The hydraulic press., 1860-04-14
AUBURN AND NEVADA RAILWAY

AUBURN AND NEVADA RAILWAY
The elaborate report of Sherman Day, the
able engineer selected to locate line for the
proposed railway from Folsom to Auburn,
occupies over nine columns in arecent issue
| of the Placer Herald, and is document of
great interest. 1t gives the result of several
preliminary surveys, made by Messrs. Judah,
Elliott and Stangroom, all of which combine
to establish one leading fact-that lines
drawn from either Auburn, Grass Valley or
Nevada, at right angles, or nearly so, to a
line along the base of the foothills, present
too short q distance to overcome the eleva-
ton at practicable grade, which can only
be obtained by long line of gradual ascent
at a slight angle. 1t became apparent that
the choice of routes was narrowed down to
that along Antelope ravine, and the one
finally adopted, which crosses Miners ra-
vine near the Franklin House and joins the
Central railroad at the north end of the
Folsom bridge. The main obstacle to be
overcome is in the approach to Auburn,
which lies in a circular basin, surrounded,
to the hight of l30 to $50 feet, by fat
surfaced ridge broken by spurs, knobs and
deep ravines. The total leRgth of the line
adopted is little more than nineteen miles !;
the entire elevation to be overcome 1893
feet, and the maximum grade required to
overcome it is eighty feet to the mile-about
half the distance being of that grade, while
the other grades vary from 81 to 46 feet per
mile, about tenth of the distance being
level. Nearly four -tenths Of the whole length
is a straight line, and there are few sharp
curvatures. The expense of grading is es-
timated at $538,6l9. This includes 5,s40
feet of trestle-work bridges. The material
to be excavatedis is generally granite gravel,
or if rock a decomposed granite or loose
boulders and ledges with numerous seams,
and estimated to cost for excavation from
30 cents to So per cubic yard. The aggre-
gate cost of road, buildings and equipments,
embracing every contingency likely to arise,
is calculated at $929,297. Sanguine esti-
mates of the business the road would COM
mand are based upon actual statistics, col
lected for the purpose in Placer and Nevada
counties. From these it is made to appear
that $50 passengers would travel over the
road daily, at 81 SO each (75 cents each
way) yielding $2s5; that there would be
lis tons of up freight daily, at $2,s5, yield
ing 1928; lumber, down, to the amount of
100000 feet, at So, making $500 more and
20 tons of 6rewood and granite at $50 !;
making total daily receipts $943, and gross
receipts per aunum $344, ,l95. The total ex-
penses per annum are given at SI6S,000 !;
leaving net income of $l76, 195-equal to
l7.6 per cent. on $l,Ooo,7l3, the highest es-
timated cost of the road, and 1s 9 per cent.
on $929,297, the lowest estimate. In the
estimate of receipts the rate of passage is
fixed at ten cents per mile, and ofup freight
at fifteen cents per ton per mile, which are the
legal limits. If the road was built these
rates would save the people of Nevada and
Placer counties, annually on freight and pas
sage more than 500, ,O0O-these two items
costing them now $876,000 while by the
railway they would not cost more than$173,
375. 1t is likely that the receipts of the road
would be considerably larger than the above
estimate, for that makes no allowance forthe
increase of business and multiplication ofob-
iects for transportation which isalwayscaused
by arailway. Theprofts of the road would, of
course, be greatly increased by its extension,
as contemplated, to Grass Valley and Ne
vada 1t would then, as the report correctly
says, penetrate one of the most populous
and prosperous mining regions in the State,
and one of the finest bodies of timber land /;
where the character of the mining is of a
permanent kind, consisting mostly of hy-
draulic, tunnel and quartz claims where
the soil is capable of a high state of agri-
cultural improvement or of affording fine
grazing, and supporting dense population,
and where the climate is as well adapted to
the peach and vine as that of northern Italy
at the foot of the Alps. A preliminary sur
vey for the extension has been completed by
Mr.. Elliott, along a line passing through
Grass Valley, thence over to ridge near
Greenhorn creek, thence crossing Bear river
few miles below Treble's bridge, andalong
the southeastern side of the divide between
the North Fork of the American river and
Bear river, to the brow of the ridge north OF
Auburn, near which point the chief difficult
ties occur, as On the route to Folsom. A
road by this line would be about 36 miles
long-making the total length of the road
from Folsom to Nevada about 55 miles and
the additional elevation to be overcome is
1874 feet. The route is considered entirely
practicable.
1t is said by an eastern paper, that with
| out intelligent, skillful management-a rare