The special locomotives for use on the rack sections will weigh 45
tons in service and will haul 70 ton trains over gradients of 8
percent. Those that are to be employed upon the parts where traction
will be by adhesion will be locomotives with five pairs of wheels,
three of them coupled. The weight distributed over these latter will
be 28 tons. These engines will haul 140 ton trains over gradients of 2
per cent.

The earthwork is now finished over two-thirds of the length, and the
track has been laid for a length of 58 miles from Mendoza. It is hoped
that it will be possible to open the line to traffic as far as to the
summit tunnels in 1891, and to finish the tunnels in 1893. These
tunnels will have to be excavated through hard rock. To this effect,
it is intended to use drills actuated by electricity through dynamos
driven by waterfalls. The Ferroux system seems preferable to the
Brandt and other hydraulic systems, seeing the danger of the water
being frozen in the conduits placed outside of the tunnels.--_Le Genie
Civil_.

* * * * *




THE EMPRESS OF INDIA.


[Illustration: THE NEW BRITISH PACIFIC LINE EMPRESS OF INDIA.]