| Show GIANT TASK IN RAILROAD BUILDING two carloads of pow der in a single blast for one mile of track 2629 men employed on a piece of track being built for the wabash system md may 2 look bout look out its going off was the wild cry heard a few days ago in paw paw a small mountain encircled west virginia town on the new line it the wabash twenty miles east ot cumberland when the ringing of bells and blowing of whistles gave the warning that in a few minutes the button would be pressed that crould explode 8 pounds of giant powder in the rocky mountain side opposite and close to the lown for three days the people of paw paw had watched men carrying can after can of powder into the tunnels nug into the face of rocks As the gumber of cans disappearing in the side increased the alarm of he people grew and some n terror icat the town those remaining billed their ears with cotton and wait d dorthey tor they knew not what at last when cans of powder 1125 pounds had been emptied in he arms extending right and left rom the inner ends of the two 45 foot wires laid and the tunnel closed the electric button was press id there was a deep rumbling report the whole earth seemed to rock is though shaken by an earthquake and tons of rock plunged forward and over into the canal and river carloads of powder in one blast enot a stone had been thrown a hun ired feet toward the frenzied ut yards of rock had been orn from the mountain side and many ire clous days saved the contractors ho are building the link connect hg the western maryland railroad ai perry run with th eWest virginia central railroad at cumberland and bius bringing nearer realization ceorge goulds dream of making the babash railroad an ocean to ocean ne if was only the proximity of this last to a town that made it ariy prominent on this railroad con that Is requiring a blast almost every foot of the roadbed i fact it was a small one in compall on to scene that have been fired in ne blast in sidling hill mountain he charge consisted of 1400 cans t powder just two carloads and hen it was put off rocks weighing alf a ton were hurled through the ir hundreds of yards across the po dimac river and striking telegraph les along the baltimore ohio rail iad broke them off close to the aund it Is this necessity for almost con sinuous blasting that has done much award making this sixty five mile trip of railroad construction the lost expensive of any built in recent ears with the single exception of ie line over which the wabash en TS pittsburg the cost of building ie first five miles from cumberland averaged a mile and the cost tor the sixty five miles i a mile in building this connecting link the wabash has had contend with an unusually large umber of obstacles of a surprising ariely some placed in the way by others by man tunneling through solid rock until the advent of the wabash it as supposed there was no feasible lute through the narrow gaps in the between cumberland and ancock forty miles save those tol iwed by the chesapeake and ohio inal and the baltimore ohio rail oad it waa this belief that has kept te in the old waterway life sus lined by the baltimore ohio rail company to bar out any possible caf some years ago the hon henry davis then owner of the west virglnia central railroad had a route through the country follow by the wabash but it was given as impracticable As a result it Is at surprising that the construction this road Is proving one of the eanest undertakings of years re ihring application of almost every ethod known in railroad building id the ingenuity of contractors who ive built railroads in almost every ate in the union has been taxed to ie utmost upon forty miles of this line there e engaged to day 2 men ilmars nine locomotives and nine eam shovels for eighteen months lere has been no cessation of labor a it Is hoped that in eight more the ork will be completed obstacles to be met an idea of the difficulties red can be formed from the fact bat this line in forty miles crosses ie potomac river nine times the chesapeake ohio canal seven the baltimore ohio railroad ree times passes through moun ln ranges and spurs by alve tunnels crying in length from feet to feet through ridges and hills r innumerable cuts many of them aver feet deep through solid rock and almost a mile in length and that a great portion of the road is being cut out of the rocky sides of mountain ranges directly above the canal one of the most unusual dif acuities jn railroad construction and yet the most troublesome on this line has been a disposition of the earth and rock removed in making the road bed a difficulty arising from the fact that the wabash follows closely the cacal route while waiting for legal right to bridge the old waterway it was necessary to push the construe tion work and to do this the condrac tors employed some striking methods at a mile south 0 cumberland a large wheel was placed on top of the mountain above the funnel entrance cables were run from this across the river and canal to the low land where filling was feces and the rock from the tunnel was carried over in a large iron buck et suspended from the cables the laborers camp was located on top of the mountain and the men construct ed 1 foot ladder leading up the precipitous face of rocks from the mouth of the tunnel and this ladder they ascended and descended many times a day in the construction of the indigo tunnel a method never before employ ed in the east and rarely elsewhere ese where is being employed this is the great est tunnel on the line being 4 feet in length it passes through a sidling hill mountain range and makes the wabash a ane and almost a mile in three than the baltimore ohio it is being made by drilling the heading the full width of the tunnel twenty four feet and nine feet high through from the bottom or at a grade level and the rock will be blown down until the required height is reached old con tractors accustomed to driving the beading through from the top shake their heads and pronounce this meth od a costly experiment but me arthur bros say the strata indigo shale is just right at this tunnel for chiti method and are confident it will be a success the heading is being driven fram both ends at the same time and the men are within feet of each other nine feet a day being the progress made from each end the men working from the eastern end have penetrated only eleven inches further than those coming from the western side the sack pile tunnel in order to cut a roadbed through the masses of rock that rise straight up from the bed of the canal it was necessary to wait until navigation closed for the year in the meantime the holes for the blasts were all pre pared and when the water was with drawn about a month later than ever before thousands of pounds of pow der and dynamite were exploded in these holes and the canal bed was filled with earth and rock for many miles which must be removed within the next two the only place where the wabash leaves the canal and river for any considerable distance is at bayard thirty five miles east of cumberland after crossing the baltimore ohio railroad the river and canal at a diz zy height on a 1 foot bridge five foot channel spans with viaduct approach it strikes boldly into the mountains after running through tremendous cuts over deep ravines and through the stick pile tunnel 1 feet in length it emerges from its five mile run through the heart of the mountain at orleans W va this is considered one of the heaviest pieces of work on the line but here as at many other places a straight line is secured with moderate grades and with a saving of almost a mile over the baltimore ohio route the first work was done on this connecting link on july 21 1903 and the contract called for its completion in eighteen months the delay and extra york occasioned by trouble with the canal rendered its comple alon within contract time bailit now october 1 Is the date set for the opening of the road but it is claimed january 1 1906 would be a nearer date from cherry run to hancock ten miles the road Is completed and trains are running on it for ten milea east of cumberland the roadbed Is ready for the rails and the three bridge are in course of erection at numerous other places there are four and five mile stretches completed but there remains a great amount of difficult work to be done it Is only the fact that work is being rushed day and night regardless of weather conditions and without regard to ex pense that makes safe the prediction that not later than january 1 1906 the wabash will have this line open tor traffic |
