By E.T. ABBOTT, Member of the Engineers' Club of Minnesota. Read December
12, 1884.
During the winter of 1881 and 1882, the contract was let to Messrs.
Langdon, Sheppard & Co., of Minneapolis, to construct during the working
season of the latter year, or prior to January 1, 1883, 500 miles of
railroad on the western extension of the above company; the contract being
for the grading, bridging, track-laying, and surfacing, also including the
laying of the necessary depot sidings and their grading. The idea that any
such amount of road could be built in that country in that time was looked
upon by the writer hereof, as well as by railroad men generally, as a huge
joke, perpetrated to gull the Canadians. At the time the contract was let,
the Canadian Pacific Railway was in operation to Brandon, the crossing of
the Assiniboine River, 132 miles west of Winnipeg. The track was laid,
however, to a point about 50 miles west of this, and the grading done
generally in an unfinished state for thirty miles further. This was the
condition of things when the contract was entered into to build 500
miles--the east end of the 500-mile contract being at Station 4,660
(Station being at Brandon) and extending west to a few miles beyond the
Saskatchewan River.
The spring of 1882 opened in the most unpromising manner for railroad
operations, being the wettest ever known in that country. Traffic over the
St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railroad, between St. Paul and Winnipeg,
was entirely suspended from April 15 to the 28th, owing to the floods on
the Red River at St. Vincent and Emerson, a serious blow to an early
start, as on this single track depended the transportation of all
supplies, men, timber, and contractors' plant, together with all track
materials (except ties), all of these things having to come from or
through St. Paul and Minneapolis. The writer hereof was appointed a
division engineer, and reported at Winnipeg the 15th of April, getting
through on the last train before the St. Vincent flood. No sooner was the
line open from St. Paul to Winnipeg than the cotillon opened between
Winnipeg and Brandon, with a succession of washouts that defied and
defeated all efforts to get trains over, so it was not until the fifth day
of May that I left Winnipeg to take charge of the second division of 30
miles.
By extremely "dizzy" speed I was landed at the end of the track, 180 miles
from Winnipeg, on the evening of the 9th (4 days). My outfit consisted of
three assistant engineers and the necessary paraphernalia for three
complete camps, 30 days' provisions (which turned out to be about 20), 11
carts and ponies, the latter being extremely poor after a winter's diet
on buffalo grass and no grain. On the 18th day of May I had my division
organized and camps in running order. The country was literally under
water, dry ground being the exception, and I look upon the feat of getting
across the country at all as the engineering triumph of my life.
On May 20 a genuine blizzard set in, lasting 24 hours, snowed five inches,
and froze the sloughs over with half an inch of ice, a decidedly
interesting event to the writer, as he was 18 miles from the nearest wood,
therefore lay in his blankets and ate hard tack. I stabled my ponies in
the cook tent, and after they had literally eaten of the sod inside the
tent, I divided my floor with them.
On 28th day of May I saw the first contractor, who broke ground at station
7,150. On the 1st of June I was relieved from this division, and ordered
to take the next, 50 miles west. On the 13th day of June ground was broken
on this division, at station 8,070, or only about 62 miles west of the
east end of the 500-mile contract. It looked at this time as though they
might build 150 miles, but not more. But from this time on very rapid
progress was made. On July 17 the track reached station 7,000, making
however up to this time but about 50 miles of track-laying, including that
laid on the old grade; but large forces were put on to surfacing, and the
track already laid was put in excellent condition for getting material to
the front. The weather from this until the freezing-up was all that could
be desired. Work ceased about the 1st of January, 1883, for the season,
and the final estimate for the work was as follows: 6,103,986 cubic yards
earth excavation, 2,395,750 feet B.M. timber in bridges and the culverts,
85,708 lineal feet piling, 435 miles of track-laying. This work was all
done in 182 working days, including stormy ones, when little, if anything,
could be done, making a daily average of 33,548 yards excavation, 13,150
feet B.M. timber, 471 feet piling, 2-38/100 miles track-laying. We never
had an accurate force report made of the whole line, but roughly there
were employed 5,000 men and 1,700 teams.
The admirable organization of the contractors was something wonderful. The
grading work was practically all done by sub-contractors, Messrs. Langdon,
Sheppard & Co. confining themselves to putting in the supplies and doing
the bridge work, surfacing, and track-laying. The grading forces were
scattered along about 150 miles ahead of the track and supply stores,
established about 50 miles apart, and in no case were sub-contractors
expected to haul supplies over 100 miles. If I remember rightly, there
were four trains of about forty wagons each, hauling supplies from the end
of track to the stores.
