“They build not merely roads of earth and stone, as of old, but they build iron roads: and not content with horses of flesh, they are building horses of iron, such as never faint nor lose their breath.”—Dr. Bushnell.

RISE AND PROGRESS OF RAILROADS.

1. In 1825, the Stockton and Darlington Railroad (England), was opened.

In 1827, the Quincy (of Massachusetts), and Mauch-Chunk (Pennsylvania), were completed.

In 1829, the Liverpool and Manchester road, (England), was finished.

In 1833, a road was opened from Charleston, (South Carolina), to Augusta (Georgia).

In 1840, Belgium opened 190 miles of railroad.

In 1843, the railroad from Paris to Rouen (France), was completed.

In 1844, Belgium finished her system of 347 miles.

In 1846, Russia opened a railroad from the Wolga to the Don.

In 1847, Germany had in operation 2,828 miles.

In 1852, the Moscow and St. Petersburg road was finished.

2. In 1856, the United States of America had in operation 23,000 miles, and in progress 17,000 miles; employing 6,000 locomotive engines, 10,000 passenger and 70,000 freight cars; costing in all about 750,000,000 of dollars; running annually 114,000,000 miles, and transporting 123½ millions of passengers, and 30 millions of tons of freight per annum; performing a passenger mileage of 4,750,000,000, and a freight mileage of 3,000,000,000.

3. By mileage is meant the product of miles run, by tons or by passengers carried. Thus, 500 persons carried 100 miles, and 750 persons carried 75 miles, give a passenger mileage of

4. The rate of progress in the United States has been as follows:—

At the present time, January 1, 1857, there is probably, in round numbers, 25,000 miles of completed road, or enough to extend entirely around the world. As regards the ratio of completed road to population, and as regards the actual length of railroad in operation, the United States stand before any other country.

5. The effect of a judicious system of railroads upon any community is to increase consumption and to stimulate the production of agricultural products; to distribute more generally the population, to cause a balance between supply and demand, and to increase both the amount and safety of travelling. It is stated that within two years after the opening of the New York and Erie Railroad, it was carrying more agricultural produce than the entire quantity which had been raised throughout the tributary country before the road was built.

6. The following table, cut from a Chicago paper, shows the effect of railroad transport upon the cost of grain in that market:—

Thus a ton of corn carried two hundred miles, costs, per wagon transport, more than it brings at market; while moved by railroad, it is worth $21.75 per ton. Also wheat will not bear wagon transport of three hundred and thirty miles; while moved that distance by railroad it is worth $44.55 per ton.

7. By railroads, large cities are supplied with fresh meats and vegetables, butter, eggs, and milk. An unhealthy increase of density of population is prevented, by enabling business men to live five, ten, or fifteen miles away from the city and yet do business therein. The amount of this diffusion is as the square of the speed of transport. If a person walks four miles per hour, and supposing one hour allowed for passing from the house to the place of business, he cannot live at a greater distance than four miles from his work. The area, therefore, which may be lived in, is the circle of which the radius is four, the diameter eight, and the area fifty and one quarter square miles. If by horse one can go eight miles per hour, the diameter becomes sixteen miles, and area two hundred and one square miles; and, if by railroad he moves thirty miles per hour, the diameter becomes sixty miles, and the area 2,827 square miles. The effect of such diffusion is plainly seen about Boston, (Massachusetts). People who in 1830 were mostly confined to the city, now live in Dorchester, Milton, Dedham, Roxbury, Brookline, Brighton, Cambridge, Charlestown, Somerville, Chelsea, Lynn, and Salem; places distant from two to thirteen miles.

8. In railroads, as in other labor saving (and labor producing) machines, the innovation has been loudly decried. But though it does render some classes of labor useless, and throw out of employment some persons, it creates new labor far more than the old, and gives much more than it takes away. Twenty years of experience shows that the diminished cost of transport by railroad invariably augments the amount of commerce transacted, and in a much larger ratio than the reduction of cost. It is estimated by Dr. Lardner, that 300,000 horses working daily in stages would be required to perform the passenger traffic alone, which took place in England during the year 1848. It is concluded, also, from reliable returns, that could the whole number of passengers carried by railroad, have been transported by stage, the excess of cost by that method above that by railroad would have been $40,000,000.

