Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1859-10-27
Gbt &ittb6tl0 Gnquirer.
THURSDAY, OCT. a., 1859.
RAILROADS AND RAILRoADING.

The discussion Of railroads and ralroading which
obtains at the present time generally in our COM
munity, renders it unwarrantable i'll us to open
the subject in its broad view in our columns, and
give our readers some few brief and condensed sug
gestions in regard to rairoading generally-the
growth, the power and the Importance of railroads.
and the estimated cost ut Which various railroads
in other countries well as in our own-have been
constructed and run. The data for this We take
cyclopcdia Brittanica, work which from its nlagn
tudc and expense, all of our readers may not-as We
have not-the pleasure Of owning.
In 1859 til: illustriol,s WATT first suggested the
application Of steam power to the propulsion Of
steam carriagcs-and III 1871 constructed, with a
friend, miniature locomotive, whose boiler was Of
copper, heated by spirit lamp, and standing only
Is inches from the ground yet which could run at a
speed of six or eight miles pc: hour. In 1913 Mr.
Drunton o. Butterfly i'll England contrived a locomo
tive to he propelled by levers like horse feet
but in 1919 Mr.. Stephenson and his son Robert
names ilustrous in railroad cconomy-c constructed
the first highbpccd locomotive of tnc present stan
dard type. This Ell CINE weighed tons cwt. with
tie tender Z tons. cwt and attained speed of
IA miles an hour-while its greatest velocity was
20 miles, and being presented for competition to
the Manchester and Liverpool railway, the Rock
ct, it named, gained tic pr for lishtness,
power and speed awarded by the directors. Some
time pre-, ious to this the use and advantage of
rails had been known from the primitive method
Of transporting huge logs and trunks Of trees up
ON wooden rollers, to the laying of fiat bars OF iron
and cross sleepers of wood Gu. ram in l776 Jcssup
in 1889 first laid down cast ilcn " edge rails to
avoid the obvious disadvantage of wood, and the
substitution of wrought-iron rails made as late
as 1920.
So much for the historical facts which as we
have said, we have gathered from the Encyclopedia
Of course the first consideration i'll surveying Il
new railroad is with regard to grades excavations
viaducts or bridges and tunnelling. road built
from this town either to the Huusatonc or Manga
tuck valley would possibly require each of these
With regard to the first of these authority says
'enginecrs endeavor SO to place tie works OF rail
way that the earth to he excavated shall be equal
to the emhankmcnt, effecting a redistribution of
material rather than its removal, and arriving at
the desired result by the SIM est means and in the
most economical mllll>r. straight and horzon-
tai line is the standard Of Perfection and the proper
business Of an engineer in laying out a railway is
to harmonic the engineering anil financial condi-
ton of the problem SO as toycld the greatest return
for the money expended and that whilst the rail-
way may he neither q lite straight quite level,
it should notbc excessively Costly in construction, in
order to he free from severe curves and gradients,
nor excessively cheap, making heavy Inc andin-
curing heavy working expenses.
Tire longest tunnel in Great Britain is three miles
and sixty feet long; the most expensive is mile and
three tn, longs and cost $500, coo million and
half of dollars In determining whether the line
should prot eetl by cutting by tunnelling, it is
usual to prefer the folmer for any depth less than
60 feet for any greater depth it is usually ch epcr
to tunnel. The average capital expended in rail
roads is in AUSTRIA s25, So, 7s6. in England and
Wales, 92G3 l45, 23s, United States f144 ,646 953-
The average cost per mile is, in Austria fl6,37S;
in England and Wales $50, 275; in the United
States f8, 275 little over $40 GOO. Many roads
however are of course built for a much less
peuse than this, and few at a greater. Per
contra, the average nett receipts per mile are, in
Austria, f1040; in England and Wales tl597,
and in the United States f56s or $3.50; allowing
from the time the roads are in operation.
Having thus given barely these statistics, there
by rendering this article fear, already too long,
we shall at some future time return again to the
road already in contemplation by our citizens t"
which we would fain give hearty, and cordial,
and enthusiastic God-speed