Show I 1 SAUNA GUTOFF GUT OFF WILL SURELY BE 1 the editor last week had the pleasure of taking with a number of the leading dhigh officials of the rio grand railroad while enjoying a trip to the montello salt fields and wendover a new town and the first division point on the wes tern railroad out of salt lake city a distance of miles general manager ridgway general passenger agent wadleigh district passenger agent I 1 A benton and the head men of several of various departments including chief engineer J wyche I 1 of the western pacific were all aboard and enjoyed the trip apparently as much is the governor various state officials and members of the legislature and many other guests the tran was made up of pullman coaches and two diners and carried persons in all the dining was looked after by the chief of that service him self and no finer dinner was ever ed in the state of utah the dining cars were beautifully decorated with the choicest choi cst rose from city hot houses and every lady aboard and there was about of them presented biti a bouquet the rio grande company and the western pacific force broke all re cords for ho vitality pita lity in giving this free excursion and the railroad men aboard w ere overwhelmed with congratulations and thanks by the del gated guests wendover is nearly on the nevada lina about yards from it the each dividing line of th two states is marl ed by two monuments on either side of the railroad track and several of the visitors amused ves by standing with one foot in the state of utah and then crossing and re crossing the line so as to be able to state they had been to nevada and back several timeo in one day but what was of most resi to the writer was the expressed opinion of several of the railroad men present that the salina cut off or some other means must be built to carry the in creased traffic that will come to the rio grands railroad through the corn of the western pacific road which will b into san francisco some t ne during the coming fall all offic bals asked concerning the matter freely expressed the opinion that this great of new business that the new road would throw to the rio grande could not be hauled over the soldier summit 0 o an advantage because of tha heavy rade and the consequent high cot of operating that expensive piece of road and the further inconvenience of fhe slow time and danger of wrecks there no just what would be done about this matter the railroad rail rord men observed their usual and ret cence but it was apparent to a understanding all the circumstances connected with the proposition that the early construction of the salina cut off was the only solution of the vexed question and chii sone so ne of the railroad mn quite admitted the editor of the progress therefore fels almost justified in saying that it is i the opinion of th railroad official of the rio grande system that the next piece of railroad work undertaken in utah will be tho construction of the salina cut off man persons will be prompted to k whether the line will run from green river mounds or farnhan but we can say that it is by no means afy tarn that green river will be the point ane cut off will tap the anam line there is no doubt that all else being the company would prefer green river as the point of but the grade from that point is not equal to that of or farnham which the survey of 1902 established as under 1 per cent or to be strictly accurate 8 of 1 per cent such a light grade as this is remarkable in the inter mountain country especially for havy freight trains and the great bulk of travel over the salina cut off will be of freight billed from san francisco to colorado and points east from pueblo chere it will be diverted to the missouri pacific the gould road to kansas city and point further eastward one thing established in the minds of all those who vere the guests of the rio grand and western pacific road management of the excursion to wen dover last week is that the western pacific is going to add new things worth seeing to a railroad system al ready justly worthy to call itself the scenic line of the world no railroad in the world can dispute that title with the denver rio grande and with its new line about completed its great and wonderful scenic assets are further augmented for the pleasure of speed ing along over a 80 mile bed of solid salt 10 and 12 feet deep and 8 to 12 miles wide level as a billiard table and the salt itself 98 per cent pure is a sight that no tourist will think of miss ing and a privilege that no one else will think of passing up |