Chapter 25 Chapter XXVI By the Pacific Railway Express

"One line connects two oceans", this sentence is the general name of the Americans for this main railway line from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean across the hinterland of America.In fact, the Pacific Railroad was divided into two distinct lines: San Francisco to Ogden belonged to the Central Pacific Railroad, and Ogden to Omaha belonged to the United Pacific Railroad.There are five different routes from Omaha to New York with a lot of traffic. So at present San Francisco and New York are connected by a complete railroad line at least 3,786 miles long. From Omaha to the Pacific Coast, the railroad passes through an area that is still frequented by Indians and wild beasts, where they began to settle after the Mormons were driven out of Illinois around 1845.

What used to take six months to travel from New York to San Francisco, even under the best of circumstances, now takes just seven days. In 1862, an area between the 41st and 42nd north latitude was chosen for the railroad, despite objections from southern congressmen who demanded that the railway be built further south.It was the forever-forgotten President Lincoln who personally chose the city of Omaha, Nebraska, as the starting point for the new railroad network.The railroad work was started at once with the practical spirit of the American people, which is neither red tape nor bureaucratic.The high-speed construction of the workers did not affect the quality of the railway at all.In the prairies the advance was as much as a mile and a half a day.The locomotive transported the steel rails needed for the next day on the tracks laid on the first day, and kept moving along the new tracks laid one after another.

There are many branch lines attached to the Pacific Railway along the way.These branches pass through Iowa, Kansas, Colorado, Oregon and other states.The railroad runs west from Omaha, along the north bank of the Platte River, to the south-west at the entrance to the northern fork of the Platte River, and continues on the southern fork of the river, which passes through the Lalamin and Wa Saki Mountains, around the Great Salt Lake to Salt Lake City, the capital of Mormont, from Salt Lake City into the Lago Valley, along the Great Desert of America, through the Saida and Humboldt Mountains, across the Humboldt River and Siai La - Sierra Nevada, southwards through Sacramento to the Pacific coast.The slope up and down this large railway is very small.Even through the Fallen Mountains, the gradient was no more than a hundred and twelve feet per mile.

This is the great railway that requires a train journey of seven days. It is because of this great railway that Mr. Phileas Fogg was able, at least he dared to hope, to travel from New York on December 11. Ship to Liverpool, UK. The carriage in which Phileas Fogg sat was an extended carriage.The chassis of this passenger car is connected by two frames with four wheels each.Such a device enables the train to advance smoothly on a route with a small turning angle.There is no separate passenger room in the carriage, but it is separated from the middle, and two rows of chairs are neatly arranged.In the middle is an aisle that leads to the lavatory and other compartments.These devices are the same in every passenger car.There are bridges between one carriage and another carriage.The entire train runs back and forth, and passengers can walk from the first car to the last car.There are attached on the train: living room, viewing car, dining car, coffee drinking car, but there is no theater car, but there will still be in the future.

There are hawkers selling books, newspapers, wine, food and cigars in the aisle of the carriage, and the business is quite prosperous. At six o'clock in the evening, the train departed from Auckland carrying passengers.By this time it was dark, and cold and dark hung over the earth, and the sky was overcast with clouds, and it seemed that it was going to snow.The speed of the train was not very fast, not more than twenty miles an hour if the time spent at the stations was counted.But at this speed, it has been able to guarantee that the train will traverse the continental United States within the specified time.

In the carriage, the passengers seldom talked, and everyone quickly dozed off.Passepartout sat next to the spy Fix, but he did not speak to Fix.Since that fight and negotiation.Their relationship has become greatly estranged.The friendship and goodwill of the past have disappeared today.In fact, Fix did not change his attitude towards Passepartout at all; but Passepartout was quite different, and he was always on the alert, ready to strangle the fellow at the slightest suspicious move. An hour after the train left the station, it was snowing in the sky.Fortunately, such light snow will not hinder the train.Outside the car window is just a piece of white snow, boundless, and the locomotive emits gray smoke, circling up and down in the snowy field.

At eight o'clock a conductor came into the carriages to inform the passengers that it was time to go to bed.It turned out that this compartment was also a sleeping car.After a while, the carriage has been converted into a dormitory.People put the backs of the chairs flat, cleverly built very comfortable berths, and at the same time divided them into small rooms.Each traveler immediately has his own comfortable bed.Thick cloth curtains blocked all casual views.The snow-white sheets are laid out, and the soft pillows are laid out, just waiting to lie down and sleep.Every traveler is here as if in a comfortable cabin on a cruise ship.At this time, the train was speeding across the land of California at full speed.

