Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 234, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1912 — TRAVELED ON A CABLEWAY [ARTICLE]

TRAVELED ON A CABLEWAY

How Problem of Transporting Twen-ty-Ton Locomotive Across River Was Solved. The giant hands that are refashioning the surface of the earth at man’s bidding do something more than merely'pile up heaps of rock in river courses that the streams may be diverted to fields where water is needed, or tunnel through mountains or level off hills. Recently it was necessary to carry a fail way locomotive from one side of the Rio Grande river to the other in. connection with the construction of the Elephant Butte dam. To run the engine on rails to the nearest switching point and thus get it to its destination would take too long. So the power that has been trained to exert itself at the twist of a switch or the turn of a throttle was called into play and it picked up the engine and carried it across the river. There was a cableway of steel ropes stretched from" one side of the river to the other for the purpose of transporting material as needed. The cable swings 300 feet above the surface of the river. The locomotive, a twentyton affair, was equipped with slings which were in turn attached to the travelers on the cable and it was easily and quickly transported from one side to the other. —Popular Mechanics.