People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1894 — RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. [ARTICLE]

RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION.

Leas Than Two Thnainnd Mile* of Track Laid Since Lut January. Chicago, Dec. 25. —From advance sheets of an article on railway construction in 1894 to appear in the next, number of the Railway Age it appears that notwithstanding the many difficulties railroads had to encounter during the last eleven or twelve months nearly 2,000 miles of new track have been laid in the United States during the year now closing, while grading and preliminary work has been done on a considerable additional mileage. In thirty-four of the forty-eight states and territories track has gone down on 153 lines to an aggregate, according to latest returns, of 1,919 miles, and it is possible that a few miles more may be reported in the final statement There are fourteen states and territories which have made no additions to their railways. These are Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Indian country, lowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Washington, Nevada and Idaho. Oregon barely escaped omission by adding less than 2 miles, and Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Virginia kept in by building from 3 to 7 miles each. The number of new roads in 1894 was 153, against 244 in 1893 and 329 in 1892. The steam railways of the United States now aggregate in length 179,672 miles. Of this mileage 54,300 miles were added in the last ten years, an average of 5,430 miles each year.