As can be readily seen, the vital point of the whole work, and the problem
to solve, was food for men and horses. 1,700 bushels of oats every day and
15,000 pounds of provisions, Sundays and all, for an entire season, which
at the beginning of the work had to come about 170 miles by rail, and then
be taken from 50 to 150 miles by teams across a wilderness, is on the face
of it considerable of an undertaking, to say nothing about hauling the
pile-drivers, piles, and bridge-timber there. To keep from delaying the
track, sidings 1,500 feet long were graded, about 7 miles apart. A
side-track crew, together with an engine, four flats, and caboose, were
always in readiness; and as soon as a siding was reached, in five hours
the switches would be in, and the next day it would be surfaced and all in
working order, when the operating department would fill it with track
material and supplies. From the head of the siding to the end of the track
the ground was in hands of track-laying engine, never going back of the
last siding for supplies or material, and my recollection is that there
were but six hours' delay to the track from lack of material the whole
season, at any rate up to some time in November. The track-laying crew was
equal to 4 miles per day, and in the month of August 92 miles of track
were laid. The ties were cut on the line of the road about 100 miles east
of Winnipeg, so the shortest distance any ties were hauled was 270 miles;
the actual daily burden of the single track from Winnipeg west was 24 cars
steel, 24 cars ties, aside from the transportation of grain and
provisions, bridge material, and lumber for station houses. The station
buildings were kept right up by the company itself, and a depot built with
rooms for the agent every 15 miles, or at every second siding. The
importance of keeping the buildings up with the track was impressed on the
mind of the superintendent of this branch, and, as a satire, he
telegraphed asking permission to haul his stuff ahead of the track by
teams, he being on the track-layers' heels with his stations and tanks the
whole season. The telegraph line was also built, and kept right up to the
end of the track, three or four miles being the furthest they were at any
time behind.
It might be supposed that work done so rapidly would not be well done, but
it is the best built prairie road I know of on this continent. It is built
almost entirely free from cuts, and the work is at least 20 per cent.
heavier than would ordinarily be made across the same country in the
States, on account of snow. 2,640 ties were laid to the mile, and the
track ballasting kept well up with the laying; so well, in fact, and so
well done, that as 100 mile sections were completed schedule trains were
put on 20 miles an hour, and the operating department had nothing to do
but make a time table; the road was _built_ by the construction department
before the operating department was asked to take it. The engineering was
organized in divisions of 30 miles each, and as each was finished the
parties moved ahead again to the front, the engineers usually finding men
sitting on their shovels waiting for the work to be laid out for them. It
was as much as the locating parties could do to keep out of the way of the
construction. The roadbed was built 14 ft. wide in embankment and 20 in
the very few cuts there were, there being no cuts of any moment except
through the Coteaus and the Saskatchewan crossing, and these have since
been widened out on account of snow, so that the road can be operated the
year round and the bucking-snow account cut no figure in the operating
expenses.
The country is a virgin desert. From Winnipeg to the Pacific Ocean there
are a few places that might attain to the dignity of an _oasis_--at
Brandon, Portage la Prairie, etc.--but it is generally what I should call
worthless; 100 miles to wood and 100 feet to water was the general
experience west of the Moose jaw, and the months of June, July, and August
are the only three in the year that it is safe to bet you will not have
sleighing. I burned wood and used stakes that were hauled by carts 85
miles, and none any nearer. It is a matter of some pride that both the
engineering and the construction were done by what our Canadian neighbors
kindly termed "Yankee importations." However, there was one thing that in
the building of this road was in marked contrast to any other Pacific road
ever constructed, that is, there was no lawlessness, no whisky, and not
even a knock-down fight that I ever heard of the whole season, and even in
the midst of 12,000 Indians, all armed with Winchester rifles and plenty
of ammunition, not one of the locating or construction parties ever had a
military escort, nor were any depredations ever committed, except the
running off of a few horses, which were usually recovered; and I think
there were but two fatal accidents during the season, one man killed on
the Grand Coule Bridge, and another from being kicked by a horse.
The track was all laid from one end, and in no case were rails hauled
ahead by teams. Two iron cars were used, the empty returning one being
turned up beside the track to let the loaded one by.
The feat in rapid construction accomplished by this company will never be
duplicated, done as it was by a reckless expenditure of money, the orders
to the engineers being to _get there_ regardless of expense and
horse-flesh; if you killed a horse by hard driving, his harness would fit
another, and there was no scrutiny bestowed on vouchers when the work was
done; and I must pay the tribute to the company to say that everything
that money would buy was sent to make the engineers comfortable. It was
bad enough at best, and the Chief Engineer (J.C. James) rightly considered
that any expense bestowed on the engineering part of the work was a good
investment.
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