RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 25 June 1925, Page 6

RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT.

THE PART GEOLOGY PLAYS. Geology often points ’ the way for railroads to develop, and the geologist ■often proves as important as the engineer. He may be credited for securing much' of the traffic that later keeps the engineer on th© job. When an extension of the railroad is requested or proposed, a word from its geologist may decide the day, declares the New York Times. After examining the rock and soil of the section which the branch would penetrate, he makes a report that teither bring® business to the railroad or saves if the expense of laying tracks where they would not pay. Less than a year ago a company exploiting deposits of magnesium, s odiuiu and other salts asked an executive of the nearest railroad for better transportation facilities. The request was turned over to the geological department. Experts were sent to ascertain the extent and value of the deposits and to pass judgment on the amount of business that might be forthcoming for a railroad there. The experts reported in favour of extending the line; and already the railroad is freighting in some million and a half feet of lumber and preparing to haul out some 300,000 tons of salt. The * traffic department of the same railroad directed its to examine a gypsium deposit, with the result that almost 90,000,000 tons of gypsium were sighted. The plant erected here, it is estimated, Avill be a producer of railroad traffic for years to come. Geologists may be found leading their pack trains far up into the mountains where automobiles cannot penetrate, and pitching their tents in the wilderness in search of assets for possible railway lines. In the territory adjacent to lines ali’eady built they also try to discover deposits of minerals and metals. They pass on their information to the railroad’s industrial agents', who, armed with this material, persuade industries to locate along the line. Alany communities in the West have been developed through railroad geologists. When Pacific Goast grain- exports fell off so that it was no longer profitable for tramp ships to bring coal from the Orient to get return cargoes of wheat, cheap foreign fuel for California a thing of the past. Facing the possibility of -paying dearly for Rocky Alountain coal, the Southern Pacific Railroad appointed Professor E. T. Dumble. as consulting geologist, and commissioned him investigate the coal deposits of the Pacific Coast. This was the beginning of the road’s geological department. Instead of coal, oil was found on the company’s lands, and it developed the oil business, with the geological department in charge. The department .has been charged also with studying the company’s water supply problem in arid regions, and through its efforts water from underground sources has been developed for farming communities.