SAFETY OF RAILROAD TRAVELLING.

9. If we know that in a given time the whole distance travelled by passengers was 500,000 miles, and that in such time there occurred one fatal accident, it follows that when a person travels one mile, the chances are 499,999 against one of losing life. If he travel ten miles, the chances are 49,999 against one, or ten times as many of meeting with loss of life; and generally the chances of accident are as the distance travelled. In 1855, the whole number of miles run by passengers in the United States was, in round numbers, 4,750,000,000, while there were killed one hundred and sixteen; or one in every 41,000,000, very nearly. (The ratio in England is one in every 65,000,000.) Now if for each 400,000 miles travelled by stage passengers, (a distance equal to sixteen times round the world,) one passenger was killed, and if the whole railroad mileage could be worked by stages, there would be annually 11,875 lives lost; or one hundred times the number annually lost by railroad. Thus it would be one hundred times safer to travel by railroad than by stage. The danger of steamboat travelling is far greater than by stage.

PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS.

10. The first step to be taken in starting a railroad enterprise, is the choice of a board of directors (provisional), whose duty is to find all that can be known of the commercial, financial, and agricultural nature of the country to be traversed. To determine as near as possible its ability to build and support a road; and to obtain the necessary legislative enactments.

11. The determination of the increase of traffic which the road may be expected to excite, is a difficult matter. There can be few rules given for proceeding in such an inquiry. It seems very easy to prove by what roads have done, that any project will be profitable.

An abstract of a report lately published, tries to prove that a road will pay forty-five and one half per cent. net; the working expenses being assumed at only thirteen and one half per cent. of the gross receipts. The error here lies in assuming the working expenses too low, as few roads in the country have been worked for less than forty per cent.; a more common ratio being fifty one-hundredths of the gross receipts.

Not one half of railroads are built for the original estimate. In few cases has sufficient allowance been made for the sacrifice undergone in negotiating the companies’ securities. All general instructions that can be given relating to the determination of prospective profits, are, to keep the estimate of constructing and working expenses high, and that of the assumed traffic low; not so low, however, as to require a too lightly built road.

MECHANICAL PRINCIPLES OF LOCOMOTION.

12. The superiority which the modern railroad possesses over the common, McAdam, plank, or turnpike-road, consists, first, in the reduction of the resistance to motion, and second, in the application of the locomotive steam-engine.

13. The effect of grades of a given incline upon a railroad is relatively more than upon common roads; for as the absolute resistance on a level decreases, the relative resistance of grades augments: whence to obtain the full benefit of the system, we must reduce much more the grades and curvature upon a railroad, than on a common road. For example, if the resistance to moving one ton upon a level upon a railroad was ten pounds, and upon a common road forty pounds, where a twenty-three feet grade would be admissible upon the former, we might use an incline of ninety-three feet per mile upon the latter.

14. The resistance to the motion of railroad trains increases rapidly with the speed;^[1] whence the grades of a passenger road where a high average speed is used, may be steeper than those of a road doing a freight business chiefly.

DETERMINATION OF CHARACTER OF ROAD.

15. Upon a correct idea of what the road ought to be, depends in a great degree its success. The amount of capital expended upon the reduction of the natural surface, depends upon the expected amount of traffic. The traffic remaining the same, the greater the capital expended in reducing grades and curvature, the less will be the working expense; and the less the construction capital, the greater that for maintenance. The limit of expenditure must be such as to render the sum of construction and maintaining capital a minimum.

