The Grange advance., 1874-03-11

their full capacity, but % this would be
largely freight road, the passenger ques-
ton is Of minor importance. When the
passenger business is small, however, it
can be shown that the narrow gauge would !
pay best in proportion to cost.
The eight-wheeled box cars Of the Dem
yer & Rio Gsande railroad are twenty three
feet, six inches long, six feet wide and six
feet high. The floors are set very low,
making the angle Of stability greater even
than that ordinarily given on wide gauges,
so that there would be actually less danger
of overturning with the same speed, on the
narrow than on the wide gauge.
A passenger coach recently built for the
Denver s. Rio Grande railroad by the Jack
son & Sharpe company, at Wilmington,
Delaware, is IS feet inches long, feet
wide and feet inches high. Single seats
18 inches, and double seats 36 inches, half
on one side and half on the other. 1t
carries thirty.four passengers when the
| stoves are in.
Locomotives for narrow gauge are built
at the Baldwin Works, Philadelphia, weigh
ing 38, 600 pounds, capable Of taking load
Of one hundred and twenty-five gross tons
up one hundred feet grade; $50 tons
up an eighty feet grade; 265 tons up a
forty feet grade, and eight hundred and
| sixty tons on level.
A second reason for building narrow
gauge is that it will meet the demands Of
the community interested better than any
other.
What is needed by the country through
which this road will pass is cheap transpor-
tatlon for ats grain.
l believe this can best be had by first get
ting cheap outlet to the Mississippi river.
Freights and grain especially can be moved
so much cheaper by water than by any 9TH
er way, and the amount to be carried from
Minnesota eastward is so great and so rap
idly increasing, that it cannot be long be-
fore the bulk Of the grain mast be carried
down the Mississippi to New Orleans,
thence by vessels to Europe or the Atlantic
cities.
Experience has taught us that there is
no hope of freights being permanently
cheapened by competition among railroads,
and therefore the only help can see for
the farmer is to find cheap way to get
his wheat to the Mississippi river where he
can take advantage of the competition that
must always exist between water and rail.
road routes.
A wide gauge road would not give him
that advantage, because the expense of a
wide gauge would be SO great that it could
only be built by some company owning a
connecting line East, or if it were built the
| control of it must unnecessarily pass into
the hands Of some such company, and the
discrimination against grain going only to
the river in favor Of that going over the
whole road, would be 50 great that most, if
not all the advantage Of the river competi-
tion would be lost. Even the most strin-
gent legislation would probably fail to pre-
vent such discrimination. If not made in
one way it would be in another.
A narrow guage road on the contrary is
no doubt within the ability of this commun-
ity to build, and if it have the capacity to
carry the grain, naturally tributary to it
the desired object will have been obtained
Such a road, built and paid for, will be en-
tirely independent of any other. 1t will be
owned by the farmers living along the line,
who, through their representatives, will
regulate the rates of freight, which can be
put down to the lowest practicable figure.
have made the following estimate of
cost of a three feet gauge road from Waba-
sha to Faribault estimating the length Of
road at seventy miles. I think the figures
for everything aside from grading and
bridging" are reliable. Nothing very def
mite can be known regarding the cost of
grading without survey.
Grading and bridging 70 miles at $3 900
Ballast one foot deep, 70 miles at 40c per yd. 1892
| Ties, 32c, rails (angle pattern) and track lay
ing, 20 miles, at 81 4OO0................... 28O,C0O
" miles sidings at above rates.. 12,250
Fencing, 70 miles 600 cts per rod 40,32O
water works, SO, 25,ooo
|