There is the unfathomable fascination of romance connected with the construction of great railways, though little is known of the beginning and the growth of the great trunk roads of the world; of the heavy tax which their construction imposed upon the ingenuity, skill and resource of their builders. Speeding along swiftly in a luxurious Pullman car over a road-bed as smooth as an asphalt pavement conveys no impression of the perils and dangers faced or of the infinite labour expended in the making of that steel highway. To-day the earth is girdled with some 700,000 miles of railways, and there are few countries in which the locomotive has not made its appearance.
This volume has been written with the express purpose of telling in a popular manner this story of romance. It is obviously impossible to deal with every great railway undertaking in the compass of a single volume; but those described may safely be considered representative, and they are the largest and most interesting enterprises between the two poles.
In the writing of this volume I have been assisted by innumerable friends who have been identified closely with the introduction of Stephenson’s invention into fresh fields of conquest. I am indebted especially to the following gentlemen: Messrs. Norman B. Dickson, M.INST.C.E.; A. M. Cleland, the Northern Pacific Railway Company; the late J. C. Meredith, chief engineer, the Florida East Coast Railway; A. L. Lawley; R. R. Gales, M.INST.C.E.; H. E. Gwyther, chief engineer, the Leopoldina Railway Company, Ltd.; Francis B. Clarke, president of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway; William Hood, chief engineer, the Southern Pacific Company; F. A. Miller, the Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railway; the I. R. Austrian Railway Ministry; W. Weston, the Denver, North-western and Pacific Railway Company; the Pennsylvania Steel Company; W. T. Robson, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company; the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company, and Frederic Coleman of Darlington; the Swiss Federal Railways; H. R. Charlton, the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada; the chief engineer, the New Zealand Government Railways; the Peruvian Corporation; the chief engineers of the New South Wales, South Australia and West Australia Government Railways; the Minister of Ways of Communication of the Russian Empire; the Trans-Andine Railway Company; the chief engineer, the Imperial Japanese Government Railways; J. J. Gywn, chief engineer, and S. K. Hooper, the Denver and Rio Grande Railway; G. J. Ray, chief engineer, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad; Virgil G. Bogue, vice-president and chief engineer, the Western Pacific Railway Company; and S. J. Ellison of the Great Northern Railway, U.S.A.
Frederick A. Talbot.
Hove,
September 29, 1911.
CONTENTS
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| I | THE RAILWAY SURVEYOR’S ADVENTUROUS LIFE | [1] |
| II | THE ROMANCE OF CONSTRUCTION | [12] |
| III | THE BORING OF THE GOTTHARD TUNNEL | [30] |
| IV | THE RAILWAY INVASION OF CANADA | [46] |
| V | THE FIRST TRANS-CONTINENTAL ACROSS THE UNITED STATES | [59] |
| VI | THE LONGEST “TOY” RAILWAY | [76] |
| VII | THE WONDERS OF THE TYROL | [88] |
| VIII | THE RECLAMATION OF ALASKA | [102] |
| IX | THE HOLY RAILWAY TO MECCA | [117] |
| X | THE HIGHEST LINE IN THE WORLD | [128] |
| XI | CECIL RHODES’ DREAM—FROM THE CAPE TO CAIRO (I. NORTHWARDS FROM CAPE TOWN) | [139] |
| XII | CECIL RHODES’ DREAM—FROM THE CAPE TO CAIRO (II. SOUTHWARDS FROM CAIRO) | [152] |
| XIII | GRIDIRONING THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS | [162] |
| XIV | THE IRON HORSE IN AUSTRALASIA (I.) | [175] |
| XV | THE IRON HORSE IN AUSTRALASIA (II.) | [186] |
| XVI | ACROSS SIBERIA BY RAIL | [198] |
| XVII | THE LEOPOLDINA RAILWAY | [214] |
| XVIII | THE FIRST CANADIAN TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILWAY | [224] |
| XIX | A RAILWAY OVER THE SEA | [240] |
| XX | THE LAND OF REMARKABLE RAILWAY BRIDGES | [250] |
| XXI | WHERE THE SNOW-PLOUGH WORKS IN SUMMER | [260] |
| XXII | FROM BUENOS AIRES TO VALPARAISO OVERLAND | [270] |
| XXIII | A LITTLE-KNOWN CENTRAL AFRICAN RAILWAY | [281] |
| XXIV | THE INVASION OF THE FAR EAST (I. EARLY DAYS IN CHINA) | [289] |
| XXV | THE INVASION OF THE FAR EAST (II. MODERN DEVELOPMENTS IN CHINA AND JAPAN) | [297] |
| XXVI | THE CONQUEST OF THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS | [308] |