The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1878-03-06
Nnrrou.llnnrc RnlIroad1.

tHe liHe VI bilo plVPOSSN
guage railroad between this point
and Hartford City; and which, if
built will run through his farm
furnishes US the following. The mat
ter is a selection from a work
which Horace Greeley and other
learned gentlemen, edited; and this
article is supposed to have been
written by Mr.. Greeley. 1t Will be
read with interest. He gays:
"Tho narrow-guage principal, in
deed, although in this country il has
barely begun its career, is already
causing change in railroad bnsi,
ness almost great enough to be called
revolution. II was first thoroughly
"proved up on the Festiniog Rail
way in Wales, under the manage
ment of Mr.. h. c. SpOoner, who may
be called the father Of the narrow
guage railroad. 1t was next intro
duced BY Carl Phil, a Norwegian En-
gineer, into Norway. Twas rapidly
adopted for n number from among
the network Of railroads with which
the English are opening up the vast
and rich interior Of their Indian
Empire. In Russia, Australia, and
| in South America, and in Canada
and the United States, narrow -guage
roads are already either in operation
or in rapid course of construction in
Colorado, Arkansas, Texas, Utah,
Georgia, New York, Ohio, Missouri
Illinois and Iowa, while many 9TH
ers are in contemplation. 1t is. an
unaccountable circumstance, by the
wav, that in "Poor's Manual Of the
Railroads Of the United States for
1S71-2" which pretends to give a
"Sketch of the Railroads of the Uni
ted States" that there is not even a
hint that there exists a narrow'guage
system or road. This is much US if
Mr.. Poor should publish history Of
transportation without referring to
steam-engines. =,
"But the narrow-guage system VIII
very quickly make its own history,
with or without any recording angel,
as the Jackson E Sharp Co., have
excellent reason to know; for they
are not only the first, and up to this
time the only builders in the coun,
try of narrow-guage passenger and
freight cars, but they are already
filling, or have filed, contracts for
such cars for eleven or more different
roads. One order, for train Of cars
for the Denver and Rio Grande rail
way, has been filled, and the cars,
including two passenger cars, two
smoking cars and two baggage and
mail cars, the first ever constructed
in America, were delivered in Den
yer August ID, 1871, in eighteen
days from Wilmington, attracting
great attention and praise from rail
road men and others wherever they
passed. These passenger cars are
50 #. long, Z wide, and lO4 high
They. weigh 1900 pounds each, and
carry Sc passengers, being 46 pounds
of car for each passenger, while the
ordinary car, carrying 81 passengers,
weighs $1,000 pounds or 722 pounds
per head. These seats are double on
one side and single on tho other,
with one alteration in the center, 60
as to maintain balance Of weight
when full. Except in these points
Of size and arrangement, they CORES
pond TO other elegantly finished pas
senger cars. The sillS Of these cars
are only q inches from the ground,
usual Height being 45 inches; diff
ference which lowers the centre Of
gravity so much that the narrow
guagc cars are less liable to be over
set than the broad ones. The "anglo
Of stability" as i. is called, for the
cars, empty and loaded, SOY degrees
and Al degrees respectively; figures
which demonstrate to the railroad
mechanic a remarkably broad base
for the cars while in motion.
"Thosa cars have been drawn al q
speed of 10 miles per hour by loco.
motives Quilt at the celebrated
baldwin Works" of Philalelphia,J
and have encountered gales whose
severity is too well known to travel.
ers in the Colorado uplands; in fact,
no effort has been spared to put them
| to the seyoresl test. Their success
under such circumstances fully in.
sures their future performance, and
demonstrates that the gloomy doubts
entertained by many minds, respect.
| ing narrow.guage rolling stock, were
utterly without foundation, and
worthy only of a past age.
at is easy to show how immense q
saving can be made by the use of the
narrow.guage. This system, to begin
with, saves in respect to all the hca.
vier work Of grading, embanking,
tunnclling, &c, an important pro
portion Of land damages, half the
expense Of rails (Which weigh 30
pounds per yard instead of 6O) be.
sides that shorter curves can be used,
which makes the engineering part
of railroad work both easier aud
cheaper; so that roads built on this
| principal cost about fve.cighths the
A