The bad effect of grades upon the cost of maintaining and of working railroads, is not so great as many suppose. Of the whole cost of working, only about forty per cent. can be charged to locomotive power; and of this, not more than sixty-two per cent. is effected by grades.^[2]

16. The degree of curvature to be admitted upon any road depends somewhat upon the speeds at which trains are to be run. The larger the radius of curvature, the greater may be the speed; at the same time the elevation of the exterior rail upon curves may be less, and therefore more adapted to freight trains. High rates of speed are considered upon some competing roads necessary; but are, even in such cases, necessary evils. The wear of cars and of engines, of permanent way and of bridges, increase in a rapid ratio with the velocity. The maximum speed for freight trains should never exceed fifteen miles per hour, or for passenger trains from twenty to twenty-five miles per hour.^[3]

17. The agricultural nature of the country and its commercial position, will determine the nature of the traffic, whether passenger or freight, and also the amount. The amount and nature of the traffic will limit the curvature, and will partially determine the arrangement of grades.

GAUGE.

18. The question of broad and narrow gauge has led to much discussion, and both plans claim among their advocates some of the best engineers. The narrow gauge (American and English,) is four feet eight and one half inches (from inside to inside of rail). The maximum adopted, is (the Great Western of England) seven feet. The American maximum (New York and Erie, and Ohio and Mississippi) is six feet. There is also in America four feet ten inches, five feet, and five feet six inches. The advantage of the broad gauge for a road doing an extensive business, is the increased stowage room in freight cars, thus rendering admissible shorter trains; by which the locomotive power is more directly applied on curves. More comfortable passenger cars, (the same length of car of course accommodates the same number of passengers). The disadvantages of a wide gauge are, increased expense of cutting, embanking, bridging, and masonry; increased expense of engines, cars, rails, sleepers, and all machinery; more wear and tear upon curves, by reason of greater difference between the lengths of inner and outer rails, and increased atmospheric resistance to fast trains, from increased bulk.

19. The general conclusion arrived at by a commission appointed by the Great Western Railway Company, (England,) consisting of Messrs. Nicholas Wood, J. K. Brunel, and John Hawkshaw, was, that four feet, eight and one half inches was rather narrow, but still enough for a certain class of roads; that two or three inches made no material difference; that seven feet was too wide for any road; that the weight of the broad gauge engine, compared with the small increase of power, was a serious evil; that engines could be run with perfect safety upon the narrow gauge at any speed from thirty to sixty miles per hour, and that no more had been attained upon the broad; that rolling friction was less upon the broad, owing to the increased diameter of wheels, but that friction from curves and atmospheric resistance was greater.

20. D. K. Clark, in “Railway Machinery,” p. 300, 301, makes the resistance as deduced from experiments made upon both the four feet, eight and one half inches, and the seven feet gauge, considerably greater upon the former than on the latter; but as the narrow gauge trials were made upon a curved road, with rails in a bad state, in average weather, while those upon the broad were made in good weather, upon a good and straight line, he leaves the gauge question open, and uses the same formula for all widths.

21. Want of increased power, can be an apology for increased gauge, until the capacity of the narrow gauge has been filled. The strongest engines in the world are upon the four feet, eight and one half inch gauge. No engines in America surpass or compare for absolute strength, with those upon the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The most powerful passenger engine ever built for high speeds, is Crampton’s engine “Liverpool,” (London and North-western Railroad, England,) gauge four feet, eight and one half inches.

GENERAL ESTABLISHMENT OF ROUTE.

22. The straight and level line connecting any two points, is of course the best for the completed road; but this is seldom practicable. Way towns must be accommodated to a certain extent; but the main line should not be lengthened on that account, unless the traffic and capital furnished by such town is not only sufficient to pay for the construction and maintenance of the extra length, but also to carry the entire through traffic over such increased distance. If the town is unable to support such a burden, it may be able to build and maintain a branch.

23. Routes placed upon the immediate bank of a large stream, are generally crossed by a great number of deep gorges, which serve to drain the side lands.

24. Routes placed upon sloping land, when the axis of the road and the natural descent are at right angles to each other, are more subject to slides than when placed upon plateaus or “bottoms.”

25. Lines crossing the dividing ridges of separate waters, rise and fall a great deal; thus rendering necessary a strong motive power to work the road. Such roads are the Western of Massachusetts, passing from the valley of the Connecticut at Springfield, to the Hudson River valley at Greenbush. Also those roads crossing the Alleghanies. And such will be the Pacific road, crossing first the Rocky Mountains to the Great Basin, and second, the Sierra Nevada into the Sacramento valley.