| OCR Text |
Show IFARMiNGTQN-ECHQ SHORTJM NEXT Piaihvay Official Discusses the Merits of the Emigration Canyon Route. PROPOSED CUT-OFF HAS THE MUCH BETTER GRADE Says to Build Otherwise Would Be Only to Head Oft' Possible Possi-ble Rival Roads. "There are two things that nre against the l. nion facillc coming Into Salt Lake ia Immigration canyon, said u railroail ofrlcial not connected with the Oregon snort Line Friday. 'One reason Is the nigh grades that any road must encounter encoun-ter going up Emigration canyon, and the other reuaon is tnu lack of entrance into bait hake terminals. "There has been considerable tall; of late about the Union l'acltlc interests iring to gei into me anori. i-inc luminals lu-minals unaer the cover of u franchise to the Utah JJgni and Hallway company 10 haul rciciu between the nours of 1 a. m. anu s a. m. lo.anu from fort Douglas. Doug-las. It is pointed out In f-ome quarters that It i ni: u tan LignL and Kaliway company com-pany as a. .street car company got this iraiichiHC. that there is nothing to prevent pre-vent It trom hauling regular railroad freight care by electrical power irom Fort Douglas into the present Short Line terminals, providing the L'nlon Pacific or the Oregon Short Line had a road through Emigration canyon connecting with tho sumu line east of Ogden. "The L'tah i.ight and Hallway company Is just as much a JIarrlman line, remember, re-member, as is the L'nlon Pacific or the Oregon Short Line, and all the Harriman lines operate together, of course. Grade Wins Every Time. "Xow there might be a good deal In this except lor ono reason, and to my mind that settles the question. That reason rea-son Is grade. 'Grade wins' every time in railroading. It usod to be the shortest short-est distance, but that day Is gone. It Is now the lowest grade and me longest curve, almosi regardless of distance. "On a road In Virginia tho other day one gigantic engine hauled IliO steel coal cars from Uoanoke to Norfolk, each car forty-four foot long nul carrying fifty tons of coal. The train was Just six leei over a mile long, and ttio total load of coal was 6000 tons. .Vow compare that with some of the old western railroads In the Rockies, where one engine can pull only one loaded load-ed car up the worst grades. I myself have; seen one of the largest and best engines on the Ilarrlman lino over Mount Shasta Iioule. between Oregon and California, Cali-fornia, pull out with only tour cars bo-hind bo-hind It. and It had all It could do, too. In wet weather only three cars were taken, and at times only two. This shows what 'grade' means. "There Is the Lucln cutoff also to show what 'grade means. One engine can do the work over that level cutoff that cost Eomewheres between 512,000,000 and $20.-000.000. $20.-000.000. for official figures arc never to be trusted too strongly, that It takes slx-j slx-j teen engines to do over the Promontory i around the northern edge of the lake, the old route. This is enough In Itself to show what the Ilarrlman people think of the word 'grade.' But the Lucln cutoff may some day be abandoned. Up Emigration Canyon. "Now how docs this apply to this idea of the Ilarrlman people trying to get . down Emigration canyon? They can do It. and have It In mind. The Utah Construction Con-struction company, a concern that has done millions of dollars worth of railroad rail-road work for the Ilarrlman people, have been doing som very close figuring on the Idea. "But there is a better route, although the Harriman people want the Emigration route, too. Just to shut out the Burlington, Burling-ton, the Northwestern, or possibly the Santa Fe when It gets Into Salt Lake. Emigration canyon Is never to bo forgotten for-gotten In the Salt Lake railroad world. "The Denver & P.Io Grande, the Colorado Colo-rado Midland, and even the Ilarrlman lines, have worse grades than by way of Emigration canyon. So watch Emigration Emigra-tion canyon, but for the present look at the map. at Farmlngton. Here Is open country to the northeast, by means of a -1000-foot tunnel near the mouth of Weber canyon and then up the canyon, and the Oregon Short Line people will. 1 without doubt, run a lino thus indicated from Farmlngton lo touch the main line east of Ogden. and that In a short time. The grade will be less than one per cent. Farmington. to Eclio. "The Union Pacific will be double-tracked double-tracked Into Salt Lake inside of two years. One of the tracks will he through Ogden. as at present, and the other will come Into Salt Lake via Echo. Weber f canyon arm Farmington. This is nothing against Ogden. by the way. as the traffic traf-fic that the Farmington-Echo connection connec-tion would divert from Ogden would slm-1 slm-1 ply roll right through tnnt placo as it j does today. If consigned to Salt Lake I "Echo, it must be remembered, or Gran- ger, or any other point on the main j lines, has as much traffic going through it as has Ogden. It Is the traffic that I stops, the 'breaking of bulk' that counts, not the amount of tonnage that Just run3 5 through a place. So this Farmlngton i cutoff will not hurt Ozden In mw wnv. I but will be a great benefit to Salt "But -with double tracks as far west as Salt Lake, the Ilarrlman Interests would be no better off than before. The railroad across the land is like u bridge across a river. and neither can accommodate accommo-date more traffic than can the narrowest narrow-est point on either bridge or railroad. Western Pacific West. "The only escape from the situation Is j the use of the Western Paclllc and the northern line of the Southern Pacific as a double track clear through to the coast. The Western Pacific runs on Ilarrlman Ilar-rlman right-of-way by purchase for manv miles west of Wells, and the Western Pacific has full trackage rights over the Southern Pacific in all California south till the territory of the Salt Lake Route In California is touched. This point Is I about Santa Margarita, on the coast line pf the Southern Pacific, and on the other lines In proportion. "You will sec the Oregon Short: Line build northeast from near Farmlngton to probably Echo or near that point, depending de-pending on the surveys, within a year, two years at the most. The Luclri cutoff may be practically given up. the Salt Lake Route trackB usod also lo south of the lake, and a new line run from there to some point on tho main line west of j the lake, probably near Wells. "Now ail this grew out of an arrange ment between Ilarrlman and Gould. The 1 Tribune was right when It said that Ilarrlman and Gould arranged about th ; Western Pacific and tho Southern Pacific j when Harriman let Gould have that $7,- 000.000 for tho Wheeling & Lake Erie short-time notes, then Just coming due, C but that Ih not all of It. Whon Gould E got Into trouble about his Pittsburg tor- mlnals and Harriman -went into the Erl P then Harriman went to Gould but that P Ik another story. "This story will, of course, be 'offl-f 'offl-f dally denied' all such Important true h stories In advance of the official an- P nouncemcnts alway aro denied, but it Ib all true, nevertheless. To sum up; Down Emigration canyon, down Weber canyon, tunnel through tho ridge 4000 feet at Its mouth, double tracks into Salt Iake. go round the soutn end of the lake, using the Salt Lake Route and the Western West-ern Pacific rails It Is all In the family, anyhow and a new bit of road from south of the lake to. the main line west of tho lake, and In time give up the Lucln cutoff, not entirely, of course, but as the weakest link In a doublo-lrackd mnln line from Omaha to San Francisco, via Salt Lake, with Salt Lake on the main line. |
