The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-07-14

February lZtn, 1o05.
I The cost of railway transportation is sub.
ject upon which Col. Garnett seems pecu-
| liarly sensitive, and he cannot look with
patience upon our publication of the rates
on his railway. Let him be calm We assure
him we never conceived thathi stockholders
would work for nothing. On the contrary,
we saw that if transportation cost them
only one cent mile, and they were charg-
ing the public four and three-quarters, they
were doing as profitable business as the
heart of the most greedy among them could
desire. We only meant to be understood
as expressing doubt with regard to the
accuracy of Col. Garnett's statement that
transportation cost only one cent mile,
and as being confirmed in that doubt by the
enormous disproportion between cost and
| freight. Col Garnett himself seems to be
considerably shaken about this matter, for
instead of saying as he did formerly, with
out qualification, that one cent is a fair al
lowance for cost of transportation, he
merely says that son perfect railroad il
is such. Where he is to find this perfect
railroad we do not know. Perhaps there
may be such an one in Utopia; we are
very certain there is not one this side of it.
| hHotuCl plOOl llidt lliC SOl, . lliHO IDS uil-
dergone change is the fact of his mistak-
ing an exception to all general rules, and a
solitary exception, too, for general rule
itself. The Reading railroad is the excep-
ton to which we allude There is nothing
like it on the face of the earth, and as far
as we can see, there is no probability that
there ever will be anything like it. For
forty miles, it is dead level. For fifty
three miles farther, it is an inclined plane.
For one mile, there is an ascent to over
come, which is done by means of double
engines. The whole road is "a miles long.
AS the cars go from Philadelphia to the
mines, they are empty. AS they 60 back
loaded, they pass over a dead level, or an
inclined plane the whole distance, with the
exception of one mile From the road, for
fifteen miles, in different directions, the
coIliers have made branches, and from these
branches there are others, so that the whole
country is drained of its coal by them. The
coIliers build all these branches primary
and secondary at their own expense. They
load the cars at their own expense. They
carry them to the main trunk at their own
expense. The company transports them ga
miles to Richmond, and there their contents
are discharged, by spouts, into the holds OF
vessels always ready to receive them. The
company is at no expense in loading, and at
next to none in unloading, and yet even the
Reading railroad does not exactly answer
the Coils idea of perfection, for according
to his own showing, transportation on it
costs one cent and nearly half, instead OF
| one cent only.
These are not all the advantages posses
| sed by this railroad Its tonnage is mex
haustible, and is of such character that
| it may be transported in open cars of COM
paratively small cost. 1t is besides, from
| its compactness, uniformity, and weight,
extremely favorable to storage, and can
therefore tax the engine to the extent OF
its power, without a comparative great
length of train. Its grades are so admira-
BILE, that taken in conjunction with the
other advantages enumerated, an engine is
enabled to haul 200 tons along its whole
| length, at no greater cost of fuel, Oil, wages
| for engine driver and fireman, and wear
and tear, in word exerts no more po,oer
than it would exert in drawing 60 tons over
another railroad of the same length and
with the same rails, but with an ascending
grade, as great as 40 feet. Such being the
| fact, it is plain that the cost would be three
| llII1cS lOuu do Ou liiC ctliCA
These facts we gather from the report OF
Mr.. Cabell to the stockholders of the James
| River and Kanawha Company In December
| 1S45. 1t is most valuable document, and
we commend it to the attention of Colo.
| Garnett. In the same document we find
that the minimum cost of coal transporta-
ton in England is one penny, or two cents
per ton per mile.
The Reading railroad affording no critic
rion by which Colo. Garnett can judge OF
cost, we propose here to place before him
a document that will He knows who
Major Gwynn is, and he knows that the
caution and accuracy with which ne makes
| public statements on matters connected
with his profession have become proverbial
| "CosT OF RAILWAY TRANSPORT.
Extract from the Report of Col. Waiter Gr,asn to
the jones Riper and Kana,ha Company, January
| %, 1852.
Actual cost approximately per ton per mile OF
Transporting freight the following railroads, in
1850:
| MASSACHUSETTS.
| Western, 1.561 cents
| Boston and Worcester, 1.720
| Boston and Maine, 2.55S
Fitchburg trepairs of road not kept up
sufficiently, LAO
| Boston and Providence, 2.2O6
Boston and Lowell, 2.53l
| Old Colony, 2.976
New YORK.
Albany and Schenectady, cents, exclusive of cost
of iron and repairs of road, depreciation of engines
and machinery, depreciation of freight cars and de-
probation of passenger cars.
Hudson and Berkshire, 2 $40 cents, with same
omission as above.
Hudson River railroad, A cents, with same omis-
sion as above.
Northern railroad, $40 cents, with same omis
sion as above.
Oswego and Syracuse, 9 40 cents, with same
omission as above.
Rochester and Syracuse, 6.l0 cents with same
| omission as above.
Utica and Schenectady, $40 cents, with same
| omission above.
New York and New Haven, LILO cents. with
same omission as above.
Towanda, cents, cost of iron omitted
GEORGIA.
Georgia, 2oIs cents
VIRGINIA,
Petersburg railroad, 40 cents on plate rail. and
262 on edge rail.
by an examination Of the table il viii be observed
that the cost of transportation per ton per mile varies
| between the extremes of Ia cents and 4 3 cents
and that the average cost is 258 cents.
And will here take occasion to say that as far as
:, my inquiries extend (and they have been carried
nFfT az