Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1872-07-23
NARROW GAUGE RAILROADS.
,Report Of Committee on the Narrow. Gauge
Railway System Undressing Facts and
FIgufes-An Important Document.

report OF Committee on the Narrow sGsuge
Railway System Undressing Facts and
Figufes-An Important Document.
At large meeting of railroad men
recently held in st. Louis, to con-
slider the advantage of the Narrow
!Guage system. committee, compos-
ed of some of the most experienced
railroad men in the country, submit
ted long report from which we
make the following extracts. A law
has been passed in England making
three feet the established gauge, and
! 40 railroad will hereafter be built in
the United Kingdom on the old
broad gauge system. The matter is
! one of more than local significance,
land every person who wishes to be
Uniformed on the great revolution
now in progress in the building of
railroads, should read the following
Mr.. PRESIDENT Your commit
/ tee to whom was delegated the duty
lof preparing report upon the "pe-
3culiar merits and advantages of the
narrow gauge railway system" beg
leave to recommend the following
resolution
ReSolUed, That, having found the
three feet gauge so numerously rep.
resented in this convention, they
recommend that it be adopted as the
standard narrow-gauge by all roads
where there are no particular rea-
sons for adopting less gauge.
1st. Because a uniform gauge is
very essential to the final success of
| the system and
2 Because they believe that, if
lis adopted on all narrow gauge roads,
it will not be many years before the
ID feet standard roads will have
Through connections North, East,
South and West with better sys-
tenn of interchange of cars and less
amount of transfer than there is
now on the feet 81 inch of the
North, the feet of the South, and
sother gauges now in operation.
In the call for the convention,
twelve points are suggested for dis
acussion in order to elicit the fullest
5information in regard TO both the
construction aud the practical opera
ztions of the narrow gauge.
Your committee have been unable
] to devote as much time to the con-
federation of the subject as its I'M
sportance demands, but have touched
zupon them all, and in doing so have
/ been careful to understatc rather
xthan overstate the capacity and num-
81 Gus advantages Of the new system.
1T. The want Of railway facli-
4 tiles is acknowledged by all classes,
land the valid reason why any locali-
sty is without the same, is simply a
Financial question.
A sections of the country would
1 be in possession of railway transpor-
atation if they possessed the means
Cor could borrow the funds at q
reasonable rate of interest; and
syour committee believe that any
System that tends surely to that end;
snamely, the sale Of bonds at, or as
near par as possible, and at the
standard rate ofinterest, is, and will
Toe of vast benefit to the pu bile; and
as the narrow gauge Will do all the
business of any section of the coun-
stry, with q much less bonded debt, it
tends to give better security to the
sbopds and stock of the roads, max
ling better sale for the same, and in
sthat way furnishing many feeders to
] our present through lines which
would not otherwise be constructed,
I and soon collecting local lines so as
to make new through lines of the
athree-feet gauge, North and South
as we'll East and West.
2 The COMPARATIVE COST or THE
sOLD AND New SYsTEMs.-Taking
Swhat are called frst-class roads
Equipped to do the business of The
various localities through which they
run, your committee feel justified in
the following conclusions:
l. In very rough mountainous
kcountries where the transportation
Sof heavy ores such as gold silver
Scopper and other minerals in bulk
Abefore reduced, so as to collect the
Ssame, at the various smelling works
4 with the coal, wood and fuxes used
Tin the reduction aud manufacture oil
4the same, and where it is not nee
Rosary to run fast or time trains, that
Nthe cost of construction of three
fleet gauge road will not be over one
&ifth of such roads as the Erie, Penn
&sylvanis Central and Baltimore anC
AOhio, and that the capacity OF thu
8cheap road can at any time be 10
Increased by capital so as to do all tn
Nbusiness for all time to come there
%by saving large amount in frs
sacost and interest on the same. which
ssis the strongest possible recOmmen'
&dation for capital to invest in mar
q row gauge cheap roads, rather thai
Mn the expensive broad-gauge.
2 That in the broken, rollin!
country where most Of our roads al
n Reconstructed, the saving will be abou
as to 2, namely: That the narrow
Sgauge will cost about one-half a
Emuch as the present broad gauge
Nhave. Your committee would re
Especially ask, and earnestly urg
Hall parties interested in the construC
Mlion of railways, that this part 0
their report be thoroughly investi
@gated, and that the question of wha
1.-THE present broad gauges have cos'
Mbe examined as carefully by narro'
Egauge advocates, rs the question Q
Mwhat their roadside. and will cos
as has been done by the friends c
Stho broad gauge not forgetting t
Hook into the question of what broa
$gauge advocates say they can do !
1.-The way OF reduction of dead weigh
Mbut which none OF them can affor
ITO attempt on account of the va:
amount of capital involved.
Isl 3. That in the slightly undula
ling prairie or plains country the co:
8of construction of q first class nal
Mrox oauoe passenoer road with III