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Show RAILROADS DEVELOP ALL THE1RMILEAGE Public Utilities Spend Vast Sums in Improvements and Upkeep. CONSOLIDATE POWER Three Small Roads Encounter Encoun-ter Difficulties, but Others Are Prosperous. Thcr was more development among i the public utilities than with the rail- . roads, although the latter, while doing little actual building, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in upkeep and making mak-ing improvements. A new epoch iu railroad construction wap reached i. during dur-ing tho year through the electrification of part of the Chicago, Milwaukee Sc St. ! Paul railroad through the northern part of the stato. This road is electrified from Ilarlowtou, Mont., a distance of 440 miles to Avery, Idaho, which constitutes con-stitutes the Jtocky mountain section, passing, as it. does, over the Cascado range. A total of 110 miles was open to operation in November. Giant electric elec-tric motors which can speed to sixty miles an hour, take the heavy mountain grades much more easily than the locomotives loco-motives did. They haul HO per cent more per trainload at a cost estimated at 40 per cent less than a steam loco- : motive fired with coal. This is the first time the principle of electricity has been applied to heavy mountain grades in this country. i Electrification Proceeds. There are several railroads electrified for short distances between points on comparatively level ground. The Chicago, Chi-cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul will eventually eventu-ally be electrified from Aberdeen, S. D., to 'Seattle. Between $12,000,000 and $15,000,000 will be spent id the electrification. electrifi-cation. The various other common ear- . riers, including the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation company and Oregon Short Line, together with other small roads, made many extensive improvements, im-provements, although they did little in the matter of building extensions or subsidiary lines. Probably the most extensive ex-tensive outlay aside from that of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul in its electrification, was the erection of the big depot by tho Short Line at Pocatello Pocatel-lo and the rebuilding of the extensive yards there. These improvements cost, all told, over $1,000,000. Difficulties Encountered. But three railroads, and those all small, had n serious year. The Pacific & Idaho Northern, an independent line built from Weiser to New Meadows, was unable to make expenses and went into the hands of a receiver. This was also true of the Milner & North Side railroad and the Idaho Southern, the first operating between Milner and Oakley and the latter between Goodiug and Jerome. Both are short lines. None of the large roads operated at a . heavy loss. The Oregon Short Line was said to have made $0,000,000 "during the first nine months of the year in gross passenger revenue. Instead there waa only an increase of $7:j.".7.0l! over tho corresponding period of 1914. The entire gross earnings of that line for the nine months only amounted to $3,541,-620. $3,541,-620. SI. The increase in the passenger earnings was entirely wiped out by a decrease of $658,317:82 in the freight revenue and $19,513. SI in miscellaneous-revenue. miscellaneous-revenue. The loss in gross earnings was $276,310.62. Power Consolidation. , ; There was pronounced activity among public utilities, especially iu the southern south-ern jiart of the state, tnrough the perfection per-fection of the merger that consolidated the Idaho Power & Light company, the Idaho Eailway, Light & Power company and the Idaho-Oregon Light & Power company. Two other companies are to be merged with them the Great Shoshone Sho-shone & Twin Falls Water Power company com-pany and the Southern Idaho Water Power company. The combined "capitalization "capitali-zation will be over $20,000,000. The temporary operating company is now the Llectric Investment company, but the name will be changed to the Idaho Power company when all of the plans are completed. The National Sureties corporation perfected the merger. It will control all power plants from Pocatello Poca-tello west to Weiser, or virtually all of southern Idaho. The Utah Power & Light company still continues to hold the southeastern Idaho territory. In the northern part of the state the Washington Washing-ton Water Power company, one of the most complete organizations of its kind in the west, holds the upper hand. The Montana Power company invaded its field this year through the delivery of power to the large mines of 'the C'oeur d "Alene. |