across the Fraser River 238

The Key West “Limited” passing over Long Key Viaduct at
full speed 239

Building the grade. The dredger cutting its own path
and dumping removed spoil in centre to form the
embankment for the track 244

The embankment completed, with the canals dug by the
dredgers on either side 244

How the embankment was built on the keys 245

How the reinforced concrete arches were built within
wooden moulds 245

The training-bund or wall to narrow the Ganges by 3000
feet for the Curzon Bridge, showing railway approach 252

Erecting the piers for the Curzon Bridge 253

The training-bund under construction by native labour.
At the extreme right a pier is being built for the
bridge 254

General view of the pier-building operations for the
Curzon Bridge across the Ganges at Allahabad 255

The Gokteik Viaduct under construction 256

View of the Gokteik Viaduct 257

Train emerging from Reinunga Tunnel, 5,217 feet long,
in distance, showing snowscoop-plough on locomotive 262

Myrdal Station, showing entrance to Gravehals Tunnel,
17,420 feet in length 263

Myrdal Station in winter, showing depth of snowfall 263

A view on the Bergen Railway in winter, showing
screens to protect line from drifting snow, and
snowsheds 266

Mules carrying water in barrels 267

Load of railway metals on a mule’s back 267

Railway building in Nyasaland, Central Africa 282

A typical bridge on the Nyasaland Railway 283

The novel lift bridge over the Shiré River at Chiromo 283

The iron horse in Central Africa 284

The bascules being lowered by cables and winches from
either cliff-face 285

The bascules lowered, showing the French engineers at
centre making the connection 285

The Faux-Namiti Bridge completed 302

The line skirting the seashore near Okitsu, Tokaido, on
the Japanese Government railways 303

The most striking example of Japanese railway engineering 306

Two railways racing to the Pacific coast through the
Deschutes River Canyon 307

The “switchback” by means of which the Great Northern
Railway of the United States negotiated the Cascade
Mountains before the boring of the Cascade Tunnel 310

Building a steel trestle across a rift 311

Building the biggest embankment on record by hydraulic
sluicing 314

The “Merry-go-round” devised to expedite raising an
embankment 120 feet high 315

A lofty embankment in course of construction. In the
centre it is 120 feet high. Construction camp in
foreground 315

Building the Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railway
through the Bitter Root Mountains 318

Carrying the Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railway
across the Columbia River 319