ILLINOIS

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPA1GN

PRODUCTION NOTE

University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign library
Brittle Books Project, 2014.COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION

In Public Domain.
Published prior to 1923.

This digital copy was made from the printed version held
by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
It was made in compliance with copyright law.

Prepared for the Brittle Books Project, Main Library,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
by

Northern Micrographics
Brookhaven Bindery
La Crosse, Wisconsin

2014Puget Sound ^;,;

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EVERETT
RAILWAY

REPRINTED FROM ELECTRIC RAILWAY JOURNAL.f'S:-.':S,t1

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SEATTLE EVERETT RAILWAY

BUILDING AN INTERURBAN IN A
NEW COUNTRY

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STONE & WEBSTER ENGINEERING
CORPORATION

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTSThrough Heavy Timber —Looking NorthSt 7 t

SEATTLE EVERETT RAILWAY

THE six foremost cities of Puget Sound form a
perfect arc which sweeps round the eastern shore
of that famous body of water like a Titan's bow.
It is drawn as though to discharge across the
continent a great arrow heralding this section's
future commercial and industrial supremacy.

The powerful right hand of Fortune, stretching athwart
the Pacific, grips the arrow with the notch at the coastline and
the head close up against the bow just where Everett lies,
one hundred and twelve miles to the east. The southern
end of the bow rests at Olympia and at the northern end is
Vancouver, one hundred and fifty miles away. Inlaid in the
stave of this miraculous bow are the cities of Bellingham,
Everett, Seattle, and Tacoma, while inside the arc shines
Puget Sound.

One of the finest counties in the far Northwest is
Snohomish, which lies midway on the eastern shore line of
the sound. In fact, were the arrow discharged it would,
at the very beginning of its flight, cleave Snohomish through
the center. With a population of 75,000, this county has
resources that would support eight times that number, for
it abounds in timber and fisheries, in agri-
cultural and in mineral wealth, and is larger
than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

Everett is the principal city and is splendidly
situated on one of the finest harbors on the
Sound. Less than twenty years ago the great
fir trees stood in unbroken ranks over the
entire site of this City, which numbers now
nearly 40,000 inhabitants and already has cast
off the last habiliment of a frontier town.

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THE HEAVIEST CUT WAS ONE OF 50,000 YDS.

Beverly Park Station — Four Miles from EverettTransportation has got to lead in this

great development of Snohomish County, and
by far the most important step of recent years
is the new Interurban Railroad just completed
between Seattle and Everett. It is quite charac-
teristic of the spirit of the Northwest, that while traversing
a section where the professional lumberman's axe was the
first and actually the most necessary implement of construc-
tion, the road nevertheless has been built for a speed of
forty miles per hour. For twelve miles the way literally has
been bored through a solid forest, large gangs of loggers
being employed to cut and dispose of the great trees which
were encountered on the right-of-way. These frequently
reached a diameter of eight feet and a height of two hundred
feet, and their stumps and far-reaching roots had to be
removed by blasting before the steam shovels could work;
yet the maximum grade of this road is only two per cent and
the maximum curvature four per cent.

This was not due to level topography. On the contrary
the average amount of grading was 25,000 yards per mile,
or the equivalent of a continuous embankment six feet high
and sixteen feet wide on grade. The standard width of fill was,
in fact, sixteen feet, while the width in cuts was eighteen feet.
The largest fill is one-half mile from Halls Lake, the southern
terminus of the new section of the line where
it crosses a swamp. This fill is forty feet high
and one-half mile long. A great deal of diffi-
culty attended its making because of the un-
stable nature of the foundation. For two
weeks, train-load after train-load of spoil was
dumped into the swamp only to disappear,

until finally the grade rose to view.Looking SouthIN making cuts there was unexpectedly encountered on
the southern section of the line a soil formation almost
like hardpan. It was too stiff for steam shovels and
so was blasted out, well-boring machines being used
for the drilling. In places, the holes were drilled to a
depth of twenty-five or thirty feet. The heaviest cut was
one of 50,000 yards, with a depth of thirty feet and length
of about one-quarter mile, situated midway between Seattle
and Everett.

