| Show liam wiam A MOUNTAIN RAILROAD A correspondent of the new york evening post under date of bombay india feb 1866 gives the following interesting account of a remarkable achievement in engineering in the construction st of a railroad in india when the idea of constructing a railroad was first mooted in En england glaid it was scouted as the very height of folly and at al and ninny well meaning people eople compassionately b ildved lieveld george stephenson stephenson to be mad but the world has moved since then john bull has even built a railroad over one of the moun mountain tain ranges of india and although it is one of the greatest engineering feats of the present century the ach aeh achievement eve seems to be co comparatively unknown A few words concerning this remarkable undertaking may not be out of place ilace when the british government determined et to construct the network net work of railways throughout india considerable discussion took place as to the best means of connecting bombay with calcutta and madras for as there was no break in the western the idea of constructing a railway across them seemed utterly impossible however surveys were made and at length etwas it was d determined e ter mined to build bulia the railway as it now exists that is run from bombay to callian a distance of thirty miles inland and there it forks into two branches one going to the northeast north east to agra where it joins the east indian railway leading from agra to calcutta and the other going in a southeasterly direction towards poo poona na and madras the first of these crosses the thell ghaut chaut a mountain rising 1912 feet above the level of the sea and the latter crosses another mountain called the bhore ghaut chaut which rises to a 1 height of 2037 feet above the sea the difficulties which the engineers encountered in the construction of this work were something but as most of the ground over which the line passes is now clear edof jungle jun le and levelled bevelled level led and the all but inaccessible le mountain scarps seares along which the track has been laid have been well nigh obliterated the obstacles are now in many places scarcely apparent the bhore ghaut chaut incline which is the larger of the two mountain ways is is 15 miles 68 chains long the level of i its base is feet above high water mark at bombay and of its summit 2027 feet so that the total elevation of the incline is 1831 feet its average gradient is 1 in 48 its least leas t I 1 in and its steepest 1 in 37 throughout its length are 26 tunnels ranging from 49 yards to yards long and aid forming a total length of yards or 21 miles there are 8 vlad viaducts n ets most of which consist of arches 0 of f 50 feet span varying in length from 52 50 yards to yards and from 45 feet to feet high so s 0 that the total length amounts to fully half I 1 s mile the total quantity of cuttings amounts co flo cubic yards and the embankments bank ments to cubic yards the greatest depth of cutting being 80 feet and the maximum height of the largest embankment being 74 4 feet besides this there are eighteen bridges of various spans from 7 to 30 feet and nifty fifty eight lverts culverts cu of from 2 to 6 feet span the cost of the incline was sterling or a mile or in other words about the works were commenced edin in 1855 and were finished in about five years afterwards it is obvious that to make a train laid en with freight or full of human beings ascend a gradient of upwards of eighteen hundred feet must require extraordinary locomotive power accordingly when an ordinary passenger train approaches pro aches a station at the foot of the it is divided into two sections and generally two exceedingly powerful engines are attached to pull and a third to push each section up the ascent powerful brake vans are wre also attached so that in case of accidents the train may be stopped and prevented from receding down the slope in descending the similar precautions are taken to prevent the trains from going too fast and fewer locomotives and more breaks are with each train even then it requires the utmost caution to prevent a train getting too much headway lest it run oss off the rails and be dashed to pieces over some of the yawning chasms with which the mountains abound A terrible accident A terrible accident of this kind occurred in 1865 A heavy goods train started from the top of the incline early one morning it went on all right until it got to a steep portion of the line where the guards and breakman bre akmen should have applied the brakes they neglected to do so the train acquired accelerated speed with every foot of space it traversed the driver shut off steam and rever reversed sd his engine the brakesman brak esmen applied the brakes with all their might and some of the men at the risk of their lives actually jumped off and tried to put lumps of wood between the spokes of the wheels but all efforts were unavailing the momentum increased the train rushed down the tho descent with terrific velocity it dashed passed the re reversing station with a whirl and a rush and ana plunged over the precipice beyond its motion was so swift that enveloped in the dense cloud of dust weh which it rais rals raised edg ede it was not seen by the inmates of t the h solitary station past which it swept and but for the remarkable noise which it made the accident would have remained unknown search was made and the train and its freight were found smashed to pieces esat at the bottom of the precipice and the poor men who had charge of it crushed fo to death beneath its ruins |
