THE MOST WONDERFUL RAILWAY IN THE WORLD.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5602, 7 February 1879, Page 7

THE MOST WONDERFUL RAILWAY IN THE WORLD.

(From tfto Bavlway Age.) The Calks, Lima, and Oroya Railroad, generally known aa the Oroya Railroad, now the Trans-Andineßailroad, is probably the most wonderful rulroad in existence. It was contractedforby. Henry Meiggs in 1869, at a cost of 21,804,000 dola., or 27,000,000 dols. in bonds. Work was began in January, 1870. When commenced the English Company had got the right-of-way from Callao to Lima, and Mr Meiggs could get no special rates fur his material. The enormous cost of freighting everything for his road would make it ruinous to build. One day there suddenly appeared hundreds, of men, evidently making a railway from Lima to Callao. The English company went to see about it, and wen got out an injunction to stop the work. Mr Meiggs calmly asked them whose land the workmen were on, and then they found ha had quietly bought up all that land,, and was building a private read on his own grounds and for his own use. Leaving Callao the road to Lima is in the finest condition. Ballasted with cobble stones, no dust arises; trains every half hour; fare forty cents.;, four separate depdts accommodate different parts of the city. No one who makes a round trip on this road ever repents it, and seldom desires a second. The heights and distances are so gnat, that few heads are not affected. . From San Mateo to Anchi the road passes through the “Infemillos” (Little Hell). Nearly perpendicular walls from 2000 ft to 8000 ft hem in the River Rimac, having a width of from 200 to 400 feet. At first it was proposed to make a cut in the side of these mountains, but fearing the falling of loose rock, it was decided to tunnel Miners were let down with ropes one-quarter and one-half mile long to certain indicated points on the rooky wall every 600 ft more or less, and after they had entered a few feet began working to' the right and left, using the entrance as a place from whence to throw the excavated material. About midway a bend in the river made it necessary either to make a dangerous curve or span the chasm. The latter was chosen, and now a bridge unites the tunnel about 400 ft above the river bed. Emerging from the second of these tunnels at Anchi, the Rimac is recrossed, and the road follows up the River Blanco a few miles, which it crosses, and then enters a mountain, where it turns around in a curved tunnel, end emerging a few hundred feet above, recrosses the river and returns, passes Anchi, and continues up the river Rimac. At Ohicla, a few miles further, the road passes the town, returns, crosses its own track and the Rimac, turns and passes again, and reversing, returns and again doubles on itself, having passed Chiola five times. The view from the summit, 16,668 ft, at the entrance to the Galera tunnel is not so imposing as at other points. A plateau of a few miles square, with lakelets and patches of snow, and surrounded by peaks, many covered with snow, is all one sees. But the oppression of breathing, the quickened pulse (130 to 140 per minute), the dull, dizzy head, and the cold frosty air, make an impression one never forgets.