The Railway Conquest of the World

by Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

These engineers at once attacked the problem boldly. It was found that the false rock on the Argentine side extended for no less than 1,670 feet, so that it must have been a most violent shiver of Nature, indeed, which let loose that mountain spur. The situation, however, was grasped so completely that within two years the range was pierced.

Yet it was not so much the engineering difficulties that this firm feared when they essayed the task, but the altitude at which it had to be accomplished. Again, there were difficulties incidental to transport, and the situations of the workings so far from any base. These were very great. It must be remembered that during the winter months—that is, from April to October—the tunnel workings and camps were cut off practically from the outside world. To plan one’s arrangements during the short summer so that when isolated there was no lack of material, food for the workmen, housing accommodation, as well as provision made for a thousand-and-one other details which were bound to arise, demanded considerable foresight, for work had to be maintained as steadily during the winter snows as under the summer sun.

It is not every workman who will volunteer, or is physically capable, to brave the dangers attending the wielding of pick, shovel, wheelbarrow and explosives in the rarefied atmosphere and the adverse climatic conditions prevailing in winter among the highest altitudes of the Andes. The cold is intense, the snowfall is tremendous, and the winds rage with terrific fury. The frozen snow and ice are driven like sand in all directions, and with such force that they cut like a knife, and penetrate every crevice.

Labour, indeed, proved a wearisome difficulty. Chilians figured most prominently among the workmen, and they proved to be very good labourers. There were a few Italians among them, with Englishmen occupying the controlling positions. At each end of the tunnel elaborate hospitals were erected replete with competent medical attention, for in addition to accidents there were the innumerable maladies provoked by the reduced atmospheric pressure which, unless skilfully tended in the incipient stages, are apt to develop very serious symptoms. Pneumonia was the chief cause of illness, attributable to insufficient clothing and care on the part of the Chilians. But after all is said and done, work at such an altitude is terribly exhausting under the most favourable conditions.

On the Chilian side the constructional work was more imposing in character. It is only 46 miles from the Pacific portal of the tunnel to Los Andes, where junction is effected with the State railway systems. In this short distance there is a difference of some 8000 feet in levels, and the drop in the first 7 miles from the tunnel mouth is no less than 3,150 feet. The engineers were hard pushed to devise ways and means to lay the track so that it could be operated by the usual railway methods. Heavy grades, ranging from 6 to 8 per cent., could not be avoided to communicate each successive gallery carrying the metals along the mountain sides. The rack had to be resorted to freely, and the result is that the line describes a remarkable zigzag course, strikingly recalling the wonderful Stelvio road in the Tyrol.

At one point there is a very impressive piece of engineering. The line winds along the hill-side high up on the bank of the rushing Aconcagua River, disappears into a tunnel through a spur, and then emerges at the other side on the brink of a narrow chasm—the Soldier’s Leap. This is a mere wedge-shaped fissure in the rock, but a few feet in width, and through which the river tumbles over 200 feet below. A narrow bridge carries the line across the rift to a narrow ledge blasted out of the opposite cliff-face where the mountains overhang the water.

The resources of the engineers will be taxed to a supreme degree in order to keep the line clear from snow during the winter. In fact, it was asserted freely that for about six months in the year the upper levels of the line would be well-nigh impassable. The engineers on the spot, however, have risen to the occasion. They have studied the massive hills of snow which, lashed into furious whirl-storms by the hurricane winds, sweep rapidly and irresistibly forward, often burying the railway to a depth of 30 feet or more. A powerful rotary plough was placed in service to tackle this obstacle, and although found highly successful in the places where the line was open, it could not be utilised in the deep cuttings. Special situations demand special methods. So the engineers set to work to devise their own means of combating Boreas in his wildest fury. They evolved a push-plough of a special wedge-shape pattern which can attack a 16-foot drift and cut a channel clean through it with ease. The trouble is not so much the snow, but the large masses of rock which are rolled down the mountain sides, and lurk in the white mass. When a rotary strikes one of these formidable boulders when running at full speed, the auger-like rotating mechanism is smashed to pieces, and the whole apparatus is thrown out of action. With the special push-plough, however, no such disaster is to be feared. The nose of the apparatus glides over the concealed obstruction without suffering any damage whatever, and the boulder can be removed by manual labour, as a skilled gang of snow-clearers are attached to every snow-plough train.

A new line is approaching completion among the Andes which compels attention, even in South America, the land of railway wonders. This is the new main line which is to connect La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, with the coast. Hitherto, in order to gain the metropolis of the interior land-locked State, one has had to embark upon a circuitous journey either via the Antofagasta railway and its connections, or by means of the Peruvian Southern railway from Mollendo, by way of Lake Titicaca and Puno.

The new line starts from the coast at Arica and follows as straight a line to La Paz as the configuration of the country permits. The outstanding feature of this enterprise is the extreme altitude at which it lies for the greater part of its length, this ranging between 12,000 and 14,000 feet above the Pacific. Another fact is that the summit is not overcome by a tunnel, but the line passes right over the crests. The line measures 292 miles in length, and the sudden rise from the coast into the mountain country is effected by means of the toothed rail or rack system, the aggregate length of which is no less than 40 miles.

Some idea of the conditions that confronted the railway-builders was afforded in the course of the surveys. In many places the engineers had to blast a trail out of the hard, solid rock with dynamite in order to advance. There are about 70 tunnels, though none are very long, for the most part piercing shoulders and spurs of the main range which could not be compassed or removed. At places very heavy bridging is essential, the spanning of one gorge in particular having presented a pretty problem. This ravine is 150 feet in width, and is crossed in a single span 150 feet above the raging river.