The admirable organization of the contractors was something wonderful. The
grading work was practically all done by sub-contractors, Messrs. Langdon,
Sheppard & Co. confining themselves to putting in the supplies and doing
the bridge work, surfacing, and track-laying. The grading forces were
scattered along about 150 miles ahead of the track and supply stores,
established about 50 miles apart, and in no case were sub-contractors
expected to haul supplies over 100 miles. If I remember rightly, there
were four trains of about forty wagons each, hauling supplies from the end
of track to the stores.

As can be readily seen, the vital point of the whole work, and the problem
to solve, was food for men and horses. 1,700 bushels of oats every day and
15,000 pounds of provisions, Sundays and all, for an entire season, which
at the beginning of the work had to come about 170 miles by rail, and then
be taken from 50 to 150 miles by teams across a wilderness, is on the face
of it considerable of an undertaking, to say nothing about hauling the
pile-drivers, piles, and bridge-timber there. To keep from delaying the
track, sidings 1,500 feet long were graded, about 7 miles apart. A
side-track crew, together with an engine, four flats, and caboose, were
always in readiness; and as soon as a siding was reached, in five hours
the switches would be in, and the next day it would be surfaced and all in
working order, when the operating department would fill it with track
material and supplies. From the head of the siding to the end of the track
the ground was in hands of track-laying engine, never going back of the
last siding for supplies or material, and my recollection is that there
were but six hours' delay to the track from lack of material the whole
season, at any rate up to some time in November. The track-laying crew was
equal to 4 miles per day, and in the month of August 92 miles of track
were laid. The ties were cut on the line of the road about 100 miles east
of Winnipeg, so the shortest distance any ties were hauled was 270 miles;