Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 263 lighter gradient. Right up to within four miles of the summit of the Rockies the gradient does not exceed 40 feet to the mile. Although one talks of the prairies as flat, they are really rather steppes. The first steppe stretches for 388 miles from Winnipeg to Moose Jaw. Here there is a rise of 275 feet in 7 miles. The second steppe extends 224 miles to the crossing of the Saskatchewan, and is full of ridges and valleys. “ Had cuttings been possible,” wrote the engineers, “ there would have been less difficulty of location and lighter works ; but these are not practicable, as it is a matter of great importance to keep the Cuttings grade in filling (or embankment) ... to avoid blockade by snow. The dryness of the season in winter pulverizes the snow. It drifts before the wind, and packs so solid that a horse and ONE TYPE OF C.P.R. SNOW-PLOUGH. sleigh can pass over it, leaving scarcely any impression. A drift of this very fine snow, six inches deep, during a blizzard will bring to a dead stop the most powerful engine. Such a drift on the line here would have to be dug out.” The whole route had to be explored and located ahead of the graders during the actual working season. In 1882, during a season of 239 working days, locating parties permanently located 840 miles through a hitherto unex- plored country, being an average of over three and a half miles a day. Staff Organiza- tion. How the Work was subdivided. The engineering staff consisted of five divi- sional engineers, each in charge of 30 miles, divided into 10-mile sections under an assistant engineer, who had a camp con- sisting of a rodman, axeman, and cook. When his section was finished he was shifted farther west. The supply camps were 20 miles apart. The contractors had their independent supply camps, 25, 50, and 75 miles respectively from railhead. In 1882 there were 4,000 men at work, with 1,700 teams consisting each of a pair of horses and large four-wheeled wagon. As has been stated, Messrs. Langdon, Shep- hard, and Company were responsible for the whole prairie portion. They in turn sublet the work to numerous smaller con- tractors, who undertook the construction of greater or less distances according to the strength of their “ outfits.” The ordinary sub-c®ntractor generally under- took a five-mile stretch at a time, and was not only responsible for its completion, but had to achieve that completion in his proper turn with the others. Thus one outfit, after finishing its “ job,” would move on 20 or 30 miles to begin a fresh stretch, passing on its way other gangs all hurrying their work so as to be ready to move in their turn. On the grassy prairie the “ right-of-way,” 99 feet wide, was marked out by little wooden pegs driven with exact care by the surveying gangs who had just passed on. The whole surveyed line was divided into 100-foot “ stations,” as they were, and Every 100 feet were put two pegs giving the extreme width of the right-of-way. In the centre, equidistant from each of these, stood a third, and very important, peg, bearing in figures a statement of the stretches, or are, termed. Marking out the Route.