DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION. 
15 
transportation of weighty supplies, forces, and munitions of war ; if the construction of a Grand 
Trunk railway is a ponderous and dangerous experiment, and its eventual completion beyond 
the limits of reasonable anticipation ; if the iron rail and locomotive engine may he made of 
immediate use, and solve this necessity by the mere adoption of a route of transit over which it 
can he profitably extended ; then the building of this railroad to the Pacific, applicable to the 
exigencies involved, the amount of transportation required, and the remuneration which will 
ensue, is a legitimate and warrantable undertaking, because no other will answer the purposes 
of the case proposed. It is the extension of a railroad of the least cost in the first outlay, be¬ 
cause built through an uncivilized country, over an undeveloped route, and as subject to the 
contingency of total loss to its projectors if elaborated beyond the stringent needs of the mere 
requirements of necessity, before reaching the distant terminus from which a revenue is antici¬ 
pated—the extension of a railroad to solve the correctness of this anticipation of revenue, and, 
under the nature of an experiment, to test its value; hut, beyond all these minor requisitions, 
the extension of such a railroad as the comprehension of other and more important national 
considerations will alone warrant constructing. It is, in like manner, the adoption of a route 
which, from the nature of the surface passed over, and from the avoidance of great obstacles, 
will lead to the immediate consummation of the project. 
If the use of the rail prior to the actual completion of the road, hv the mere selection of a 
route over which it can he extended by light grading, seem to the unprofessional observer im¬ 
practicable and absurd, to the experienced railroad-builder, who has seen the working locomotive 
and material train made the grand vehicle of transportation over unfinished lines and upon 
every variety of surface, this mode of transit will at once sustain its important character in re¬ 
lation to the peculiar necessities of the present case. 
The road would consist of a T-rail, of sixty pounds to the lineal yard, spiked to a wooden 
cross-tie, and adjusted to a ditched and drained surface. But, as it progressed, it would he 
liable to modification by those improvements which inevitably occur, and which, in view of the 
constructive faculty of this nation, should not he lost sight of in preliminary arrangements. 
Over portions of that broad central division of the continent, reaching from the Missouri river 
to the Pacific, the mountainous, broken, and undulating country hears a very small proportion 
to the extent of elevated plateaux, either level-or of slight inclination to the horizon. These 
elevated plateaux offer substrata of sand or gravel, easily excavated, slightly affected by the ac¬ 
tion of frost, and, by nominal reduction of surface, affording a road-bed of perfect drainage, 
and of superior quality for the preservation of superstructure and machine, and also favoring 
those simple manual operations deemed sufficient to keep American railway lines in working 
order. A railroad line passing over such a surface would as far transcend all means of trans¬ 
portation by plank or wagon-roads as is possible to conceive. It would admit a speed of twenty 
miles per hour, with loaded trains, over the greater portion of its distance, and at least the 
passage of loaded trains over all portions of its distance. 
It would appear as a direct exemplification of capital reserved. The whole amount of its 
cost would have been expended in the mere needs of transportation for the purpose of building the 
proposed Grand Trunk road. Attempted without its aid, the construction of the Grand Trunk 
road may he regarded a chimera ; • and even if eventually completed, the depreciation and re¬ 
newal of its superstructure and rolling stock, the loss of interest on dormant capital, and the 
disastrous results attending its consummation, would thrice exceed the entire cost of a prelimi¬ 
nary road. 
The mere development of territory would remunerate the cost of constructing a road, only 
attempting in every stage of its completion a character or medium adapted to the simplest re¬ 
quirements of necessity; while no such minor sources of revenue would warrant the construction 
of a first-class line or road assuming an elaborated character from the outset. 
