THE MOST WONDERFUL RAILWAY IN THE WORLD.

Kumara Times, Issue 741, 13 February 1879, Page 2

THE MOST WONDERFUL RAILWAY IN THE WORLD.

(From the Railway Age;) The Callao. Lima) and Oroya Bail- ■*, road, generally known fts the OroyA Railroad, now the HaiU road, is probably the most wondeifnl railroad in existence) It was contracted for by Henry MeiggS in 1839, at a eost of 21,804,000 d-ds., or 27.000,000 dols. in bonds. Work has begun in January, 1870. When commended the English; Company had gut the right-01-way from Callao to Lima; and Air Meiggs could get no special rates for his material; The enormous cost of freighting everything for hla road would, make it ruinous to build. One day there. sikU. denly appeared hundreds of men, evidently making a railway from Lima to Callao. The English company went to see about it, and then got out art injunction to slop the work, Mr MeigsrS calmly asked them whose land the workmen were on, and th*-n they found he had quietly bought up all that land, and was building a private road on his own grounds and for his own tise» Leaving Callao the road to Lima is In, the finest condition. Ballasted wittf cobble stones, no dnst arises J trains every half-hour; fare forty cents, j four separate depots accommodate different parts of the city. No one who makes a round trip on this road -eVet* repents it, and Seldom desires a"secoud. The heights and dist mcea are so great that few heads are not affected. , From San Mateo to Anclu the road passes through the "Infernillos” (Little Hell). Nearly perpendicular walls from 20U0ft to 3000 ft hem in the River Rimac, having a wid'h of from 200 to 400 feet. At first it was proposed to niake a cut off the side of the mountains, but feaiing the falling of loose rock, it was decided to tunnel. Miners were let down with - ropes one-quarter and one-half mile long to Cecrtain indicated points on the rocky wall every 500 ft more or less, and after they had entei ed a‘few feet began working to the right and left, Using the entrance as a place from whence to throw the excavated material. About midvyay a bend in the river made, it necessary either to make : a dangerous cilrVe or span the chasm. - The latter was chosen, and now a bridge unites the tunnel about 400 ft above the river bed. Emerging from the second of these tunnels at Auchi, the Rimac is recrcssed, and the road follows up the Riverßlanco a few miles, which it crosses, and .then enters a mountain, where it turns around in a curved tunnel, and emerging a few hundred feet above, recrosses the river and returns, passes Anchi, and continues up the Rimac. At Cbicla a few miles further, the road passes the town, re* turns, crosses its own track and the Rimac, turns and passes again, and reversing, returns and again doubles on itself, having passed Chicla.five times.. The view from the summit, 15,668 ft, is not so imposing as at other points A plateau of a few miles squat e, with ' lakelets and patches of snow, and surrounded by peaks many of them covered with snow, is all one sees. But the oppression of breathing, the dull dizzy head, and the cold frosty air, make an impressien one never forgets.