Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

ENGINEERING WONDERS ‘OF THE WORLD. 266 READY FOB A MEAL. INTERIOR VIEW OF A CONSTRUCTION CAMP MESS-ROOM. frosts drove the sub - con- tractors to winter quarters, some to store their outfits in the growing town of Winni- peg or the American twin cities of St. Paul and Minnea- polis, others to the woods to make ties and bridge timber till the return of spring thawed the ground again. In places the track was laid so rapidly that there was not time to set up camps. Large two- story boarding time until “ unhook ” the air was hideous with fearful sounds. Stolidly patient, incred- ibly strong, endued with infinite endurance and devilish vice, no mule would move one second before “ hook up ” sounded or one second after the correct time for “ unhook ” to be called had passed. It was a pity that so many good horses succumbed. From one cause and another the mor- M°rtaIity tality among them was very Horses. serious- Probably a steady diet of too many oats and too little hay to eat with them, and water often strongly impregnated with alkali to drink, was responsible for the trouble, which may have been aggravated by the bites of the myriads of mosquitoes which infested the whole country during May, June, and July. The mules were tougher. What a mule cannot endure has yet to be discovered. They suffered only from the soft ground or muskegs, where their small hoofs cut through the covering sod and let them in up to their bellies, sometimes indeed over their backs. The work across the prairies proceeded rapidly until the coming of winter snows and Movable Hotels. cars were built for the use of the men. In the upper story the men slept, and in the lower they had their mess. Each car held sleeping accommodation for eighty men. These cars, together with the cooking, inspector’s, and workshop cars, were permanent portions of the construction train, and were always left at the front. The rest of the train consisted of twenty-one flat cars (or trucks), and was backed up by the engine, which never had to go more than eight miles for supplies. The sleepers or ties (laid 2,640 tQ a mile) were packed thirty- Laying- three to a car, and the rails *he 1 C.l< (which were 30 feet long) were thirty pairs to a car, together with five boxes of spikes, sixty pairs of fish-plates, and CARRYING SUPPLIES INTO CAMP.