Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-12-31
,neap kailroad Transportatlon.

A.paperssread BY Dr.. Thomas ID. Hogg
before the North Carolina Agricultural
lsociety DINING The annual Fair, 1860:
Il. P. Battle, President agricultural So
ciety:
| In answer to your request to furnish you
{ with paper for the State Fair on ''Cheap
Railroad Freights," understand you to
require my opinion as to what a North
Carolina Railroad can and ought to do,
and not what the great successful roads OF
the world have done. 80
| IF an engineer were required to build 1OO
miles of railroad over most of the sections
of North Carolina, properly equipped and
with reasonable grades, he would require
about So, 900, 900 cash. This road proper
IL equipped will require about thirty en-
| gines and FIVE hundred cars. The capacity
of this road is the steady employment OF
about 80 per cent. of this equipment. Any
thing less than this would require the
charges for the freights to be so arranged
that the Road would rather have to live
upon the necessities of the country than
, to fulfill it's Office in the full development
J of the resources of the country. Wherever
O Road is found that has not this equip
, ment or o portion OF 1t IS idle, 1t may be
. set down at once that the difficulty IS OF
the managers to find business tor the
Road. The question then arises, what are
) tue expenses of operating q Railroad In
} North Carolina? l would divide those
t comparatively into two ciasscs-the first
$ are relatively fixed The second increase
r nearly in proportion to the increase CT
. business. OF the first is the interest CD
r the capital employed, the repair Of that
Q portion of the road that occurs from abso-
a lutte sdecay, such as your bridges, your
K cross-ties aud DRAWINGS, and the salaries
= of your expensive men. The second is the
. wear and tear of your rolling stock, OF the
e rails, aud of the workshop. These in
9 crease just in proportion to the amount of
= work done. Experience has proved on
e this latter class that they do not reach rs
d per cent. of the gross amount. Leaving
Q out the interest upon the capital, it is
found that if you run five trains day over
is this hundred miles of road it will not re-
/ uuire more than third Of the equipment
a that [ have above indicated. These five
?, trains q day will make in the course Of q
is year, of 313 days, mileage of 156. 00O
r, miles. Now, if you allow dollar and ten
g cents to mile it will be found to pay the
n expenses of operating this road, and to
keep it in reasonable repair Now, if you
d can increase the mileage to double that
t. amount, it is evident that your trains will
n not cost you dollar and ten cents mile,
e because come OF the silent expenses are
le not taken into account IN this second class
$, of mileage. On the other hand, If you
n make less mileage, you will lind that the
n expenses are materially increasing over &
Is dollar and ten cents mile, for these silent
l. expenses must be met. It Is also evident
n that if you want TO make 5 per cent. upon
y your capital you must charge an additional
Ir dollar O. mile to meet it, Now, suppose
your trains to average twenty cars, each
u car will then cost IS for 100 miles, and it
@ costs this empty or loaded. Now, it seems,
1t with these facts steadily before you. you
1t are prepared to judiciously manage your
0 road and make it permanent good property
&c and thoroughly develop the coun-
try through which it runs. We
II have to thank Providence that we live
L in country whose climate is decidedly
IT advantageous towards the cheap work
1t ing of Railroads. Let us ask how the
n articles of freight to be transported from
1t this part of tho world, compared with
J. those offered to Railroads in other Dor
if tons of the world. There are four great
,, classes Of freights, offered to a Railroad,
8 the products of agriculture, of Mines OF
Is manufactures, and of forests. OF these
IS capital and labor, agriculture will usually
N furnish the least amount Of freight in the
Is course of the year. A hundred hands, OF
81 will yield far greater amount to that
number of persons, and that amount in a
l. rural district. And our agriculture ex-
ports less than agricultural districts usual
l. ly do. An acre Of land in cotton will fnr-
u nish to the Railroad 800 pounds of freight
is per year; wheat 1900 pounds, corn 1870
e pounds, tobacco 1000 pounds, grapes
e 10000 pounds. The same proportion will
vt hold good as to mans labor, except in
- -l~r
d very large area of cultivated lands to fur
g trains during the day over road. Then
10 again these products come periodically,
Is aud 1t is necessary at times to run the
W trains all full one way and all empty the
d other, and at times this is reversed. 1t
is just at these times that [ would require
n the companies to transport all manures at
. very low freights, indeed, think it would
d be better if they brought them for moth
C ing. Ii Is better to bring something that
: would increase their next years freights
l. than to bring an empty car. It seems to
e me that these points are too plain to be
% argued. Let Us mention some particular
J instances where this thing will be shown
J. on a large scale. The Reading Road trans
q ports 100000 tons Of coal per annum,
It besides other freight; this is more tons of
IL freight than the entire Southern cotton
# crop will furnish in five years. The
i Pennsylvania Central, transports 1000,
IL 600 barrels o. oil, more freight than all
q the railroads of North Carolina transport
6 in year, The city of Oswego furnishes
It more tons Of flour for transportation than
= thousand miles of railroad in North
y Carolina in all the freight that they move.
Il You will therefore pardon me if I in
: dictate some of the articles, that [ think
? our railroad managers should pay par
y ticular attention towards cheap freights;
: or expend some of the idle time of
|, their machinery and men, towards ma
), king profitable work for years to come
d Of course the most prominent of these in
l. an agricultural country are manures.
a would transport these at very low freights
at any and all seasons when they are Of
: fered; and / would advertise to transport
2 them free of all charges at seasons when I
9 had empty cars, returning from transport
s. ing crops to market, and I would extend
q this to vegetable mould and marls and
q oyster shells. [ would contract for long
series of wears to TRANSPORT wood to ba