Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-06

The roadbed in excavation IS generally
| in fair condition, being wide enough and
| well drained, but the entertainments are
| generally too narrow and have settled
| down in many places below the original
grade lines, leaving the ends of the bridges
| too high
| The embellishments have settled sideways
| as well as leugthways, causing the track TO
| list over first to the right, then TO the left
! side, throwing it out of line and out OF sur
| face, and endangering the safety OF the
| trains
This is especially the case in the East
| Fork bottom, upon the Dougherty prairie
| and in the fiat ground near Cedar creek and
! Kings creek
| The track is generally in deplorable
| condition and exceedingly dangerous 10
| passing trains.
The iron is nearly all worn out, broken
| up and bent.
! The fish plates or Joint straps are in many
| places cut in two, having only half i strap
| with two bolts instead of whole strap
| with four. Even the whole straps have in
many places only three bolts, and some only
| two.
The spikes have been shaken out of the
| rotten ties, and in many places on tangents
| only spike TO every other tie is used on
| the inside.
| In some places | found two pieces of rail
not strapped at all, but simply butt-jointed
and spiked 10 the tie, very dangerous pro-
| cetding.
About five eighths of q mile near Dallas
| is irOned with light steel car rail weighing
about forty pounds to the yard, instead of
| tifty-six as it should be.
The ball OF the rail is in many places
| worn entirely off on one side. and the rail has
| then been turned around and the ball worn
of on the other side, leaving only the web
| OF the rail to run on.
ton
Gus. AT least five ties to every rail, or $50
| to every mile, ...e rotten, and either broken
| IN the middle of the track or cut In two
| under the rail:
Near Dallas a lot of short six-foOt ties, or
| uarTow-gauge ties, are used. They should
| all be eight feet III length 10 get q safe bear
| ing on the road-bcd.
There is not particle OF ballast used on
the entire road, and in many places the ties
| are down under the mud, or are Skinned up
at the ends with bits OF plank, sticks, chips
and old ties.
The bridges are generally III a miserable
and very dangerous condition, especially
near White Rock creek, in East Fork bot
tom, Kings creek and Cedar creek bot
toms. particularly bridges 50, IS 80, ~, Is,
ca, 61, q. - Il, -, 76, IS, -, so, 81, s. 81,
ST, and several near the forty-nine mile
post.
Wherever oak piling has been used they
Stringers and ties all rotten; guard rails
wanting, and bank Sills settled down. |
saw only two bridges in good condition
one at White Rock creek and one at Buffalo;
balance all dangerous.
The cattle guards are generally in a bad
condition; many built Of odd scraps of lum-
Der and double ties used for I2X12 stringers
Taken altogether, the road-bed track and
bridges are the worst over any road | ever
saw that pretended to carry passengers,
and will require at least 50 per cent of new
metal 33h per cent of new ties, 50 per
cent of new bridges and 5000 carloads of
ballast to put it in safe condition.
2. The rolling Stock.-l am reliably in
formed that this road owns one locomotive,
twelve flats, a cabooSe and one passenger
coach and has leased one locomotive and
twenty box cars.
The comptroller's books at Austin will
show that the rolling stock of this road is
assessed at only S4532, not enough TO buy i
| locomotive.
In my judgment this amount of rolling
| stock is inadequate TO do the business of
| the road or to handle the freight offered
| along the line
The locomotive owned is in good order,
| but the locomotive leased is in very bad
| condition and needs repairs.
The passenger coach is about fifteen years
| old, a secondhand Alabama car, badly used
| up and quite rickety and not at all safe.
3. DepOts.-There is not a single depot
on this road in Dallas county a distance of
! twenty-Onc miles. Only small l0Xl2 foot
| pine box closet for selling tickets in Dallas,
and no platform to that
In kaufman county there is a DOLLHOUSE
depot at Crandall. used exclusively Tor
section house; a neat, new small passenger
depot at Kaufman, and Il good freight and
passenger dept at Kemp, but the shed at
Cedar station is in tumbed-down and for
lorn condition, inhabited by owls and
snakes.
4. Betterments-Therei is at this time no
work being done on the road that can be
called '.bettermeut' only the ordinary,
almost pressing, repairs, and not enough of
that.
Along the whole line OF the road from
Dallas to Cedar station ! did not see single
piece of new bridge timber, new
rail or any new material, eX-
cept about 1909 new ties-only
enough to repair one and one-half miles of
track: and | understand that such has been
the condition of affairs during the past
twelve months. except the two bridges |
have mentioned before and the small depot
II Kaufman.
Repairs must not be mistaken for better
ments. To substitute an iron for a wooden
bridge. or brick for frame depot, or
steel for iron: to put in a double track, new
pilings, or to ballast the track may be
called bettermentS; but to simply repair
damages, to put i'll a good tie for bad one,
or to turn 4 rail around, to cut the weeds
OF the track or to SHIN up low bent in a
bad bridge is only repairs.
5. Cedar StatiOn.-l went to Cedar sta
ton and walked the track back to Kemp,
and found the track in a horrible condition.
This part of the line, four miles in length
is not USED much. only to haul out wood.
and the rails have not, therefore, been much
worn. but advantage has been taken of this
to make of this four miles a reserve de-
pot from which to take good iron and sub
Stitute for it the WORKOUT scraps and frag-
ments gathered up between Kemp and Dal-
las, until about one and one-haf miles OF
this track looks like a scrap-heap.
The ties and bridges are nearly all rotten,
the road-bed cracked and settled, and the
whole burleSQue on q railroad.
Almost the entire road is deficient in
those items necessary to constitute well
built and well equipped railroad, and IS so
run down and impaired as to render 1t I'M
safe TO run passenger coach at a greater
speed than twelve miles per hour, while on
many portions of the line it is necessary TO
crawal along at Il four or tve-miIe speed.
and to use extraordinary precautins to keep
the train on the track.
The road-bed, SuperStructure and rolling
stock are deteriorating rapidly, and Will
soon he utterly worthless unless immediate
and expensive repairs are made with new
material, and all rotten and broken ties,
iron and bridges removed. Respectfully,
iSjgned W. NJ. JOHNSON,