Show IN RAiLWAY CIRCLES The Building Done During the Year Just Closed CHARLES FRANCIS AT IT AGAIN What He Says About the Union Pacifics Movements for the Present Year Other Hallway Matters By the operation of railway officers supplementing the systematic record of every railway enterprise of which information informa-tion could be obtained we are again able to complete the extremely difficult work of gathering the statistics of railway construction con-struction for the United States and to present pre-sent a summary of the work Early in the spring of 1889 the Railway Age published a table which showed that a surprising number num-ber of railway enterprises were then under construction and projected notwithstanding notwithstand-ing the fact that the previous year had closed with a great depression in railway interests resulting from excessive overbuilding over-building so that it was the general belief that construction had come almost to a standstill and that very little now mileage would be added during 1889 The enumeration of new enterprises to the number of several hundred however gave evidence that there was felt to be room and demand for many thousaud miles more of railway in the United States at once although it was of course evident that only a portion of the mileage then projected pro-jected was likely to be immediately constructed con-structed A little later in the year it began to be evident that the aggregate of construction for the year would be much larger than the public seemed to suppose and the Railway Age after reviewing the field placed the probable mileage that would bo added during 18S9 at not far from five thousand miles The facts have now justified this statement as we are able to state that the tracklaying for the calendar year 1SS9 will amount to at least 5230 miles with the possibility that these figures I fig-ures will be slightly exceeded when the final and corrected statement is made Summarizing from our detailed records wo now give the following statement of new track main line only not including sidings sid-ings and additional tracks which have I been laid in the United States since De cember 1 1888 TRACK LAID IS TilE YEAR 1589 States Miles I States Miles 9 2 elD England and Eastern States Maineu 18 New Jerseyuu 04 New Hampshire 45 Pennsylvaniauhl Massachubets 2 West yirginiau 49 Connecticut 7 Marylanduuu 31 yorknu153 5 Ventral Sorfhern Slates Ohio 112 Illinoisuunu179 I Michigan243 Wisconsin unuu1Oi Indiana 0000123 10 Southern States Virginia215 AlnbamsuuuI63 Xorth Carolmaou2IO MississippiuIi9 South Carolina 43 Tenncsscen183 Georgia 0000356 Kentuckyhu169 Florida175 Louisianauu 00110 1 G Southwestern States I issouriuunu Kansasu 54 Arkansnuuu 44 I Colorado 78 Texas 343 Indian Territory ulb9 6 Aorthicettern States Iowa 000000 90 Nebraska 120 Minnesota 00147 I Wyoming unuu 40 Dakotnu 82 Montana136 5 Pacific Coast Stales Washington u39g I Idaho nnuu 79 Oregon n 30 I Utah 00 40 California 1211 o I Total in 41 states and territories5231 RECAPITULATION New England and eastern groupu C9 557 Central northern group uuunun 40 764 Southern group 97 1829 Southwestern group nnunu 37 792 Northwestern group uuuunn 23 615 Pacific coast group 39 674 Totals un n u 316 5231 The total of new mileage for the year it appears is nearly 1800 miles less than that ol 1888 and some 7800 miles less than thaI for the year of phenomenal and reckless construction 1887 Railwal 4oc Charles Francis at it Again Here is the latest from Charles Francis The Oregon Short Line will not move rapidly in the way of new construction The Union Pacific does not propose at present to try and cover the earth The I entire Union Pacific system will only build 200 miles of additional road next year 145 miles in the Oregon Short Line system to j Pioche where the line will rest for the present 85 miles to connect the Cheyenne I NorthWestern with the Elk Horn division di-vision of the Chicago NorthWestern system and 20 miles to make some connection connec-tion in Kansas All the stories now cur rent in newspapers as to plans and extensions exten-sions and purchases of the Union Pacific on the Pacific slope are pure inventions absolutely ab-solutely without basis Not a New Line Year The list of new railway lines constructed construc-ted during 1890 which we present with this issue shows that the total addition to the main track railway mileage of the United States during the year will vary very little from an even 5000 miles This is the smallest construction recorded in any one year since 1883 when the total increase in-crease was but 35SS miles The construction construc-tion in the