Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-02-03
Cheap Railroads.

lures, National as Well us ottle, 10 III
voked to compel the railroads to carry
at figures that will not absorb the
value OF what is carried, before it
reaches market.
Granting that sthere has been mis-.
management in the construction and
operation of our railroads; that vast
sums have gone into the pockets oil
spectators, increasing the indebted
ness of our railroad system without adj
ding to its ability to earn dividends;
that combinations have been formed,
by which competition is destroyed;
the fact still remains that the expense
attending the construction and opera
ton of railroads is SO great, that to re-
turn only a fair interest on the invest
ment, it is necessary to charge rates
that are burdensome where the terri
tory supplied is thinly settled one,
or where freights and passengers must
be transported long distances, over
heavy grades, and through regions
where there is but little local business.
Yet these are the conditions under
which much of the business of the
Pacific Coast must be transacted for
years to come.
We may establish the rates which
the existing roads shall charge, but
these rates must be high enough to af-
ford fair profit, or they will not be
operated. Neither will additional
lines be built, if the inducement for
such investment is removed. To make
it possible therefore to reduce the eX-
pense of transportation we must have
cheaper roads. The massive roadways
of iron, with their immense substitute
lures of masonry, and ponderous equip
ment, may do for the great thorough
fares where the commerce of nations
is passing, but for the vast unsettled
plains and mountain regions of the
West, we want and must have some
thing cheaper.
The narrow-guage system has been
adopted in many localities, and is adj
vocated as q means of cheapening the
cost Of transportation; but while it is
an important step in that direction,
and, we believe, a still cheaper, and at
the same time an adequate road, can
be constructed.
Wooden railroads have been built
in various parts of the world, where
only small business offered, and
have been successfully operated.
VIM. Tweeddale, Kansas engineer,
has issued pamphlet in which he adj
vocates the construction of this class
Of roads, and gives many points con-
corning them. Not having seen the
work, we are only able to give such
fragments as have found their way
into the papers:
His plan is to build roadway as
near to the surface Of the ground as
may be found practicable, with wood
en- longitudinal stringers. Said
stringers to be eight inches wide in
two thicknesses of three inches each,
breaking joints and resting on suitable
wooden ties, say six feet apart, the up
per thickness of stringers to be of oak.
At first use no iron, but as the bust
ness of the road increases, and the
wear of the stringers becomes in excess
of the natural decay of the material
composing them, the top of the inner
edge of the stringerS may be covered
with strap rail, having splice plates
at the Joints let into the stringers and
bolted through the stringers; (particu-
larly if the freight cars from the main
trunk lines are in use to any consider
able extent. When necessary, the
strap rail and wooden stringers may
give place to an iron rail.
1.-THE motive power to be traction
engine, with rubber tire "a style of
engine in use on common roads in Eu-
rope, the broad wheel eight inches
wide) of which will run on the wide
surface of the stringers, and by reason
of the greater adhesion of the rubber
tire of the traction engine on the wood
en- stringer than in the case of the iron
tire Of the locomotive engine on an
iron rail, the difference being as three
to one, much lighter engines and
much sleeper grades can be used. A
road on this plan can be built under
favorable circumstances ready for the
rolling stock for from four to six thous-
and dollars per mile, exclusive Of the
right of way, which ordinarily for this
class of road will not cost anything"
The cost of such line is necessarily
light, and the cost of the engines suit
able will not exceed five thousand dol
lars. Freight cars will not cost more
than the ordinary road wagons in use.
Col. r. p. Morgan, of Chicago,
railroad engineer of forty years eX-
perience, and possessed of one of the
most acute and discriminating minds,
has also carefully examined this ques-
ton, and pronounces unequivocally for
cheap roads. His plans, while they
differ in some respects from those of
the Kansas engineer, yet recogeize
fully the necessity of keeping down
the interest account, and the impor-
tant fact that the cost of the road must
bear q proper proportion to the bust
ness it is likely to perform. We hope
before long to be able to give some de-
finite figures that will exhibit more
clearly the feasibility Of cheap rail-
roads.
Congressman Luttrell has written to
y-GovnrnOr DOWney, in reference to