Show RECORD HE mm construction ny IIan chett this is is the story of eighty seven davs work a story of 0 a record in accomplishment in railroad construction if you were to sign a note at your bank payable in ninety days you would realize how very short a period of time it is to toe the due date of the note on last april 2 the right of way men acting for the union pacific railroad secured possession of the needed ground for the construction of the railway from lund to cedar city and on that date the first scrap erful of earth was turned on oil the railway grade the contractor strung his men out in sections and as fast as a section was completed on the western end the track laying crew took possession and the rails and ties were set in place crowding upon their heels was the ballast crew and so the woi k was pushed toward cedar city at the end of seventy days superintendent in williams drove an engine pulling his private car into cedar city the graders were still work in ingin the yards b ballast 1 alist trains were dumping gravel six miles to the west the track superintendent Superintend ept williams put his engine over was but a lot of ties I 1 ling ing upon a dirt I 1 grade without ballast and with to no trimming or alignment of rails fraihs in the middle of the campaign of this track building word had been received that the pr president of the united states would visit zion national park provided the track was in shape for use by his train on oil his arrival in the west ivest from the president of the union pacific down through the ranking officers the engineers gi the construction foremen to the humblest graders and track layers went the inspire inspiration a tinn that the track must be ready sien ilen worked I 1 like devils then came the tribunes Tn bunes announcement that the presidents trip to southern utah had been cancelled this wag followed by a telephone message from the governor confirming the depoi t there was a feeling of discouragement and a disposition among the men to let up on the pressure but their cupi latend ent said to them none of our peo pie have squared yet you fellows keep going and they did then came the word that the president would come this brought 0 about a high pressure finish to the job only forty eight hours before the arrival of the presidents train irain the depot site hite at cedar city was strewn with the foundations and debris bri left from the removal of houses that had bad been carted away or boin down there were old out buildings ret remnants imants of old barnyards weeds broken down shrubbery A crew of bridge carpenters arrived on the scene they climbed into the old trees cut out the dead branches shaped up tip the live ones trimmed out the growing sprouts and shrubbery at the base A dozen teams were brought in from a grading outfit the old foundations were cleaned up the yards were smoothed down barnyards disappeared ba ballast alast trains brought in clean white gravel covered up the dirt giving it all a neat surface an approach twenty feet wide for automobile travel was graded and surfaced with gitil gravel and grounds were roped off twelve hours before the presidents train came the electricians were erecting the poles and stringing the lights along tile the railway track in the station yard E every very bit of unsightly new material for use in the depot construction and the st was removed foundation put in ill a very neat and shipshape appearance superintendent strong rode into cedar city on the pilot of the presidential train and met his yard floreu foreman ian who was just finish I 1 ing his second twenty four hour hornton con sinuous shift that week lie ile was all grime e and dirt a half inch of tough beard coveT covered edbis his face the superintendent said to him bim you better hurry burry up tip and get shaved 1 I am too damned tired and I 1 have too much respect for tue t ue president of the united states to appear before him in an unshaved condition I 1 am going to my car I 1 will see him when n he comes back tonight to this man dra dragged g himself up into the car within rive live hundred feet of where the presidential thain stood that day and he slept so soundly that he never saw the president seventeen days afir the alie first engine pulled into the cedar cit city yards the heaviest h ain on the union pacific system brought in the presidential party in ten pullmans it came over a track from lund to cedar that had been fully ballasted ballested bal lasted that NO had been raised t wice twice through b this ballast and lined up ed and put in shape in every way equal to the main lins line standard of the road through the wyoming mountains at M odena modena last night superintendent strong admitted that he be lad bad been resting a good portion of the day d ay iy and that lie he was going north it the evening train fi from oin milfrod for the sole burp purple be of enjoying a hot bath the wind had been blowing a gile gale for the five days prece jihn the arrival of the presidential party and lie he and his force of men had had all kinds of oust literally drilled into them and he fully deserved at leat least one hot bath as a fittin fitting close to a tremendous campaign of eighty sev en days ballast was brought from black rock nine ballast trains were operated the first ballast unloaded about seventy miles distant from the steam hovel and the last ballast unloaded one hundred and ten miles from the shovel there were moved one hundred carloads a day the biggest days output was cars this meant tons of ballast gravel were dug up each twenty four hours hauled in an average of miles spread alding the track and put in place under tinder the ties or a total of nearly one half million of tons in eighty seven days in the district traversed by these gravel trains they had bad the right of way over every other train on the road upon this piece of track there had bad been spent in the eighty seven days surely the spirit of E rt it liar rimAn bovere i i over the scene |