Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1871-06-17
| Narrow Gauge Railways ADAPT
edness 10 the Financial Condition OF
fhn Gnufh

Narrow Gauge RailWays-Thcir Adapt
edness 10 the Financial Condition
the South,
The following letter is addrcsscD
to Major Sykes, and appears in the
Aberdeen (AIississippD Erammcr
In transmitting it for publication
Major Sykes says to the people oI
Aberdeen: of your people arc
willing to do anything, we can build
such a road from Aberdeen to The
coal mines in Alabama These roads
pay from ten to twenty-five per cent.
upon their cost. Butpeople who aro
not willing to do anything, cannot
expect to get anything.
Colonel Merriwether says:
The great need of the South is
cheap and profitable railroade-roads
cheap enough to be built and owned
! by the Southern people, and prOfiita-
bic enough to invite the investment
Of Southern capital-roads that shall
cover our country in every direction
with integuments of steel, and rem
der active its rich and dormant natu-
raj resources. Happily for us the
solution of this problem is furnished
in the narrow gauge railroad, the
utility of which is now matter of
demonstrated fact.
Roads of two or three feet gauge,
are now in successful operation In
Sweden, Norway, Russia, England,
Canada and Pennsylvania; and their
! great economy in their first cost and
operation, is bringing them rapidly
into favor; and the day will come
when they will entirely supercedU
the present wide gauge, though the
many millions now invested by rail-
road com ,]anies IN the wide gauge
rolling stock, must postpone the pc
riod OF their universal adoption for
many years to come. 1t appears TO
me that there is no road projected in
the South, where it could be adopted
with greater advantage than upon
the A berdeen and EIyton !iHe. ltispe-
culiarly adapted to orugged, mountain
Gus regions, where the engineer must
resor. 10 steep gradients and sharp
curves, to reduce the cost of grading.
The Festinoig road, i'll Wales. winds
around the spurs of mountains, on
curves, and reversed curves Of ll6
feet radii and grades of 81 feet to the
mile. 1t is a road Of two feet gauge,
laid with a IS pound rail-about G5
tons to the mile, a Earlie locomotive
WEIGHING I9l tons draws trains a
quarter Of a mile in legnth, with per-
feet ease, over these steep grades and
around these sharp reserved curves
guch curves as an ordinary locomo-
tive on the broad gauge could with
difficulty traverse at all. 5000
The sharp curves and steep grades
enable you to pass over the surface
Of country with light cuts and fills,
and OH road bed from two to three
feet narrower than the ordinary road
bed-eilecting saving in the cost OF
grading of % to 30 per cent. Then
in the item of rails and cross-ties q
saving Of ID to 70 per cent is effected
and in rolling stock from % TO 80
per cent. more is elected; aud when
you come to the operation and main-
tenance of the road, there is no COM
pqrison in the economy. Our broad
gauge roads with ponderous loco
motives and cars, weighing from eight
to ten tons empty, absorb rom SO to
60 per cent of their gross earnings
in maintenance and operation, and no
wonder, when for every ton OF pay
ing freight, they carry from four TO
seven tons dead load in train; while
the proportion of dead train freight
to paying freight on the narrow
gauge is as l to l. and as low as n to
|. The cars on the Fcstinoig rold
for carrying lumber weigh about
1900 pounds, and freqenlly carry
loads of3i5 tons while the best of ours
seldom carry more than their own
weight, say eight tons OF freight, and
our passenger cars carry from twenty
five to thirty times in dead weight
their load ofpaying freight. And often
our cars arc of necessity sent empty
or nearly so. Trains cannot delay al
stations TO load or unload. Often
one-third or onc-iourth of car load
is received for a station. 1t cannot
be detained till a sufIiciency to make
a car load is received for that station,
and cannot be loaded ON cars with,
freight for other stations, but must
be forwarded at once, so that car
weighing seven or eight tons is made
to carry one or two tons of paying
freights, whereas with narrow gauge
cars, weighing seldom over a ton,
the paying freight will in nearly
every case equal or exceed the dead
weight that is transported Some of
the best practical railroed operators
of Europe now concede the capacity
Of the narrow gauge roads to fulfill
the requirements OF the country, in
transportation OF freight, and at an
expense far below that OF the broad
gauge lines.
The question has been asked
whether the expense of transferring
freight from the narrow gauge will
not be so great as to neutralize all the
advantages derived from the narrow
gauge. | answer, no. Coal and
some other classes of freight will be
dumped directly from one car to the
other, with little expense; and the
expense OF hauling other freight in
detail, will be triling, compared with
the expenditure saved in other re-
spects.
l hope YOU will go on to build your
road on this plan, and demonstrate to
our people by practical example
how cheaply railroads may be built,
and how profitable they may be made
by the exercise of little common
sense, aided by the experience of
those who have gone before US.