THE GRAND TRUNK.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 771, 21 March 1910, Page 4

THE GRAND TRUNK.

" . CANADA'S GREAT WORK.- ... from; Montreal to •an ling- , lish paper, "A Canadian Engineer" remarks: The building of, thonew railway , from Atlantic\to: the Pacific, tlio' Grand i Trunk'. Pacific,'. is ono 'of: the gcatest undertakings in the history oven of Canada. Let me givo . some-idea,of tho magnitude :bf the task; the method of its accomplishment;: and.,its.-.significance to the Empire. Formerly it had.'bcen our practice to build; hurriedly and. cheaply, and to bring the lino up to the standard later, as tho revenue justified tho expenditure.' In tho case of the Grand ..Trunk' Pacific, however,'.the road has been designed as. ,tf first-class line, and it is boiiig built and finished;as'.such .in the.:first instance. . " -;

-; Realise, what , this; means. Very much to jthe surprise of the enthusiastic pro- :;' motors, the 'engineers'. have bec-n able to -; ■ lay - down .a;, lino giving a riso :.of .only twenty-one feet to. the niile 'tho Atlantic to the Pacific .Ocean. The cost • of construction will, of course, exceed, tho cost per mile of. any: other .trauscontinen- , tali railway, but;.when 'tho last'.'spiko'.is. v:, en 1 " 10 : will bo finished. Ei- ; press; tains ,can be ~pUt oh alnio'st iinjne- ; diately. As a matter of fact, more than . 800 milos of : tho lino west from - AVinni•o P e S;is now' being operated, and' so completely .was the.workdone, ballast.tTains following the steel; gang, that ivhen thp ' line ..had : been; open* but;- sixty.. days n ; -Bpeed of fifty, miles, per ; hour .was obtained; by special trains. .The Great Track. - fv• : Glance- now. along • the line.:;Tliis;now ■ world-highway, begins, at. Halifax, 1 crosses ,'; -Nova Seotia T and Brunswick, tra- , versing the storied! land, of "Evangeline," i : , and enters the province of Quebec at Ed- , , mnnston. The St. Lawronco. River, will be '....crossed at Quebec over one of the biggest ■ bridges in,the .world.; Vv'ost of Quebec the work- is not" 1 unusually, heavy, as ' it through an agricultural;, country {or the firstfifty. mil»s'; then; however, .it .enters..the broken country,;- passing; .; though the famous, asbestos, mining re'gXion, . and entering- the; great pulp wood '- forest of Northern. Quebec. Here the '• Jfork is Very, heavy-rmostly rock' work— .-- :but .nearing.th6 boundary; line n-hich eep- ■ arates the Province' of Ontario , " from .; Quebec a; vast: level , stretch' of clay land ; is encountered. This clay, belt is 1150 miles 'wide froimV. north - -to - south, and ■ . 300, miles - long. So level and, uniform sis tha .country :that here,, in this , , hushed "wilderness,: are some' of- .the longest ton-. ;. gents ;on '. the , line." .'Passing"; out -of this ■r; cltt'y-belt; 'west-bound, .we, come into that :-V. ;gnarled and .twisted territory -'common ' - to,- the.' north, shore; country 'where; it; is i-y- almost continuous irock work. .Thousands of square ';miles : that', were, actually; re::V. garded as worthless have been tested here .'and proven .to be not, only for./settle- ;. ment, but .exceedingly .• rich andv-fertile:. .'.",Th'us, is ;written .the.,history .progress 1 in Canada.'

-. Tom ■.Fort . William, on iaka : Superior,, the railway company have built a I ranch op to tho main line at a point called Superior -Junction.;,-The liiio is 200 miles long. Some -idea of; the , difficulty, of the work may be .gathered ,by the -.statement;. that.; the : contract v.prioe :for;' the finished t line from Winnipeg, to Superior • Junction ..was. over ' .£2,000,000.; Although! - there, arejio- mouDtains here, a- number! ;of -tunnels:.had to:-.bo. mjde through the rocky humps of 1 this broken wilderness,* for - the.-.grade niust: be kept /uniform and 'of one per-«6nt..,"per-,mile.->

...he Prarie Section,- . : /Winnipeg is almost exactly midway between Halifax . and ■ Princo Rupert; the Pacific: Coast/terriiinus 'of. 'the / ■ Grand! Trunk Pacific, Although, the 'road fronr Winnipeg:..'to;'. Ednioiiton,'::a, -distance rot 792.OTiiJ.esi:.' is calledithe "Prarie Section,'.': it entailed a greatr.deal of :what reasonably!: might'be-calledv, "mounting f .building.'-' •The-Prarie-wcst Province of'llam-' . toba? ; is_ibroken; :by . deep.- valleys,oreeksj--;: an4 r coulees. Ono short cut, ! remember, .teld;.l3o,()po '.yardS.'df jdirty.-aid at the., end • of'it/a'.'.cariyon^iso ''feet deep.: had' to' -V -.be,J bridged, • -'.V.•' '>■■■■ ','j

