Show RAILWAYS IN THE TROPICS hard to keep the rapidly growing youage from is e oal g a an ob obstruction t ti not only is the first cost of rail raily railway Y construction in tropical countries very heavy but the annual maintenance of way is expensive to a degree which cannot be appreciated by those who have had no experience in this connection the antioquia railroad in colombia says charles P yeatman in the engineering gi magazine cost in a single year for repairs rebah s of track and bridges 2268 2266 per mile the cauca railroad in the same year cost per mile these two roads are in colombia and are sometimes mentioned either as future feeders of the pan american railroad or parts of its main line on the antioquia road if the undergrowth were cut at the beginning of the rainy season less than two months rain was sufficient to form an arch of green trees thirty feet high leaning leani ng over the track so as to shade i it t the constant change from dryness in the day to soaking moisture at night even in the dry season would soon ruin rain the best timber but nature furnishes a still quicker means of getting rid of it in the shape of an ant or wood louse which is careful not to mar the outside of his domicile but will patiently honeycomb the inside until what looks like a solid twelve by bp twelve stick is but a shell from one eig eighth lith to one fourth inch thick filled with dust aad an d ants the native timber suffered so much from the inroads of f these pests that upon hearing that yellow pine was used in panama to avoid them a trial of it was made on oil the antioquia road georgia pine had bae to be shipped by way of new york a at t a cos cost t of nearly per 11 1000 feet board measure when put in place when I 1 left there the f first of my yellow 5 pine trestles was being replaced it had been built less than four years year |