Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1916-01-20
1HEfs1oRY OF ONE
RAILWAYS OPERATIONS
FOR ONE YEAR, 1915

OF the more than one billion pas
sengers carried annually on Ameri-
can railways, one, perhaps, in hun
dred thousand, has an opportunity of
perusing the pages of the annual re-
port of a railway company. To
many, such a report with its many
statistical tables and it's brief and
more or less matter of fact state
ments, would prove somewhat dry
reading. But there is, actually, a
large amount of interesting matter
in such report.
Let us for example study the re-
port Of large railway company
the Northern Pacific, for the fiscal
year ending June 80, 1915.
The income received from the
mechanical operation of the road
was $63,OOO,00O and the correspond
ing operating expenses was $37,OO0,-
900. The cost Of operations plus
the taxes on the property equalled
almost &c per cent. of the entire op-
Grating income. That is fact worth
membering. A few items of ex-
penditure showing how the bulk of
this money was expended will prove
of interest.
Road maintenance, including track
laying, surfacing, ETC., cost $3,767,-
900; replacing old rails cost $780,
900; new ties, $1,70o,000; ballast
renewals cost $126,O0O; the expendi-
ture for bridge repairs, etc., was
$6O9,OOO. Along another line, loco
motive repairs amounted to $2.275,-
900; repairs to freight cars cost $2,-
$4,000, and those to passenger cars,
$816,OO0. Labor received nearly
$21, 100000 for it's services or 81
per cent. of the total operating ex-
pense. Fuel for locomotives aggre-
gated more than $5,000,000 in cost.
Labor and engine fuel alone con-
sumed 70 per cent. approximately
of the total operating expenditure.
Such an enumeration as this shows
how wonderfully a railway enters
| into the life of every community
J along it's line. The track crews, the
numerous work crews, the train
crews, the shop-engine and other
operating and repairmen constitute
a small army whose wages form an
important part of the money that
circulates in their respective COM
munities. Without this corps of men
and their resources many town
would vanish from the map. The
railways Importance to commercial
interests in general is also clearly
revealed.
Although no extensive construc-
tion was carried on last year, yet,
in the many reconstructions, addi-
tions made, here and there, during
the year and in realignments, 112
miles were added to the mileage, the
total operated and controlled main
and branch line mileage now being
nearly $500 miles. The most i'm
portant additions were some new
lines in North Dakota that opened a
productive agricultural country and
stock raising country, and a new
double-track line from Tacoma,
&C. IN
length, eliminates a line of heavy
gradient and that was operated at
great expense.
During the year 127 new cars of
various classes were added to the
passenger equipment. OF these 113
were steel cars-mail and express,
baggage, first-class coaches, parlor
and Pullman sleeping cars, costing
in excess Of s1,000,0O0. .
Three hundred miles of main and
branch lines were newly laid, or re-
laid, with steel rails weighing IS or
80 pounds to the yard, in lieu of the
lighter rail formerly laid. There are
now 300 miles of Northern Pacific
track laid with from S5- to 100
pound steel rails and large part Of
it's line equipped with automatic
block signals providing safety for its
passengers.
During the year 1913 bridges were
replaced. Those of greater length
and importance-one half of all
were replaced either by earth en-
bankment or by steel or reinforced
concrete, and aggregate more than
mile and a half in length. Since
1885, when the Northern Pacific be-
gan to systematically replace old
wooden bridges and trestles with
new, solid and permanent structures,
over 100 miles of such bridges have
been replaced by earth embankments
or steel and concrete structures. Old
az 4,ov I'm 30