The effect of the railway upon the movement of traffic around the northern hemisphere became manifested immediately. There were two ways in which China and the East generally could be gained from Europe. One route was by steamer all the way via the Suez Canal, the second was by way of the Atlantic, across America by rail, and by steamship across the Pacific. But the Trans-Siberian route was far and away the shortest and quickest, and as the campaign of overhaul is proceeding, acceleration is taking place. Now it is possible to reach Shanghai from London within 16 days, and one can encircle the northern half of the world in less than 40 days.
The extreme precautions observed to preserve communication on the line are noteworthy. The whole railway is divided into sections, each measuring 1,174 yards in length. Each station is provided with a cottage housing the station-master, his family and the employees. Some 4000 of these officials are scattered along the route between the Ural Mountains and the city of Tomsk. The men have a common uniform, which is rather of a military appearance, and it is no uncommon experience to hear passengers unfamiliar with this feature remark that the line is guarded from end to end by soldiers. As a matter of fact, it is just the same as if the various employees of our railways, such as porters, signalmen, guards, ticket-collectors, and so forth, were attired in khaki.
CHAPTER XVII
THE LEOPOLDINA RAILWAY
South America has constituted a happy hunting-ground for the railway engineer determined to carry out his conquest with steam and steel in the face of all opposition on the part of Nature. The famous Oroya line is described in another part of this volume, but on the eastern side of the continent is another railway which is equally as remarkable, and which constitutes one of the most interesting engineering achievements in this particular field of endeavour south of the Equator. Indeed, in many respects it ranks as one of the most interesting lines in the world.
This is the Leopoldina railway, which, with its hub resting on the Atlantic seaboard, has its tentacles spreading through the provinces of Rio, Minaes and Espirito Santo to the extent of some 1,500 or more miles. In reality it is a combination of many units. In the ’sixties of the nineteenth century, Brazil resolved to criss-cross its territory with steel, and short lengths of line were laid on all sides. But the finances of the country became so strained from internal troubles and the decline in the price of coffee that money could not be spared to build or to operate railways successfully. An English company was organised, therefore, to take over a number of these individual roads, and they were combined into a homogeneous whole to form the Leopoldina system.
When the Englishmen entered into possession they found a sorry state of things. The finances were in a hopelessly involved tangle, and months elapsed before they were straightened out. The tracks likewise were in a pitiable condition of decay. They had been built cheaply, and had suffered severely from the innumerable enemies to railways in a tropical country. Lack of funds had militated against repairs being carried out upon a comprehensive or thorough scale, with the result that the whole system presented a patched and dilapidated appearance.
However, no time was lost in placing the undertaking upon a firm footing. Within two months of the acquisition of the railways a large staff of men for both the administration and engineering sides of the enterprise were dispatched to South America, with Mr. F. W. Barrow as general manager and Mr. Norman B. Dickson, M.INST.C.E., as engineer-in-chief. The engineer was commanded to overhaul the whole network, to reconstruct it if necessary, so that the lines might be capable of meeting the exigencies of the traffic awaiting creation from the development of the country.
At that time Rio de Janeiro was an insalubrious city—in fact, it was almost a graveyard for Englishmen. Mr. Dickson found this out in a very short space of time. The company lost three accountants and a number of British assistants under the malignant scourge that prevailed—yellow fever. Since those days Rio de Janeiro has made great strides and has undergone extensive improvement. The city has been rebuilt, and has been provided with a complete sanitation system, to bring it into line with the other great ports of the world. But in those days it was absolutely untenantable from the white man’s point of view, and the railway authorities were compelled to provide accommodation for their imported staff in a healthy spot outside the city, where the men underwent what might be described as a process of acclimatisation lasting over eighteen months.
The first few years were strenuous to the engineer-in-chief. He was confronted with a formidable task on all sides. The line is of metre, or 39.3 inches, gauge throughout, and had been built in a somewhat flimsy and haphazard manner. The majority of the bridges and culverts had been erected of timber, the greater part of which either had reached, or were approaching closely, the span of life. These had to be replaced by permanent structures in masonry or steel. The track, too, had to be overhauled from end to end, reballasted, provided with new sleepers and rails, and at frequent points where it was in an exposed position, and liable to suffer from the peculiar visitations which wreak such widespread destruction in that country, had to be strengthened and protected by heavy retaining walls and revetments of masonry.