Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

32 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. A ROTARY SNOW-PLOUGH AT REST. The line is worked all the year round, and sometimes drifts 35 feet deep have to be cleared for considerable distances. July 29, thus closing the gap be- tween the two ends of the rail- way. It is a curious fact that the first train over the completed line was south bound—that is, going out from White Horse to Skaguay—and was composed of empty cars, which had been working on the north end of the line, but which were, of course, sent to Skaguay to be loaded as soon as the gap in the railway was closed. The general characteristics of the railway are as follows. It has a gauge of 3 feet, and is laid with 56-lb. steel rails with 24- inch spliced bar fish-joints, and on Description curves, etc., with of the tie - plates and Railway, rail-braces. The sleepers or “ ties ” are 6' X 8" x 6|", laid 2,816 to the mile. The road bed in excavation is 10 feet wide, with a 2-foot ditch at each side, making the standard width in excavation 14 feet at the base. On embankments the finished shores of Lake Bennett, where the heaviest work consisted of blasting a road bed round or through the numerous steep, rocky capes which jutted out into the deep SS water of the lake. These capes Lake were separated from each other Bennett. by little bays, at the head of which the water was for the most part shallow, so that the material taken from the rock cuttings on the capes was used in some places for building embankments across the shallows, thus avoiding curvature of the line as much as possible. By the end of July 1900 the 27 miles of line along the shore of the lake were completed, and the last spike was driven on width at top is 12 feet. Earth side slopes in excavation are 1 to 1, and on embankments H-tol. In loose rock excavation the slopes vary from | to 1 to 1 to 1, according to cir- cumstances ; and in solid rock the side slopes are | to I. The maximum gradient between Skaguay and the Summit is 3'9 per cent., and the maximum rise in any one mile is 201 feet, the theoretical grade being equal- ized for curvature — that is, Gradients, reduced on curves to compen- sate for the loss by friction, and to maintain a uniform load on the engine. This maxi- mum grade scheme is uniformly maintained, except at sidings, from the fourth mile-post to