Wilmington daily commercial. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1866-1877, 1874-09-04
FIRST EDITION.


TRAVELLERS LOOK AT THE BALTIMORE & oHIo's
-oPERATIoNs-THE HAULING BY TEAMS THROUGH
TIE sTRRErs-LooUsT POINT AND THE GRAIN
TRADE.
Correspondence of the Commercially
BALTIMORE, Nd, August, 1874.
We left Wilmington at 10, a. m, on the 14th,
en- route for the Far West, thus explicitly follow
ing the advice of a worthy and lamented late
candidate for the Presidency.
-FOUR correspondent here describes his trip
from Wilmington to Baltimore, which portion we
are obliged to omit. After noticing Patterson
Park, at the extreme east end Of the buit-up city,
he says Il
Strolling up Pratt street. was passed by the
Washington and New York train Of railway pas
senger cars, moving across the city by horse and
mule power. Feeling desire to know more
about this
oLD-FAsHIoNED METHOD OF TRANSFER.
l called on Mr. Fairbanks, General Transporta-
ton Agent of the Baltimore 4 Ohio Railroad, and
from HIM learned that the responsibility Of the
Phila, Wilmington Baltimore Co. for freights
coming from the north ceases when they are
delivered by them at their depot at President
| st. and Canton Avenue, and begins when goods
| from the south arc delivered at the same place.
The track connecting the p. W. Il b. with the
| b. d o. II. II. depot belongs to the latter Com
pany and all the horses used by the two COM
panies belong to the same. Questioning Mr.. f.
still further, he said "Our horses wear out
very rapidly three years is the average time
horse will continue to be useful to lis. We own
some horses that have been on the road contin-
ualy for nine years, and to-day are perfectly
sound and apparently good for a number Of
| years more. But again others break down in a
| year or two, 30 completely that they are never
| good for anything afterwards
| The b. d. o. Co. have in all about 66 horses
and mules in this service. These are divided
| into gangs of from to animals each. They
have 8. gangs, three Of which are called passeD-
ger teams, being used exclusively for hauling
| passenger cars They are all horses and each
team contains8 If other teams are wanted for
passenger work, they are selected from the
freight teams of mules with
HORSE FOR LEADER,
as th ere are but one or two mules in every hum
dred, that are worth anything for that purpose.
The Northern Central II. II. Co. also use
| large number of horses and mules in this local
transportation business their complement of
animals Ii 119, nearly twice that of the b. d o.,
but they use great many more mules, as their
work is more with freight They use horses on
ly to lead their teams of which they have 10.
| This Company owns most of the tracks north OF
Canton Avenue, and east of Jones'H Falls.
l asked Mr.. Fairbanks if the tunnel now cut
throush the city by the Northern Central and
Baltimore Il Potomac, would affect the freight
business of the old corporation much. His
answer was Z" Hardly at all we OFFER now, at
good facilities for running through freights, AZ
the tunnel companies possibly can, and as it ii
possible for us to increase our capacity indeh
nitely, we do not fear the competition greatly.
In answer to another question he said " II
the tracks through the city are taken up, 1t will
only affect our local business l. e. that done witt
the horses ; for we can then deliver freight al
nearly central as any other company while al
through freights and passenger traffic will bt
conducted by way of Locust Point"
Wishing to know
MORE ABOUT LOCUST POINT,
/ visited that locality Approaching from the
Canton side, l proceeded to the wharf, where til,
Transfer, one OF the Company's lugboats, wa
preparing to take car barge across to the Point
The captains hearty, certainly" in answer t,
our desire to ride to the other side with him, in
spired us with courage, and we on board IL
moment. After looking the Transfer over, VI
find that she is fine specimen of Workmanship
100 feet long, and about 100 tons burden, with a.
iron hull she is finely proportioned and wa
, built by the Harlan d Hollingsworth Company
of Wilmington. The Railroad Co. has thre
tugs in this service, the Irdr.fer, the Convoy
and the Bfe,De,ton. The first named is the lar
C0nuoy does what is called the 'up-town work
and the Transfer is at present used exclusivel
for the ferry. The Breloert0n is an extra to b.
! used when either of the others is disabled, or o.
special work. At present the company use
! three barges OF capacity of ten cars each, ant
two of capacity of eight cars each.
, On the Locust Point side, the ferry wharfag
consists OF two slips, each 40 feet wide, an
-
n used in the transfer of passengers. The barge
are tied up securely to these slips, and the cal
i are run on or off by a locomotive.
n Here the Baltimore Ohio Company has it
a | two
MONSTER GRAIN ELEVATORS,
N which are said to possess facilities superior
: any other buildings of the kind on the Atlant
Coast. The first built and smaller of the two hs
a capacity of nearly 100000 bushels The mai
y building is 80 feet wide by $50 feet in length, an
is 125 feet high in the center. This elevator hf
J. two engines with combined power of about Il
u horse. This power s used for loading and III
loading cars and vessels, and cleansing the grail
which ia effected by means of large fsns suit
/ bly, situated to blow the chaff from the grain
d it passes through spouts. The larger elevat.
c. Of the two is S24 feet long, by 96 feet in widt
s. and 1863 feet high. 1t has an engine of y
20 horse power. There are two huge driving bel
feet in width which communicate power to
shaft at the top OF the building. This shaft h
10 elevator belts running from it each of the
provided with 300 buckets and has a cap
m city OF elevation of 100 bushels per minut
The total capacity of the elevator is over 900
900 bushels.
10 Leaving Locust Point, strolled through d
great rolling mills of the Canton Iron Compan
ID They are in full working order, running day al
IN night, with two full sets of hands TRAVELLER
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OF