- Steam Excavator
On the prairies of the West the road-bed is thrown up from ditches on each side, either by men with wheelbarrows and carts, or by means of a ditching-machine, which can move 3,000 yards of earth daily. In this case the track follows immediately after the embankment, and the men live in cars fitted up as boarding-shanties, and moved forward as fast as required. - Making an Embankment
After the railway line has been finally located, the next duty of the engineers is to prepare the work for letting. Land-plans are made, from which the right of way is secured. From the sections, the quantities are taken out. Plans of bridges and culverts are made; and a careful specification of all the works on the line is drawn up. The works are then let, either to one large contractor or to several smaller ones, and the labor of construction begins. The duties of the engineers are to stake out the work for the contractors, make monthly returns of its progress, and see that it is well done and according to the specifications and contract. The line is divided into sections, and an engineer, with his assistants, is placed in charge of each. Where the works are heavy, the contractors build shanties for their men and teams near the heavy cuttings or embankments. It is the custom to take out heavy cuttings by means of the machine called a steam shovel, which will dig as many yards in a day as 500 men. - Snow-sheds, Selkirk Mountains, Canadian Pacific
In all countries, old and new, mountainous and level, the rule should be to keep the level of track well above the surface of the ground, in order to insure good drainage and freedom from snow-drifts. The question of avoidance of obstruction by snow is a very serious one upon the Rocky Mountain lines, and they could not be worked without the device of snow-sheds—another purely American invention. There are said to be six miles of staunchly built snow-sheds on the Canadian Pacific and sixty miles on the Central Pacific Railway. The quantity of snow falling is enormous, sometimes amounting to 250,000 cubic yards, weighing over 100,000 tons, in one slide. It is stated by the engineers of the Canadian Pacific, that the force of the air set in motion by these avalanches has mown down large trees, not struck by the snow itself. Their trunks, from one to two feet in diameter, remain, split as if struck by lightning. - Engineers in Camp
A full surveying party consists of the front flag-man, with his corps of axe-men to cut away trees and bushes; the transit-man, who records the distances and angles of the line, assisted by his chain-men and flag-men; and lastly the leveller, who takes and records the levels, with his rod-men and axe-men. The chief of the party exercises a general supervision over all, and is sometimes assisted by a topographer, who sketches in his book the contours of the hills and direction and size of the watercourses. One tent contains the cook, the commissary, and the provisions; another tent or two the working party, and another the superior engineers, with their drawing instruments and boards. In a properly regulated party the map and profile of the day's work should be plotted before going to bed, so as to see if all is right. If it turns out that the line can be improved and easier grades got, or other changes made, now is the time to do it. - A Switchback
Another American invention is the switchback. By this plan the length of line required to ease the gradient is obtained by running backward and forward in a zigzag course, instead of going straight up the mountain. As a full stop has to be made at the end of every piece of line, there is no danger of the train running away from its brakes. This device was first used among the hills of Pennsylvania over forty years ago, to lower coal cars down into the Nesquehoning Valley. It was afterwards used on the Callao, Lima, and Oroya Railroad in Peru, by American engineers, with extraordinary daring and skill. It was employed to carry the temporary tracks of the Cascade Division of the Northern Pacific Railroad over the "Stampede" Pass, with grades of 297 feet per mile, while a tunnel 9,850 feet long was being driven through the mountains. - A Sharp Curve—Manhattan Elevated Railway, 110th Street, New York
Equally valuable improvements were made in cars, both for passengers and freight. Instead of the four-wheeled English car, which on a rough track dances along on three wheels, we owe to Ross Winans, of Baltimore, the application of a pair of four-wheeled swivelling trucks, one under each end of the car, thus enabling it to accommodate itself to the inequalities of a rough track and to follow its locomotive around the sharpest curves. There are, on our main lines, curves of less than 300 feet radius, while, on the Manhattan Elevated, the largest passenger traffic in the world is conducted around curves of less than 100 feet radius. There are few curves of less than 1,000 feet radius on European railways. - Locomotive of To-day
- Rail Making
- The Last Span - ready to join
- Hungarian Ox
- Banteng
- Alderney Cow
- The Sangu, or Abyssinian Ox
- Stomach of Manilla Buffalo
- Skull of Domestic Ox
- The Bison
- Wounded Bison
- Young female Bison
- Indian Hunting Bison
- Bison surrounded by Wolves
- Bison Calf, about three weeks old
- Skin Canoes of the Mandan Indians
- Head of young male Bison
- Aurochs, or European Bison
- Yak, from Asiatic Transactions
- Yak, from Oriental Annual
- Gyall (Bos Frontalis)
- Head of Gyall
- Gayal, from Asiatic Transactions
- Head of Asseel Gayal
- Occipital view of the same Skull
- Head of Domestic Gayal
- Jungly Gau
- Syrian Ox
- Italian Buffalo
- Herefordshire Cow
- Manilla Buffalo
- Head of Manilla Buffalo—female
- Pulo Condore Buffalo
- Short-horned Bull
- Cape Buffalo
- Young Cape Buffalo
- Head of Cape Buffalo
- Pegasse
- Gaur
- Head of Gaur
- Arnee
- Horns of Young Arnee
- Arnee from Indian Painting
- Zamouse, or Bush Cow
- Brahmin Bull
- Head of Musk Ox
- Zebu
- Zebus (var. γ) and Car
- Zebu.—(Var. δ.)
- Chillingham Bull
- Kyloe, or Highland Ox
- Free Martin
- Skull of Short-nosed Ox of the Pampas
- Outlines of Manilla Buffalo