At North Bay, Which Is A
Divisional Terminus, The Line Touches Lake Nipissing, Where There Is A
Flourishing Settlement, The Land Being Of A Fair Quality.
The line is
laid with steel rails, about 56 lbs.
To the lineal yard, and with ties
about 2,640 to the mile. For the first 60 or 70 miles from Callander
the line is ballasted entirely by sand, and, with the exception of a
few settlements, is entirely without fencing. Most of the bridges are
of timber; but there are one or two of the larger ones of iron or
steel, with masonry abutments.
"At Sudbury is the junction with the Algama Branch, not yet opened for
traffic. This is 443 miles from Montreal. After leaving Sudbury the
character of the country changes, and is alternately swampy and wild
rocky land. Numerous large trestles are necessary, which will
eventually be filled in with culverts and earthwork. The schedule
running time of the trains along this portion of the line is 24 miles
per hour, including stoppages.
"At 8 p.m. Chapleau, another divisional terminus, was reached, and the
schedule running time during the night from that point to Heron Bay,
reached at 5.15 a.m. the following morning, is 20 miles an hour. At
Heron Bay (802 miles from Montreal) the north shore of Lake Superior is
first touched, and the line runs along it to Port Arthur, a distance of
993 miles from Montreal. The scenery here is very wild and picturesque.
At one time the line runs along the face of the rock, with the lake
from 50 to 100 feet below, the road-bed being benched out on the cliff,
and at another time is away back among barren hills and rocks, crossing
several large streams (with either bridges of iron and masonry or
timber trestle work), which streams flow into the lake at the north end
of deep indentations or arms of the lake. The line through this
district is winding, having many sharp curves and steep grades. There
are several short tunnels, all of them through rock, and not lined. The
schedule time for trains on this portion of the line is 16 miles per
hour. We were detained some little time near Jack Fish, owing to a
slight land slide coming down in one of the cuttings.
"The Nepigon River is crossed at a high level with a steel trussed
bridge, masonry piers and abutments, and there is an old Hudson's Bay
settlement on the river a short distance above the bridge. Between
Nepigon and Port Arthur the line runs through a country much more
accessible for railways, and the schedule time here is at the rate of
24 miles an hour. We reached Port Arthur at 4 p.m. on the 17th. This is
a flourishing town, situated at the head of Thunder Bay, a large bay on
the north shore of Lake Superior, and has a population of four or five
thousand at the present time.
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