Then;; too, ' keeping 'the.line to'a: fourtenths'grade'; tate : ; ! che only /of -"the!! rivers and -Istreams, . but "of: the valleys as 'well. Tho . Battle 1 . River in - 'Albertii' 'is 1 nftt ■yards' wide, ",Biit;| the.y steel'Vbridge'vby.: which'! the' train ] 'crfisses it'is. 186 feet high'anil. tliaii '. b ; milerlcflig."; y-Aiibthet'greats tafes : 'them; 'over the North"' Saskatchewan;. near" Edmonton." Eightj^isix,miles west' of-Ed--* montoh'. tho'Tembiha 'River lis crossed. Ky. a steel structure. 206 feet long. , Naturally one ,would imagifib.'this a broken, and hilly country,' but it is'-not. so. The .'.land is comparatively: 'rich, -' and fertile all the way from Edmonton to the. Pembina River:; and some : distance beyond. .The ,grade.;has- been'Completedfor .100 miles 0r... more west; of-.the.- ■ Pembina,'" whpro' another steel bridge is being pat in across the McLcod River.

* Beyond the. McLeod we/enter the real mountain section, and the. grade here .is ;-i the Bame as that of tbepraiirio province/ This, is the marvel. Rajhvay men find it difficult tq„b*elieye that a transcontinental railway , can 'cross from' ocean ■: to ocean; : passing" at the foot \of Mount Kobson— v ,:the highest mountain, insthe Dominion—• ,Y .travelling: along dark canyons in deep : '.gorges', skirting thid 'shores !of greats laltes ami-mighty : nvers^ : and: yet without fei-ceeding-a:'gfidicrit: f of . four-tenths'of .oniper cent, per mile; front ocean -to ocean. ;!'. And -yet' this is"an v established fact. 1 ' Bet: tween.'the end of the dump of the eastern' foot::of .'the 'Rockies .-and tho end. of 'the' ■grade' -now finished,' 100; miles east'.".of' five ■:or'"six.,hundred: i: miles'!'of 1 mountain* ;work 'remains .to be' done. • Carrying the Whsat. Thcro has, of course, been .much discussion as'to the wisdom of 1 building a !. ;first-class: railway, 'entailing-.'the expendi-. ; ture.i'of; millions of pounds,/,but ilr. • .Charles H. Hays,, the originator ,of tho idea of this - "All Bed .lioute /',as it is . 1 6ometimeS:'calle'd,.;was so .full of ■ faith" in'. . Canada, in-;, the -; ; future ..;6f "■ this:- "Last. ! ■ ylVest,"- that.he: insistedupon building' aline, that would handle' the great traffic ', quickly . .and- cheaply which, ' in his judg- . went, was sure to come to- il. '' : 1 . ■' of:: ' the !-!!West .\'which - has '.just harvested the greatest. !crop ' in,!its history, the suiv !' prises jthat:! have ;been., met'.in; the!:.way of riches and resources, seem to justify. .: the highest expectations.: V : : !.' Perhaps the, most important feature in connection . Kith' the construction'- of- the ; Grand Trunk pacific ..is tho part it will . play in the transportation, of tho everincreasing crops of the, Canadian-.'West.. a line has. boen projected and. partly built from' Eastern Saskatchewan! to Fort Nelson, on Hudson Bay,! but it. V is not likely this'iline' irill bo a factor of .-'importance in .the transportation of wheat' to Liverpool. It -is one thousand miles: shorter!.to be! sure,but' the fact... that, Hudson-Bay and the straits aro open lor navigation for only about; two months-in ■! .the year 're'udcrsVit impracticable as!.'a: wheat route:-The rlocal traffic to'be'de- ! veloped, the timber,! fish, fur, and mineral: -•"riches bl- this'remote region will probably ' justify'the. construction of the road, but the wheat must', and! will flow; east and '.west—east over this comparatively level ! lino when the lakes aro locked in the.icy arms of winter, and west "all. tho: year round to tho open port of Prince liupert; Experts-have' figured that the lat- :: est' type' of locomotive will haul -nearly, if not quite, 100,000 bushels of. grain from the prarie fields to .Prince Rupert, whence' the wheat will go by water through the Panama Canal to ' Liverpool. The- new road,-: indeed, mil handle- per, train four times the tonnage of '-the average trans- , part triumphantly in the development of continental railway.•.-Therefore;.even if it costs twice as much per mile to build it in. th 6: first place, it will not only eivn money to mako up for tho difference In the cost of construction,- biit will play its Canada.