. The railroad and engineering journal . desCheinins lie Fer. The road extends from Port Emma, the chief Dutch porton the island, to the coal mines of Lounto, with a branchfrom Padang-Pandjang to Fort de Kock. The line is a verycircuitous one, as it was necessary to cross the Barisanmountain range. At Lounto mining has begun on an ex-tensive scale, as the existence there of wide seams of coalof a very fine quality has been proved, and already largequantities have been taken out. In addition to the trafficof these coal mines the road carries a large quantity of 514 THE RAILROAD AND [November, 1
. The railroad and engineering journal . desCheinins lie Fer. The road extends from Port Emma, the chief Dutch porton the island, to the coal mines of Lounto, with a branchfrom Padang-Pandjang to Fort de Kock. The line is a verycircuitous one, as it was necessary to cross the Barisanmountain range. At Lounto mining has begun on an ex-tensive scale, as the existence there of wide seams of coalof a very fine quality has been proved, and already largequantities have been taken out. In addition to the trafficof these coal mines the road carries a large quantity of 514 THE RAILROAD AND [November, 1891, rice, coffee and tobacco from the fertile and thickly peo-pled districts of Solok and Payacombo, and has alreadydeveloped a considerable passenger business. The length of the main line from Port Emma to Lountois 98 miles, and the branch to Fort de Kock is 12 mileslong. The main line is divided into five sections, on threeof which the traffic is worked in the ordinary way ; onthese sections the maximum grade is per cent. On the. other two sections there are grades as high as 8 per cent.,and on these a rack-rail is used. The mountain sectionsare in all 33 miles long, and there are on them 18 milesof rack-rail in sections varying from 650 ft. to 3^^ milesin length. The minimum radius of curvature is 492 ft. On the main line Lounlo is 827 ft. above sea level ; thesummit is at the Padang-Pandjang Pass, and is 2,532 the sea. On the branch Fort de Kock is 482 fl. abovePadang-Pandjang, and to reach itthe line has to pass over the Mer-api Pass, where the summit is3,785 ft. above the sea. On thisbranch, however, there is no heavyfreight, like coal, to be trans-ported. The line is of i-meter rails are of steel, laid on steelties. Wood is abundant along theline, but the rapid decay incidentto the tropical climate preventsits use. The ballast is generallybroken stone. On the level sec-tions in the valleys the line had tobe raised on an embankment al-most everywhe
Size: 1615px × 1548px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectrailroa, bookyear1887