intervening years has been In 1886 8471 miles in 1887 12GGS in ISbS 724 The bulk of this years construction has been done in the south Over 2000 miles of the new lines reported to us lie south of the latitude of Cincinnati and east of the Mississippi river Washington however has the greatest increase in railways of any single state 353 miles having been built there in 1889 Georgia comes next with 315 miles and then follows North Carolina with 279 miles Texas with 270 miles and Mississippi with 212 miles Sixteen Six-teen others states report between 100 and 200 miles and in Vermont Rhode Island New Nexico Arizona and Nevada no new track laying has been reported Very few long lines have been built this season but there has been a great number of short branches and extensions especially espe-cially in the East The total number of separate lines in which track was laid during dur-ing the year was 253 This work was done by 197 different companies Tho average length of each extension therefore was almost exactly 19 < f miles In Canada during 1SS9 733 miles of track were laid and in Mexico the construction con-struction amounted to 309 miles Engineering Engineer-ing IVcics flhe Pacific Short line I J D Negus assistant general manager of the Pacific Short Line recently gave the Denver Sews the following information in regard to this line The line of survey that has been made extends from Sioux r City through Cedar Knox and Holt counties coun-ties Nebraska to ONeil where it crosses kr the tracks of the Fremont Elkhorn Missouri Mis-souri Valley road From here it reaches in a direct bee line across Brown Cherry Sheridan and Sioux counties in Nebraska to Fort Laramie At this point it reaches up along the Platte river banks across Albany county Wyoming to Caspar At Glen Rock the rich coal deposits of that vicinity will be opened up for further de lopment From Fort Caspar the router route-r ahes along the Sweetwaterriver through South Fremount county to the OUtn Pass The line up to this point has now been surveyed In a few weeks a survey ing party will start out from the South Pass and completa the preliminary survey down the big sandy to Mar ton across c Swectwatcr county to Wrights hence to Ogden the terminus At Wrights there I are thirteen miles of rich coal beds and h = = thirt3 five separate veins of coal running from tour and ouehalf to a hundrtd and r thirtyfive foot veins There is coal enough here to supply the whole United a w 1 iU States for years The new line will not I only open up these resources of Wyoming but also the muddy gap regions yet to be developed The bridge being erected across the Missouri river at Sioux City will cost 350000 TheSt Paul road is jointly interested with us in its construction We have completed eighty one miles of construction con-struction on our line and expect to finish 125 miles more to ONeil Nebraska by Febuary The entire line will be finished and ready for business in January 1891 The first 10000 tons of steel rails used in construction has been delivered It will cost 19000000 to build the new road The whole business is an enterprise of a construction con-struction company of which A C Goodwin of Broolyn is president and Donald Mc Lean general manager Tho Manhattan Trust company of New York is trustee of our mortgage Tho St Paul road is in trested in the joint use of the bridge at Sioux Citty but the Short Line is an independent in-dependent line otherwise The Rotary Snow Plow The mystery as to how the Central Pacific Pa-cific railroad can be kept clear of the deep snows which fall in the Sierra Nevada mountains has been practically solved in the use of the rotary snow plow The Truckee Nevada Republican says that aside a-side track a quarter of a mile in length covered with snow from ten to sixteen feet deep was cleared last week in forty minutes This new device will obviate the necessity of snow sheds Increasing Its Mileage The Union Pacific has increased its mileage mile-age some 900 miles and at the same time collected several separate corporations into one by securing control of the Denver Texas Fort Worth railroad and consolidating consoli-dating it together with the Colorado Central Cen-tral Cheyenne Northern and four or five other short Colorado lines into a new company to be known asjtho Union Pacific Denver Gulf railroad The consolidated company has 1435 miles of road with a capital stock of 535000 per mile and a bonded indebtedness not exceeding 25000 per mile The new companys line comes under the management the Union Pacific and form a part of its system which now aggregate the immense mileage of nearly 7600 miles |