Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-12-15
PaNAMlNT RAILROAD.

than 1t has hitherto received. The
price of the freight on general mer-
chandise from Los Angeles to the an
chorage is So per ton, or nineteen cents
per mile per ton; on grain, 81 so per
ton, or about nine cents per mile. IN
the Atlantic States the charge per ton
per mile is little more than two cents
on an average.
The steamers from San Pedro to San
Francisco, we are informed charge
the same in the aggregate for freight
as the railroad. These rates leave lit
tie margin for the farmer, and the con-
sequence is that when grain Especially
corn is low in price, it will not bear
shipment. The real remedy for this state
of things is a narrow-gauge railroad
from Los Angeles to the nearest eligi-
BILE shipping point on the ocean and a
wharf to deep water, which can be
constructed for about $l30,000. Such
road and wharf will give us cheap
transportation to the port and compe-
tition in steamer freights to San Fran
cisco.
Low freights'will augment produc-
ton and increase commerce. The
city of Los Angeles must to a great
extent depend upon local productions
for permanent commerce and business.
This is subject which might we'll
engage the attention of the Changers.
1t concerns primarily the interest of
the farmers and secondarily that of
the merchants. 1t is clear that COM
mercial business in Los Angeles must
fall off without an increase of farm
products. 1t must be apparent to
every one that cur farm products, as
well as wine and wool, can never be
transported to market on q railway.
They can never bear railway freights
Hence the cost of freights to port and
thence to San Francisco is q matter of
vital importance not only to our farm
ers, vine-dressers and wool-growers,b but
to the merchant and all classes of our
citizens. 1t is a subject on which too
little attention has been bestowed.
A railroad whose wharves do not con-
meet with deep water cannot afford
the cheap freights demanded. ] have
no doubtthat the people in the coun-
try to be traversed by this road can Sc
cure its construction by united effort
in prudent scheme. The narrow
gauge. railway from the bay of San
Francisco north is being built 10y the
farmers along the line of its location.
If n considerable portion of the stock
is subscribed by the citizens to be
benefited by the road, it viii be easy
to get the balance from abroad. 1t re-
quires such subscriptions, however, to
give confidence to foreign capital.
One great difficulty in making rail
roads pay has been, hitherto, that the
interest of the officers is distinct and
at variance with that of the stock
holders. That evil will be obviated to
great extent when the stockholders
reside near the road and can observe
its management and check the con-
duct of its officers. 1t is necessary for
us to show that the road will pay.
That depends upon the amount OF
business to be done and the cost of the
railway. a&F
Burke said that sensible man OBJ
served IL proportion between his means
and his ends. think it is quite dem
Onstrable that a narrow gauge road is
| conceded, | believe, by all railroad
engineers that all the width added tc
railway beyond what is necessary to
| the freight and travel, adds to the cost
of construction, increases the dead
weight and enhances the cost of work
ing the road. AS II necessary conse-
quence, more capacity and expense
than is required diminishes the profits
ofSthe road.
1t is known that railroads are now
being constructed with gauges from |
foot III inches to feet Z inches which
are entirely successful and yielding
large profits as well as transacting all
the business for which they were built.
Mr.. Watson in his able essay on the
subject enumerates "the Denver and
Rio Grande Railroad in Colorado,
three feet gauge, which has proved an
entire success; the Orangeville and
Toronto Branch Railroad, in Canada
of 66 miles, of three feet gauge; the
Tiffin Road, in Ohio; the Sidny Bay
Railroad, in the State Of New York,
and the projected system of 2 feet 8
inches in British India, consisting of
from two to three thousand miles; the
feet gauge established in Sweden on
road twenty-three miles in length !;
also the feet 6 inches in gauge syS-
tenn adopted in Queensland, Australia,
Ceylon, East Indies, Norway and in
Belgium, amounting to about one
thousand miles already constructed,
where they are found to give ample
accommodation to the business of pop
ulous countries, and built with the
capital of the country" Many more
have been constructed since his publi-
cation; especially the road from Sac
chito through the counties north of
San Francisco, which is proving an
entire success.
/. ID. Huff, distinguished engineer
writing of the Denver and Colorado
Road in December, 1871, says: 81
found the heaviest grades IS feet per
mile and the sharpest curves degrees.
The length to Colorado City istwenty-
six miless total cost, $l3, 500 per mile.
The Kansas Pacific Railway, built by
the same engineer, General Green
wood, cost $24, 1000 per mile, and the
difference in grading is in favor of the
latter road. The largest locomotive
weighs 201 tons. The passenger cars
seat "a passengers as comfortably as
any cars in this Territory, and closets
and stove weigh only $4,000 pounds.
Their freight cars weigh $500 pounds
and carry a load of 10000 pounds WI hen
FULL or nearly three pounds of load to
one of car. One ton of coal runs a
train of seventy-five tons of freight
eighty miles in four hours. Their books
show that the round trip of 152 miles
costs about fifty dollars-25 tons one
mile for one cent. The trains went
through the deep snow, beating all the
.Al, Il flAie, NAi1hfnr. u