Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 310, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1912 — TOY ROAD PAYS DIVIDENDS [ARTICLE]

TOY ROAD PAYS DIVIDENDS

Miniature Engine Has Remained la Bervlce for Forty-Three Years In Wales. The Festiniog railroad is not much larger than one which might have been constructed to amuse the children of a royal household, yet it has taken its place among the most successful lines in Wales. In operation for over seventy years, it is distinctively profitable pays satisfactory dividends. The Festiniog is one of the toy railroads of the world and was the first of its kind ever constructed. It was built in 1839 to facilitate the transportation of slate from the Welsh quarries to Portmadoc. The long inclines then would carry the cars to their destination by gravity, while horses would haul back the empties. In 1863, after twenty-three years of service for the quarries, C. E. Spooner, an engineer, suggested that the steam engine be introduced and the railroad reconstructed to carry passengers and freight. The suggestion was adopted, and in that year its period of business and finance began. The Festiniog railroad is 13% miles long. Its gauge is 23% Inches. From terminus to terminus it ascends or descends the inclines along which the old gravitation equipment once rolled. On the Journey northward the difference in the altitude of the two terminals is 700 feet, which means a constant climb from Portmadoc. In many places a train of the usual number of cars winds around two or three curves within its own length. Its first locomotive was called the Little Wonder, and it has won its title, for after almost forty-three years on the rails it is sMll in efficient service. It was built in 1869. Its height is about that of the average man. Notwithstanding its size it can haul a train of seven passenger cars, ten box cars, a caboose and- a hundred or more empty slate trucks —a string measuring more than 1,200 feet In length and weighing 110 tons. It makes the grades without difficulty, and on the more favorable stretches It can attain a speed of thirty miles an hour. The railroad possesses several features of technical interest, for being a one-track road, It is equipped with passing sidings, spurs and the necessary telegraphic and signal equipment to render the operation of the road perfectly safe. There is little or no danger to passengers, in fact, it is-not known that a collision or derailment has ever occurred. The engineer and fireman face what is practically the only danger on the road —the tunnels. When the tunnels were built little or no clearance was allowed above the tops of the cars, for the possibility of the steam engine and crew was not then conßid: ered. When standing on the deckJlfe heads of the fireman and engineer extend above the entrances of the tunnels, and serious accidents might result if they failed to their heads when running into one of the passageways. Though the passenger cars are small they furnish comfortable accommodation for fifty passengers. In 1911 over 35,000 tourists rode on the Festiniog. Its success has encouraged others, to construct miniature narrow gauge railroads. In North WaldS the North Wales Narrow Gauge railroad is being operated, but the most famous of the world’s toy railroads is the Otavi line In South Africa. It is the longest little railroad in the world, extending 368 miles from Swapkomund, on the coast of German Southwest Africa, to Tsumeb, in the heart of the wilderness. Its gauge is two feet. —Railroad Man’s Magazine. 5