CO129-559-1 Canton - Hankow Railways 15-1-1936 - 23-6-1936 — Page 38

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66 tunnels.

involving as it does heavy rock cutting, tunnelling, and

the construction of high bridges and large retaining walls.

The original location of this section as planned by the

American Engineers of the old Yueh Han Railway called for

The new location, based on the studies of

Messrs. Y.C. Lee and 2.8. Liu, now both District Engineers

Construction, places about 24 miles of the line on the

Kwangtung side along the east bank of the upper course of

the North River, This has reduced the number of tunnels

to 14 at the expense of an increase in protective work.

The scenery from Lok Chong to Ping Shek (a distance of 32

miles) where the river passes through gorges is extremely

beautiful.

15. The line runs through good quality dark coloured

limestone and treacherous shale in the gorge section, and

I fear that there may be considerable dislocation to

traffic in times of heavy rainfall due to the certainty

of slips in the shale banks and cuttings. The formation

level has been placed 9 feet above maximum known river

flood level. This is rather a small safety margin and

there is a probability that in years to come the line may

be damaged considerably by inundation, necessitating very

heavy repair work.

16. The location over the divide has enabled a

satisfactory maximum grade of 1 in 100 without curve

compensation to be obtained.

This occurs for a length of

14 miles on both sides of the summit which rises to a

height of about 1161 feet above sea level. The maximum curvature over this portion is 7o, maxing the ruling grade

1 in 80 which is approximately equal to that of the

British Section, of the Canton Kowloon Railway.

17.

Many parts of the original railway location have

been used for the Heng chow Ping Shek highway. This has