Grand Trunk betterments, etc.

The total charges for maintenance & renewals on the G.T. system east of the Detroit & St. Clair rivers, & on the Detroit & Michigan Air Line division, in Michigan, for the year ended Dec. 31, 1899, were $3,001,109.81, or $158,505.69 more than for 1898. This is more than accounted for by an expenditure of $85,000 on the Co. 's new general offices, now in course of erection at Montréal; & by the additional cost, amounting to $94,484.14, of repairs and renewals of buildings & fixtures. Apart from these two items, the charges for maintenance & renewals were $20,978.45 less than in 1898. The replacement of the old bridges, which are too light for the present loads & rolling stock, by others sufficiently strong to meet ail probable future requirements, has been carried on more slowly than was expected, by reason of the impossibility of obtaining the necessary steel for superstructure. All the bridges between Montréal & Island Pond, 147.83 miles, have been finished, & trains of maximum weight are now run over them. Between Island Pond & Portland, 149,42 miles, the renewal of the bridges is being pushed forward as rapidly as the short supply of material will admit of. The Victoria Jubilee bridge has been completed, including roadways, footpaths & approaches, & was opened for public service on Dec. 1 last. The total expenditure upon it during the year was $391,521.44. Excepting across the bridges, which are unfinished for want of steel, a 2nd main track has been laid between Ste. Annies & Vaudreuil, 3.70 miles; & also from Sidney to Murray Hill, 7.75 miles. Both the bridging & earthwork on these two sections were exceptionally heavy. The gradients have been greatly improved, & the level crossing of the Central Ontario Ry. at Trenton has been superseded by a bridge. The only single track portion of the railway now remaining between Montréal & Toronto is from Port Hope to Port Union, 46.26 miles. The masonry of the Co.'s new general offices at Montréal has been built to about 8 feet above street level. The roundhouses at Sarnia & Port Huron, which were in course of erection at the end of 1898, have been finished. New stations have been built at Cardinal, Vaudreuil, Ste. Anne's, St. Lambert, St. Hyacinthe, Arthabasca, Sonmerset & Bright.

The Co. has recently placed some large orders for iron for bridge material.

General Manager Hays has informed the Montréal Harbor Commissioners that if they raise the wharf on the northwest side of Windmill Point basin some 7 ft. from its upper end where it connects with the G.T.R. tracks, in order to allow of the access of railway cars during all ordinary stages of the water in winter as wvll as in summer, the Co. will raise its tracks to connect with the tracks on the proposed higher level of the wharf. Work in connection with the general office building in Montréal is again in full swing. Building operations had to be suspended in Dec. last owing to the impossibility of securing iron. The Co. now has in Montréal 1,000,000 lbs. of iron, which has been imported for the most part from Germany. The price of iron is still high, but the Co. is determined that its great structure, which it aims at making one of the finest architectural features of Montréal, shall be pushed on with the greatest rapidity. It is expected that the walls will be constructed & the building roofed by Oct. Work was stopped in Dec. just at the first tier of beams, but the stone cutting & the moulding operations have been in progress all the winter. The architect is now making full-sized drawings of all the mouldings for the five-storey structure. These are of the most chaste & beautiful character. The angles & curves are exceeding artistic-modelled from ancient Greece. Tasteful & artistic, the designs worked out on Canadian granite are most charming. The design is called&mdasg;"angular curvelinear, "a seeming contradiction in terms, but most aptly applied to the flowers & shields & berries which make up the pictorial representations of pure classic Greek. (Mar., pg. 71.)

The double tracking of the main line between, Port Hope & Port Union, Ont., a distance of 45 miles, which will complete the double track between Montréal & Toronto, will probably be gone on with this year, though this as well as other contemplated improvements have yet to be approved by the Board. (Dec., '99, pg. 348.)

The question of erecting an improved station at Queen St. East, Toronto, has not yet, we are informed, been definitely decided upon. The surveys for double tracking the line between Hamilton & Niagara Falls have been completed, & if present plans are carried out the work will be completed this year. It will be necessary to build a double track swing bridge across the new Welland Canal, as it is impossible to build a second track under the canal near Merritton. It is said that from Niagara Falls to Merritton there will be a great deal of rock cutting, besides the grading & bridge work to get over the new canal. Between St. Catharines & Beamsville there will be several big bridges to build. The Fifteen, the Sixteen & particularly the Twenty or Jordan creek, will require expensive bridges. The distance from Niagara Falls to Hamilton is only about 46 miles, but it is an expensive piece to build, when the mountain, the two canals, & the many creeks & ravines are taken into consideration. (Dec., '99, pg. 348.)

Station improvements are contemplated at Goderich, but it has not been decided whether to rebuild the present station, or to erect a new one.

The Mammoth coal shutte, near the new roundhouse in freight yards west of Sarnia tunnel, which has only been completed some months, was burned to the ground April 11.

The Michigan Railroad Commissioner has approved a route for a line proposed to be built by the Chicago & G.T.R. through Genesee County & the city of Flint, with an overhead crossing of the Pere Marquette road in the city of Flint. This is merely a diversion of the present line, in order to secure better grades & alignment.

Railways: G.T.Ry.

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