Show k I II I 1 MULE SHOE ROUTE y Gravity Scheme Invented by Miners Miners Min Min- 1 ers of Tennessee y I Devise Mountain T T-Rall T Rall Toboggan Which Takes Them to Shaft t Openings in a Hurry A queer gravity railroad scheme Is IsUn l In Un use among the miners In the Inman district of Tennessee not far from the town of or South Pittsburg The region has b by the way more different kinds of ot means menns of transportation than any other In the world The range Ls Lq from the steeply Inclined cable road that runs up Lookout mountain not so many ninny miles away to the Idea that the miners evolved l for COt themselves after k watching ng section b bosses use gravity cars ears for coasting down the mountains The mines nestle In a valley ut at the loot of a n series of hills and und the railroad railroad rail rall- road track winds Its tortuous way k from tram the mine opel openings up to the thel heights beI that lead to the outside world Many of the miners live In the settlements set- set on the hills und and It Is Ls a long longWay longWay F Way to the shaft openings One day some come bright genius discovered that a mule shoe would fit over the top of at the T T T-rall that marked the course of the railroad It Tt was but an Inventive step to att attach at at- tach act t the shoe to a short board and then slip sUp the mountain rail rull sled over the track says anys an exchange change Then all al 1 Mr Miner had bad to do was to balance pick up his feet teet and transport miner pick and dinner bucket down the mountain to work Of course It ft was as one way traffic for which the therond road roud got no money but there was no noI I conductor no strap hanging and no stopping to buy tickets on the mule muleshoe shoe hoe route t Early any morning the stranger may y see sec the miners come along with their I mule shoe toboggans calmly take a seat eat and begin the descent I A pick handle stick or the toot foot serves as a brake to regulate the spew speed d dof of f the Incline railway mIlway As ts tire ure shoes wear smooth from contact with the Tall mil they pick up speed and at times a couple of ot daring coal diggers will race on opposite rails from the top to j the bottom bott m. m But as a n rule they take take I the trip carefully and earnestly so 00 us usI I toot cot to Interfere with the rights J of ot the road goad that may belong to a n neighbor before or after them The scheme of ot course will not work op Up hill and the road rond has to bring the themen themen themen men bo back k on crowded cars that art are not 1 BO so 0 comfortable or exhilarating as us the Individual coasters that conic coule scooting I down the the mountain mountain in the morning The number df of f missing mule shoes when the idea first got vogue wa was pcr- pcr and It was some time before i ithE thE company storekeepers found out why the stocks were being depleted b by such odd lots that no amount of shoeing extravagance could account for It I I But nut the miner In hi those parts Is a law unto himself since he rose up twenty years ago and put a forcible rend end to the convict system of working the mines and the owners mindful of at the ho fact that the state of Tennessee r ad to keep a standing army for two ears to keep the peace pence at that time r do not Intend to let a little tiling thing like Ilka a mule shoe hoe create any disturbance |