The Railway Conquest of the World

by Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

The location of the railway across this gorge was beset with peculiar difficulties. The question of the approach was trying to decide to the best advantage, and in fact so many surveys were made that one of the American engineers remarked “that he could not see the side of the cliff for survey pegs.”

THE TRAINING-BUND UNDER CONSTRUCTION BY NATIVE LABOUR. AT THE EXTREME RIGHT A PIER IS BEING BUILT FOR THE BRIDGE

GENERAL VIEW OF THE PIER-BUILDING OPERATIONS FOR THE CURZON BRIDGE ACROSS THE GANGES AT ALLAHABAD

The bridge is 3000 feet long. Temporary line at right.

The gorge itself is also somewhat strange; in fact, it is a curious wonder of Nature. The Chungzoune River flows through the rift, but out of sight, its course being through a natural tunnel, into which it disappears suddenly at a depth of 500 feet. When the line was first surveyed it was in accordance with a low viaduct, the approach thereto being over a suggested section of rack railway working on the Abt system, with grades of 1 in 12½. This was subsequently abandoned, and the surveyor was called upon to find a fresh location so as to eliminate the rack railway, and to give grades not exceeding 1 in 25, so as to permit the line to be worked by adhesion. This decision raised the height of the towers by 70 feet and increased its length to 1,350 feet. Even this did not meet with approval, for after prolonged deliberation a third location was demanded, to give an easier line yet. In this last survey the gradients were flattened to 1 in 40, with an attendant increase in the height of the structure as well as of its length. It was found impossible to improve upon the viaduct itself, so further surveys were carried out to improve the approaches, reducing their length and introducing curves at either end of the viaduct.

At last finality was reached, and the contract was secured by the American bridge-builders on April 28, 1899. They lost no time in hurrying forward the preparation of the steel. Three months later a special train of 45 cars, laden with 977 tons, left Steelton on the 201-miles run to New York, where a specially chartered steamer was in waiting to receive this steel cargo. The vessel left the American port on a journey of over 10,000 miles to Rangoon, where the freight was transferred to the small trucks of the railway and sent on the up-country journey of 460 miles to the Gokteik gorge. No less than three steamers were required to transport the 4,308 tons of steel, together with some 200 tons of requisite tackle for erection, and 35 American bridge-erectors.

When the Americans arrived on the scene they were treated to their first experience of Indian weather. The rain fell in torrents; the roads were converted into rushing streams, and the low-lying stretches of land into lakes. This was something new to the Americans, and they chafed at being compelled to sit down to wait until the weather moderated. To make matters worse, the line was knocked about severely by the rain, no less than thirteen wash-outs occurring between the coast and the gorge. In one place a locomotive got caught. It could not advance and could not retreat, owing to breaches in the railway on either side, so quietly settled down to rest in the waterlogged embankment, and finally slipped into a field of rice, to the intense disgust of the owner.

The result was that the port became congested with the steel and tackle awaiting dispatch up-country. The railway company repaired the wash-outs with all possible speed, and directly the line was opened the material poured towards Gokteik in a ceaseless stream. In fact, the American engineers were somewhat perplexed by the speed with which the material was sent up, and they had a spirited task in sorting out the pieces of steel as they arrived. The work proceeded so feverishly that the empty trains could not be backed out of the shunting-yard with sufficient alacrity to admit incoming loads. The bridge-builders extended assistance in a novel manner. Shunting was abandoned. The large steam derricks picked up the empty cars bodily off the one track, whipped them round, and deposited them upon a siding, from which the engines pulled them out as best they could.