The Republican journal., 1871-03-23

But II we can build q road which has
equal capacity with any other, both for
carrying freight and passengers, upon
which equally fast time can be made, for
60 per cent. of the cost of the 4 feet 5 -
| gauge, and its construction shall be such
that after it is built it shall cost but half
as much to run it, the difficulty in raising
money is in a great measure removed.
| will show that the 3 feet gauge makes
| this reduction in cost, and will do SO in
detail.
| There is q necessity for only three tifths
| the amount of land now taken for right of
way.
The amount of cutting an embankment
to make the road-bed would be but three
fifths, while the location Of the narrow
| gauge, by running sharp curves, will cut
down this, the great cost of construction,
| in rough countries, according to English
| engineers, to 25 per cent. OF the cost of
the 4 feet s - inch gauge.
The width of the bridges and culverts
may be diminished in the proportion of
3,to s.
The ties may be shorter.
The rail will weigh but 81 lbs to the
yard, in place of the 20 lb. rail now in use
| The 81 lb. rail is now used on two narrow
gauge railroads in Sweden
The locomotive may be made to weigh
between 6 and 20 tons, in place Of the 20
| to 40 ton locomotives now in use.
The cars not only may be but three
tfths of the size of the ears ON the broad
er gauge, but they may be made lighter
in every way.
Buildings may be made much smaller,
though the reduction in cost may not be
rs great rs two-lilths.
Turn tables may he smaller in the same
proportion.
The time required 10 build the road will
be shortened two-fifths, aud thus give a
| quicker return for the money invested
! The cost of supervision will be less IN
proportion.
We have seen that on Il road of three
feet gauge, the right of way, the culverts
and bridges, ties, rails and locomotives,
turn tables and cars, interest on invest
mrnt and cost of supervision, would be
| reduced two-tiiths; while in the cost of
earth moved there would be Il reduction
of three-fitths; the buildings would only
be reduced perhaps one-fitth; giving in
all Il saving of two-ffths of the cost of the
4 feet 8 - inch gauge.
Experience has proved the statement to
be true. A Russian commission certified
| TO it.
| In Norway two railroads of s feet
inch gauge were constructed by Mr.
Phil; one at Storcn and the other at
llamar; the Hamar line cost f3, 900 per
mile, the Storen $4,000 per mile; during
the building of these roads and within a
| few hundred miles of them, road was
| h,,i1t A I incl, no
rate of wages being the same on the three
lines, The feet l-2 inch gauge road
cost f6,4OO per mile, thus showing a
saving in the case of one of the narrow
gauge roads of Fl, 400 ($7 ,000) per mile
and the other of Is, 400 ($l7 ,O00) per
mile, an average saving of two-fifths in
favor of a narrow gauge, which was 7
| inches broader than the one we propose
The next point to be seen is whether
we can make our statement that the ,
feet gauge can carry an equal amount OF
freight and passengers with the feet -
inch gauge, and at the same speed. The
Farlie engine upon the Festeniog Rail
road in Wales, on Il gauge OF only two
feet, drew five hundred tons on the level,
and over the road, around curves of only
116 #. radius, and on grade of II feet
to the mile, drew load of 206 tons dur
ing a trial trip made before the Russian
commission. The average weight of
freight trains, including freight and
locomotive on the New York Central, is
$50 tons, according to their report of
1868.
The highest rate of speed made on the
2-feet gauge is 30 miles an hour, but the
engineer says he can make 40 with per-
feet safety. On the Ullinboard road in
Sweden, feet 7-inch gauge 35 miles an
hour has been run with 12-ton locomo-
tive.
| The British Association reports say that
on q 3-feet gauge 40 miles an hour may
be run
On the Festiniog Railroad during the
year 1868, 100000 tons of goods and l45,
900 passengers were carried. This road
is only ID miles long. In the same year
the Syracuse 4 Binghampton Railroad,
which is 81 miles long, carried 424, 537
tons OF freight and 245,577 passengers.
The Black River and Utica Railroad,
which is S6 miles long, carried in the
same year rs, 4O2 tons of freight and 1OO,-
Ill passengers.
The Ullinboard Railroad in Sweden,
which is % miles long, of feet 7-inch
gauge, reports business of 100000 pas
sengers and 10000 tons of freight a
year.
The cost of maintaining q road must
depend upon the amount of weight the
road bed has to carry, since the cost OF
repairing it is as compared with all othel
repairs, nearly three to one.
The New York Central report, for 1868.
gives the cost of keeping up the perma-
merit way, as three millions of dollars to
one million for all other repairs.
If we can reduce the weight that a road
bed has to sustain one-half, and not re-
duce the amount Of freight, and at the
same time increase the durability of all
the materials composing the road, as well
as the running machinery, we have cut
down the cost of operating the road just
|, One-half
The ordinary box freight car of the
New York Central weighs ten tons and
carries ten tons; the average number OF
cars in train is 1S; IS cars weighing
ten tons each and each carrying ten tons
would give load of $50 tons as the aver.
age weight of a loaded train; of this $50
tons $50 tons is non-paying weight TAX
ing the number of cars that run half full.
and the number that run half of the way
empty, may we not estimate that the Cen
trail carries proportion of two tons OF
non-paying load to one of paying?
The Festiniog Railroad uses cars weigh
ing only one-half ton, carrying . load
OF three tons, a proportion of six tons of
paying load to one ton of non paying.
John b. Jervis has bull: cars wei Ching 8
tons, which carry tons. In the case of
the Festiniog Railroad, the paying weight
was as to the on-paying weight relative