Report of the Hoosac Tunnel and Troy and Greenfield Railroad, by the Joint Standing Committee of 1866.Wentworth, Tappan
History
Report of the Hoosac Tunnel and Troy and Greenfield Railroad, by the Joint Standing Committee of 1866.
Wentworth, Tappan
Hoosac Tunnel (Mass.); Railroad tunnels -- Massachusetts; Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company
At Green River there will be substituted for Mr. Haupt's bridge of 700
feet built on a curved line one of 470 feet, to be constructed on a
straight line. The remainder of the ravine to be made a solid
embankment. All the bridges on the line are to be "Howe's Truss," and
equal in strength and durability to any in New England.
The trestle-work has been removed, and the ravines where it was placed
are being filled with substantial masonry and solid embankments.
On the first day of November Mr. Farren had about fifty men employed; on
the first day of December, two hundred and seventy-five, and on the
14th of December, when one of the Committee visited the line, he had
over three hundred.
About one-third of the masonry for Green River bridge has been built,
and the stone is quarried for the other bridges. Nearly one thousand
yards of culvert masonry and three hundred yards of bank wall have been
constructed, and from forty to fifty thousand yards of earth removed.
The timber for Green River bridge is sawed and will be framed in
January. The material for all the bridges below Shelburne Falls has been
contracted for, to be delivered early in the spring. Twenty thousand
ties have been purchased, together with posts and boards for fences. The
work at the rock-cut near Shelburne Falls will be commenced in the month
of January.
On the line below Shelburne Falls, there will remain in the road, the
following sharp curves, to wit: In the track as laid and not disturbed,
four of six degrees, and in the remainder of the line, six of six
degrees, three of seven, and two of eight. One of the eight degree
curves, is through a long heavy cut, and cannot be reduced without great
expense. The other is near the Deerfield River crossing, where all
trains will be required to run slow. It cannot be avoided without a
tunnel or a curve over the entire bridge. The three seven degree curves
occur in heavy rock-cuttings, and these are all the sharp curves that
are contained in a space of thirteen miles.
Above Shelburne Falls the alignment and grades are more favorable. From
the tunnel to the Deerfield River crossing, below Shelburne Falls, a
distance of twenty-two miles, there is but one ascending grade going
east; its location is about two miles west of the falls; it is one-half
mile in length, and is thirty-five feet to the mile. Within the same
space going east, there are the following descending grades, to wit: One
of forty-five feet per mile for 2,000 feet, one of forty feet for 6,000
feet, one of twenty-eight feet for 2,500 feet, and one, near the village
of Shelburne Falls, of fifty feet per mile for 5,300 feet. The remaining
grades are from five to twenty feet per mile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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