The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1854-01-07
DAILY DISPATCH,
SATURDAY MORNING. JANUARY !, 1854.
GAUGE OF THE CONVICTION AND
g OHIO RAILROAD

OH4O kAlLkUAD.
THE facts upon this subject contained In the
Report and the Notes TO the Report Of the
Chief Engineer of the Central Railroad Com
pany ought to arrest the profound attention
Of every member OF the Legislature Of vir-
ginia. We have already published an impor-
tant portion of the report, setting forth that
Virginia and Kentucky, apparently without
concert have adopted two distinct gauges,
viz a feet and a feet 8 1-2 inches gauge;
that all the Virginia roads designed to share
the western trade, which lie on the south of
James river. have adopted the feet gauge
and all on the north have adopted the feet
el-2 inches gauge; whilst all in the southern
part Of Kentucky and Tennessee have adopt.
ed the 5 feet gauge of the southern Virginia
roads, and those in northern Kentucky have
adopted the feet lie inches gauge Of the
northern Virginia roads. Of these northern
Kentucky roads, the Chief Engineer refers
in note to the Louisville and Frankfort
line, and the Frankfort and Lexington line,
which are completed and in use, to the Lex
ington and Maysville line, which is in course
OF construction, having part of the track al
ready laid and much of the machinery provi-
ded,. and to the Maysville and Big Sandy
Company Mr.. Ellet shows very clearly the
error of the opinion held by some persons
here that the decision of this company might
possibly be changed if Virginia should adopt
the feet gauge for the Covington and Ohio
n,,f he {ho houa
put it out of their power to make any change
having bound themselves by contract with
two other companies, the Sciota and Hooking
Valley, and the Cincinnati and Marietta, in
Ohio, to conform to their gauge. The Ma
rietta Company" continues Mr.. Ellet, zone
of the contracting parties, has received sub
scription of $3.50, 900 from the Pennsylvania
Central Railroad Company, under pledgeto
adopt gauge of feet 8 12 inches, and have
many miles of their track already laid of that
width, and large contracts for machinery to
suit the track They cannot now change
and they would hold the Maysville Company
to their covenant if that company desired to
evade it. But the Maysville Company have
no such design; on the contrary, they, too,
have received aid from Philadelphia, and are
pledged to Philadelphia, as well as bound by
contract to the Marietta Company to adopt
the Pennsylvania Railroad gauge" Under
such circumstances does it not seem infatua-
ton to insert a link OF wide gauge in the
Central line to compel break Of bulk and
txanshipment of all the travel and trade OF
A-kt.n NJ hafora thnu enter
this State :?
The important and pertinent fact is stated
by Mr.. Ellet that, even now, to avoid tran
shipments, cars are loaded with freight at
Philadelphia and carried over the Whining
ton and Baltimore Road-crossing the Sus-
quehanna on the top of a ferry boat-drawn
through the streets of Baltimore by horses,
and sent over the Baltimore and Ohio Road
to Wheeling and that they viii also be sent
forward from Wheeling to Cincinnati and st.
Louis as soon as the roads leading thither are
finished.
In note Mr.. Ellet remarks that the main
line OF the Pennsyl vaniaimprovements.W which
is about 400 miles long, and composed of two
canals and two railroads, is an appropriate
illustration of the practical cost of tranship-
ments. He mentions two expedients which
have long been and are still exclusively adopt
ed by the companies. These are first, iron canal
boats made in three sections, which are load
ed in the Philadelphia warehouses, then pia-
ced on trucks or car wheels, and sent by rail
road to Columbia. There they are taken from
the wheels and launched into the canal, fas
tened together so rs to form boat and drawn
by horses to Hollidaysburg, AT that point
they are again put on wheels and sent by rail
road across the Allegheny Mountains to
Johnston, where they arc again launchedln-
to the canal and towed by horses to Pittsburg
The second expedientis the loading of car bo-
dies in the Philadelphia warehouses, which
are drawn overtherailroads by State engines
to Columbia, where they are lifted off the
wheels and put on canal boats constructed to
receive them, and drawn by horses to Holi-
daysburg There they are again put on wheels
and sent by railroad over the mountains, and
finally, at Johnston, arc once more slowed
in the canal boats and sent to Pittsburg-
These two plans, says Mr. Ellet hare been
al use for a period ot seren.eea gears, and
are stu found preferable TO the cost, delay,
and iuconrenienee Of transafpment! ~
Here are some other facts worthy of atten-
Ton: +4a
ITO secure continuous gauge, and narrow
gauge too from Philadelphia to Cincinnati, the
pennsylvania railroad Company have recently sub
scribed S750.000 to aid the construction of road
from Wheeling to Cincinnati, through Ohio. the
nearest terminus OF which is 400 miles from Phila.
delphia, and the remoter terminus more than $50
miles distant. To secure the same object-a con.
tinuous gaage-the city Of Philadelphia in her cor
porate capacity, has subscribed $500,000 to the
stock OF the Hempheld road, forming part of the
same line. And TO secure an interest in the trade
and travel of Kentucky, stockholders of the Penn
syiysnia railroad company and merchants of Phiia.
ae'pnia, nave subscribed to the stock OF road in
that State TO be constructed On the Pennsylvania
gauge; thus passing beyond the State, across por-
ZION OF Virginia, over more than 200 miles of the
tarritory OF Ohio, and twice crossing the Ohio ri.
Yer, 70 secure the advantage Of continuous gauge
pte Kentucky"