In breaking through a largely virgin country like this the
problem of taking care of the working forces, especially during
a wet winter such as was the past, quite equalled the difficulty
of the work itself. First came road building, to establish
camps. All the large trees had to be avoided, so the camp
roads were as tortuous as bridle paths in a forest. Whenever
a camp was shifted it meant building a new road and usually
the moving of heavy equipment. Among the latter were
the donkey engines for logging and drag-scraper work, which
made slow, tedious loads to be hauled over sinuous wet trails
by four-horse teams.

In spite of the damp climate the problem of watering
the camps and also of getting water for donkey engines,
steam shovels, locomotives, etc., required a waterworks
system that might have done credit to
a small town. With five hundred men in
scattered camps to be supplied, besides an
extensive steam equipment, there was laid
on at one time six miles of temporary mains.

The pressure head was afforded by three
gasoline-engine pumping sets.

THESE TREES frequently reached a diameter
of eight feet and a height of
Two Hundred feet: :THE chief point of interest in the overhead equip-
ment of the road is the use of catenary construc-
tion. This consists of No. 4/0 grooved trolley
wire suspended on galvanized hangers 6^",
7 10", and 14/4" 'ong- The feeder is
795,000 cir. mils, 37 strands bare aluminum cable, and the
transmission line is also aluminum, 66,370 cir. mils, which
is equivalent to No. 4 B. & S. copper wire. The Ohio
Brass Co. supplied the overhead equipment.

The track consists of 70-pound "T" rail laid on 6//x8"x8'
ties. The rail joints are of the Continuous type. The ballast
is gravel with from six to twelve inches depth under
the ties. The grading was done by steam shovels in the
larger cuts and drag scrapers operated by donkey engines in
the smaller cuts. The total material handled by the equip-
ment was about two thousand yards per day. Five loco-
motives, two being standard gauge, together with seventy-five
dump cars, were kept busy with the ballasting and grading.

Passenger service on the line was begun with cars pre-
viously in use by the Everett Railway, Light & Water Co.,
but several new interurban coaches built by the Niles Car
Company will be used for the regular operation of the line.
The length of these cars is 52 feet over the bumpers, and
they are equipped with four 75 Hp. G. E. 73 motors and
multiple unit control apparatus. The trucks
are M. C. B. type made by the Baltimore
Locomotive Works. Westinghouse air brakes
are used. The company also owns for freight
service two electric locomotives, twelve flatcars,

and six box cars, and six more cars will shortly
be purchased for freight.

The Lumberman's Axe was the First and
Actually the Most Necessary implement
of ConstructionlALLINGER LAKE, MIDWAY BETWEEN SEATTLE AND EVERETTINI riAL schedule calls for twenty miles per hour, includ-
ing stops and turn-outs but exclusive of time lost running
over terminal tracks. The total length including termi-
nals is twenty-two miles and the full running time is
one hour and fifteen minutes, with hourly service.
The new section from Halls Lake to Everett has been
constructed to a 40-mile-per-hour standard, but the older
section from Seattle to Halls Lake, which had previously been
built and is now being renovated, will not permit such speed
until it is brought up to the standard.

Power for the Seattle end of the line is supplied from the
system of The Seattle Electric Company to a sub-station at
Halls Lake, where a 500 Kw. motor generator is installed;
while the Everett end is supplied from the system of the
Everett Railway, Light & Water Co. to a 400 Kw. motor
generator in Broadway sub-station, near the terminus.

The operating company is the Seattle Everett Traction
Company, Stone & Webster Management Association,
General Managers. The Stone & Webster Engineering
Corporation carried out the entire contract for engineering,
construction, and equipment of the new line.

The system for Supplying water to the steam shovels, Locomotives, donkey
Engines, etc., Would have done credit to a Small TownThis book is a preservation facsimile produced for
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
It is made in compliance with copyright law
and produced on acid-free archival

60# book weight paper
which meets the requirements of
ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (permanence of paper).

Preservation facsimile printing and binding
by

Northern Micrographics
Brookhaven Bindery
La Crosse, Wisconsin
2014