Establishing a New Gradient Record 



By F. J. Dickie 



EVER since railroad construction be- 

 came general on the North Ameri- 

 can continent one of the most important 

 matters to be considered when building 

 has been the obtaining of a minimum 

 gradient. Particularly has this been so 

 in the case of transcontinental lines, 



which offered the minimum altitude. 

 Beginning in 1903 exhaustive explora- 

 tions of the Rockies were made for a 

 period of three years. During this time 

 four main passes, the Peace River, Pine 

 River, Wapiti and Yellowhead were 

 thoroughly gone over as well as half a 

 dozen smaller intermediate 

 ones. At the end of this 

 time the Yellowhead Pass 

 route was selected. 



Here a maximum gradient 

 of four-tenths of one per 

 cent, was obtained, a rise of 

 twenty-one feet to the mile. 

 Considering the mountainous 

 country passed through 



Above: A Track-Lay 'ng Ma- 

 chine Working Near the Sum- 

 mit of Yellowhead. In 1913 

 and 1914 This Machine Aver- 

 aged Nearly Two Miles of 

 Track Per Day. At the Right: 

 Banks Along the Skema River, 

 British Columbia, Through 

 Which the Line Was Built. 



where long freight hauls on heavy grades 

 eat enormously into the profit. 



When the first coast to coast train 

 was run recently over the Grand Trunk 

 Pacific, the second transcontinental rail- 

 way to be completed across Canada, it 

 marked the culmination of eleven years 

 of construction endeavor, the chief fea- 

 ture of which was the obtaining of a new 

 and the lowest gradient on the North 

 American continent. 



In the obtaining of this the engineers 

 had to find the pass across the Rockies 



one of the roughest in the world, where 

 sheer cliffs hundreds of feet high had to 

 be blasted into in order to provide a foot- 

 hold for the sieel the obtaining of this 

 grade against eastbound traffic from the 

 Pacific Coast to Edmonton, a distance of 

 nine hundred miles, ranks among- the 

 world's greatest engineering feats. Five- 

 tenths of one per cent., or a rise of 

 twenty-six feet to the mile, was obtained 

 against westbound traffic. 



Only one summit was encountered in 

 crossing the mountains at a maximum 



329 