The train is now passing through the area between San Francisco and Sacramento.Here, the terrain is not very steep.This section is called the Central Pacific Railway. The train starts from Sacramento and heads east and the train from Omaha misses the train halfway.From San Francisco to the capital of California, the train goes straight to the northeast along the American River flowing into San Pablo Bay. This section of railway connecting the two big cities is about 120 miles long and can be covered in six hours.At twelve o'clock in the middle of the night, the train passed Sacramento, and the passengers on the train had not long since fallen asleep.So they saw nothing of this gigantic city, the seat of the Legislative Assembly of the State of California, neither its beautiful stations and docks, nor its broad avenues, nor its luxurious hotels, nor its churches. and Street Park.

The train continued from Sacramento, passing through the stations of Junction, Rocklin, Auburn, and Colfax, and entered the Sierra - Sierra Nevada.At seven o'clock in the morning the train passed Cisco.An hour later, the sleeping berth on the car became an ordinary seat again.Passengers can enjoy the beautiful scenery of the mountains through the glass windows.The railway line here is laid along the rugged mountains of the Sierra Mountains.Sometimes it sticks to the mountainside, sometimes advances on the cliff, sometimes in order to avoid sharp turns, its curvature is astonishingly large, and sometimes it stretches into the narrow valley where the two mountains face each other, which makes people feel that "the mountain has no road".The locomotive looks like a coffin, with a bright light shining brightly from the top of the locomotive. In addition, there is a silver alarm bell and a "cattle driving" sticking out like a pig's snout in front of the locomotive. "Destroyer.At this time, amidst the roar of the siren and the resonant sound of the rushing waterfall, the black smoke from the train could be seen lingering and flying over the pitch-black pine forest.

It can be said that there are almost no caves and no bridges on this section of the road.The railway runs along the mountainside. From one mountain to another, the railway is laid completely along the natural terrain, without seeking shortcuts and straight roads. It was nearly nine o'clock when the train entered Nevada from the Carlson Valley and continued to run northeast.The train stopped at Reno for twenty minutes, the passengers had lunch, and departed from Reno at twelve o'clock. From here the line goes northward along the Humboldt River for several miles: then turns eastward, and reaches the Humboldt Mountains, never leaving the banks of the river.The Humboldt Mountains, located on the eastern edge of Nevada, are the birthplace of the Humboldt River.

After the meal, Mr. Fogg, Mrs. Aouda and their two traveling companions returned to the carriage and sat comfortably on two double chairs. They admired the ever-changing scenery passing by: the vast and boundless grassland , the mountains floating in the sky and the flowing river.Sometimes a great herd of bison can be seen in the distance, forming a living embankment, an army of innumerable ruminants, which often presents an insurmountable obstacle to passing trains on the railway.Thousands of buffaloes have been seen crossing the railroad one after another, often for hours at a time, at which point the train has to stop and wait for the buffaloes to pass before moving on. This happened to happen to me today.At about three o'clock in the afternoon, about 12,300 bison blocked the front track, the locomotive slowed down, and tried to use the obstacle remover in front of the locomotive to rush into the cattle and force it through, but it was unsuccessful. The train had to stop in front of this impenetrable herd. One had to watch these cud-ruminating beasts, which Americans mistakenly call "buffaloes," cross the railroad tracks without haste.They make amazing roars as they walk.These bison are larger than European bulls, with short legs and tails, high front shoulders forming a hump, separated and downwardly curved horns, and long manes on their necks and shoulders.This movement of the herd cannot be stopped.When they are heading in a certain direction, no one can tell them to stop or change the square dog.They were like rivers of living flesh, no dikes could hold them back. Passengers ran to the bridge to watch this strange scene.But Phileas Fogg, the gentleman who should have been more anxious than the others, still sat still, waiting with the philosopher's "one-size-fits-all" spirit for the buffalo to make way.Passepartout, on the other hand, was extremely angry at the wasted time wasted by this large group of beasts stopping the train.He just wanted to take out all his pistols and shoot the beasts hard, "The hell!" cried Passepartout, "a train can be stopped by a herd of dead cows! They cross the railway in droves, as if they were not in the least in the way of traffic. God knows! I should like to know now whether Mr. Fogg had planned this accident in advance. And this engine driver, he dared not drive his car through the buffalo that block the road!" The driver really didn't intend to break through the obstacles in front of him at all, he was right to be so cautious.If he rushes over, there is no doubt that the first few bison will be crushed by the locomotive blocker, but no matter how powerful the locomotive is, it will be forced to stop soon, and it will eventually derail. That would really break down. So the best thing to do is to wait patiently, and then speed up to make up for the delay when you're done.It took three full hours for the buffalo team, and it was not until dark that the railway gave way.By the time the last herds had crossed the railroad, their vanguard had disappeared over the southern horizon. It was eight o'clock in the evening when the train passed the narrow pass of the Humboldt Mountains.At half past nine, the train entered Utah.This is the Great Salt Lake area, a paradise for Mormons.