The Sweetwater enterprise. (Sweetwater, Tenn.) 1869-187?, 1871-06-08
THE ENTERPRISE.
Sweetwater, Thursday, June 5, 1871.
Narrow Gauge Railroads "A Matter
for the People of Monroe County
to Consider.

W (OuSlutT.
A great deal has been said with refer
nee to a good rpad, from Sweetwater
to the mountain portion OF the county,
mud the people have been urged to take
the matter in hand. All efforts have
fuiled-nothing has been accomplished.
We now propose for the people o Onion
roe to build a narrow gauge Railroad
from Sweetwater to Madisonyille, This
subject is attracting considerable atten-
ton in many counties in Tennessee, and
in many States Of the Union, but in no
State more than our own, We give DO
low some OF the advantages clnimed for
these roads, taken FROM "a lengthy article
in the New York Sun, and ask those
who may feel interested o the subject,
TO give it a careful p%erusal. This article
il published only TO Introduce the sub
iect-to start the bali in motion, and
we hope the people will study the mat
ter over and act upon it.
The Sun says 'the experiment has
been tried in Europe, Of constructing
railroads with thoir rails AS close togcth-
err us ono foot III inches, and from that
up 10 three feet, and the results have
been so encouraging us TO secure for
this principle Of extreme narrowncss
many advocates among both engineers
and capitalists. Besides those in use
in Europe, n road with n gauge OF 2!
feet has been for some time in operation
near Cleveland, Ohio; and one 875 miles
long, from Denver in Colorado Terri
tory to and along the Rio Grande river
10 FL Paso, on the Mexican boundary, is
now building with q gauge of three feet.
The English Government in India, after
spending millions in building roads Of
the old gauge, havo adopted three feet
three inches as the Btandare gauge for
the whole Indian railway system. In
deed, it is evidently predicted that the
new gauge will eventually drive the old
ono out Of use for all but passenger
traffic.
The advantage claimed for the new
gauge is the important n Of vastly
greater chcapness, In mountainous re-
gions, especially, it has been shown that
n road of two feet gauge can DO built for
u eighth Of tue cost Of a road Of four
feet 81 inches gauge, This is owing
both to the diminished width required
for cuttings, cmbankmcnts. and bridges,
and TO the fact thai much sharper curves
are practicable, permitting the road to
follow moro nearly the natural confirma-
ton Of the country. On level plains,
even, the coat is only one-half so that
the samu expenditure of money will
build there two miles of the new gauge
for II Of the old. The same differences
extends, Of course, to tho locomotive and
cars.
Furthermore, this saving does not stop
with the construction and equipment of
The road, but is found in its operation.
II is well known TO persons conversant
with railroad affairs, thatouo Of the most
serious muses. Of expense in transport
ing both freight and passengers ON
railroads, is the excessive weight of the
cars rs compared with the loads they
carry. In freight trains, for every ton
Of paying weight two tons Of non-pay-
ing or dead weight have to be moved,
in the form Of the iron and timber OF
which the cars aro composed while in
passenger trains tho proportion Of pay
ing weight to dead weight is as twenty
nine to one. On the new narrow gauge
roads all this is reversed. Only me ton
Of dead weight has to be moved for three
tons of paying weight, and the running
expenses arc reduced accordingly. To
pu, the comparison in n more striking
light, the London and Northwestern
Railway, with a gauge OF four feet eight
nnd-a-half inches, move II hundred
aud sixty million tons weight annually
Of which but seventeen millions pay
while tho Festiniog Railway, in Wales,
with q gauge Of n foot eleven and a
half inches, moves two hundred and
fifty thousand tons annually, Of which
ono hundred and sevonty-ivc thousand
pay. That ID, in the former case tbs
gross weight carried is to the paying
as nine to one, while in the latter it is
M ten to seven.
Should these results be verified by the
working Of the Denver and Rio Grandt
road, it would seem that 4 new era Ii
railroad building is oroning upon us
If by reducing the gauge railroads ell
he built which will answer every prac.
teal purpose for $1,000 per mile, instead
Of $4,000, and after they arc built cal
be run for one third tho cost Of roads o
the present usual gauge, VIC may lool
for u ramifcation of tracks over the en-.
tire cou0try compared with which those
now in existence will be MS nothing.