The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1871-06-30
Ulve a9garletta SOnrnal.
Marietta. Georgia, June 80, 1877.
NARRow eUAeE RAILwAYs.
Their Adaptedness to the Financial
Condition of the South.

Sykes says to the people Of Aber-
deem: "If your yeople are willing t.
do anything, we can build such {
road from Aberdeen to the eoalmiue'
in Alabama. These roads pay from
ten to twenty-five per cent. upon
their cost, But people who are not
willing to do anything, cannot expect
TO get anything
Colonel Merriwether says
The great need Of the South is
cheap and profitable rsilroada-roads
cheap enough to be built and owned
by the Southern people, and profta-
bic enough to invite the investment
of Southern capital-roads that shall
cover our county in every direction
with integuments of steel, and render
active its rich and dormant natural
resources. Happily for us, the So
luton of this problem is furnished in
the narrow guage railroad, the utility
of which is now matter of demon
strated fact.
Roads of two or three feet guage,
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 supcrccdo
the present wide guage, though the
many millions now invested by rail-
road companies in the wide guage
rolling stock, must postpone the pc
Rod of their universal adoption for
many years to come. 1t appears to
me that there is no road projected in
the South, where itcould be adopted
with greater advantage than upon
the Aberdeen and Elyton lire. tits
peculiarly adapted to rugged, noun
famous regions, where the engineer
must resort to steep gradients and
sharp curves, to reduce the cost Of
grading. The Festinoig road, in
Wales, winds around the spurs Of
mountains, on curves, and reversed
curves of 116 feet radii and grades
of 60 feet to the mile. 1t is a road
oftwo feet guage, laid with As pound
rail-about 65 tons to the mile. A
Farlie locomotive weighing 1911 tons
draws trains of a quarter Of mile in
length, with perfect ease, over these
steep grades and around these sharp
curves-sueh curves as an ordinary
locomotive on the broad guage could
with difficulty traverse at all.
The sharp curves and steep grades
enable you to pass over the surface
of a country with light cuts and fills,
and on road bed from two to three
feet narrower than the ordinary road
bed-efecting a saving in the cost
of grading of % to 80 per cent
Then in the item ofrails and cross
ties a saving of Is to 20 per cent. is
effected and in rolling stock from %
to 80 per cent more is effected and
when you come to the operation and
maintenance of the road, there is no
comparison in the economy. Our
broad guage roads with ponderous
locomotives and cars, weighing from
eight to ten tons empty, absorb from
so to G5 per cent. Of their gross
earnings in maintenance and opera
ton, and no wonder, when for every
ton Of paying freight, they carry
from four to seven tons dead load in
train; while the proportion Of dead
train freight to paying freight on
the narrowguage is as ] to /, and as
low as J to /. The cars on the Fes-
tinoig road for carrying humber
weigh about 800 pounds, and fire.
quently carry loads Of 81 tons while
the best Of ours seldom carry more
than their own weight, say eigh'
tons of freight, and our passenger
cars carry from twenty-five to thirty
times in dead weight their load O
paying freight. And often our cars
are of necessity sent empty or nearly
so. Trains cannot delay at stations
: to load or unload. Often one-thir(
or one fourth Of car load is receiv
ed for station. 1t cannot be de
tanned till a sufliciency to make {
car load is received for that station
} and cannot be loaded on cars. with
freight for other stations, but musi
| be forwarded at once, so that a car
weighing seven Freight tons is made
to carry one or two tons Of paying
freights, whereas with narrow guage
cars, weighing seldom over ton, the
paying freight will in nearly every
case equal or exceed the dead weight
that is transported. Some Of the best
practical railroad operators Of Eu-
rope now concede the capacity Of
the narrow guage roads to fulfill the
requirements of the country in
transportation of freight, and at an
expense far below that of the broad
guage lines.
The question has been asked
whether the expense of transferring
freight from the narrow guage viii
not be so great as to neutralize al
the advantages derived from the mar.
row guage. / answer no. Coal ant
some other classes of freight will be