Difference between the value of new iron in Philadelphia and old iron on the ground, per ton, $ 35.00 The cost of changing the iron track of the road will then be as follows: Seventy-one tons of iron, taken up and put down, at $26.75 $1900 Difference between seventy-one tons of new iron bought, at $ 60, And seventy-one tons of old iron sold at $ 25 Seventy-one tons of new iron transported to, and distributed along the line, at $5 Cost per mile of changing iron, $4260 2485 1775 355 $4740 This sum of $4740 will be the amount due to the trade which will destroy the iron, or render it unfit for safe usage. I know of no iron which has yet withstood the action of a million tons; and I know of no iron of 50 lbs. or less, that is likely to resist that weight. If we consider the rails of the Reading Road to be capable of that effort, then we shall have 43 mills per ton per mile for the value of the iron destroyed by each ton of coal descending the line-or 414 cents per ton for the whole distance of 94 miles. By adopting the rates of speed of the Stockton and Darlington Road, it is probable that the cost of the iron could be brought down to 50 cents per ton, or near that limit; but if the company adopt the heavy cars, (74 tons when loaded) and powerful engines, and heavy trains now contemplated, and continue the high velocity now permitted, the destruction of iron will probably be scarcely compensated for by seventy-five cents per ton. This is a calculation from such data as we are able to obtain. But was there ever a calculation of such work, which was not exceeded by the practical result? One of the data assumes that there will be as many tons of iron to sell, as were originally bought. But the weight will not hold out. It is useless to inquire why; yet we cannot spread 70,000 bars of iron along a road 100 miles in length, and beat them and roll them for one or two years, and then collect it all again. This is a practical difficulty which must always be encountered under such circumstance. The calculation assumes that it will all be collected; and, besides, that the 140,000 bolts, and the 70,000 chairs to be distributed and replaced, can likewise be found again. Many visionary estimates have been made on this head, by parties of little experience in the handling of heavy materials, and in the per formance of mechanical work; but the following practical facts are a great deal more forcible, and will be found to furnish data which can be applied with much more certainty than any speculative estimate whatever. The South Carolina rail road was opened in the year 1833; the trade averages about 25,000 tons. In the semi-annual report for December 31st, 1858, five years after the completion of the work, we find the following:-" deduct the following expenditures, as being rather for permanent improvement than current expenses, viz: Machinery, New rail iron, $ 26,888 12 7* This hint, to the experienced reader, is symptomatic of the contents of the next report, (June 30th, 1839,) from which I extract the following: "Amount paid for rail iron in Charleston, $371,679 12 Less old iron sold and unsold, 92,902 27 Cost of transportation of the same on the road, and laying down, including spikes, Net cost of new iron, -$278,776 85 74,400 00 $353,176 85 Here we perceive that the entire sales of the old iron (when it was all disposed of, it yielded precisely $92,325 71,) exceeded the cost of putting the new rail in the track, but by some $18,000, while the net cost of the new iron, after deducting the proceeds of sales was $353,176. Such is in fact what is to be expected. The old iron will barely pay for putting down the new, and the loss to the company will be about equal to the cost of the new iron delivered at the sea-port. A writer in the Railroad Journal proposes a scheme for the Reading rail road company to make money, by procuring rails free of duty, and selling the old material, after it has been worn out, with the advantages of the duty. The operation was conducted under precisely those circumstances on the South Carolina road; but the above balance will show that the speculation did not turn out so well in that case. Indeed I have known many instances in which the iron has been renewed, but I have never heard of a company, here or abroad, that found the speculation a profitable one. In the accounts of the South Carolina road, the new iron is charged to "permanent improvements," (the old iron lasted five years,) and the company recommenced with augmented capital. I have but one word to add in reference to the durability of iron rails subjected to the action of a trade like that of the Schuylkill. 1 have already stated that if the Reading rail road company expect to obtain the whole trade of the canal, they must prepare for the entire renewal of a single track every year; and I now add, if the company carry 500,000 tons of coal during the present year, as they now propose to do, the new iron cannot be put down, before that now on the track will be so nearly destroyed as to be unsafe. It is understood that this company has recently obtained an additional loan of $1,000,000. With this it is proposed to stock and equip the line, and procure the additional track, and prepare for the conveyance of the whole trade of the Schuylkill. I therefore advance this additional proposition. After this money is expended, and the company shall have put themselves, by its aid, in the position which they seek to occupy, they will neither, in the first place, be able to carry more than half the tonnage of the Schuylkill, and, in the second place, if they succeed in obtaining half the tonnage, they will not be able to engage vigorously in the business of 1845, without a new loan of a million of dollars; and, finally, if they continue to operate through the present and the next year, they can not engage in the business of 1846, without another loan of at least one million. In short, it is impossible for them to carry the Schuylkill coal trade, without borrowing one million of dollars per annum. And when they cease borrowing they must cease carrying. I now disiniss the consideration of a road, which, in my opinion, was most unwisely commenced-which has been prosecuted in folly, and which can only terminate in disaster. On this result I desire to rest my claim to the public confidence. Additional application of the formula.-In the November number of the Journal, I offered a formula for the computation of the annual expenses of lines of rail way, and exhibited its application and agreement with the actual results on seventeen of the most important roads in the country. The greatest deviation of that formula from the actual result was 12 per cent., which occurred in the case of the Baltimore and Ohio rail road for the year 1841. In speaking of the deviations, I added these words: "It will probably be seen, on some future occasion, that those roads which now exhibit expenses above the formula, will fall below it for other years; a remark which is applicable to the Boston and Lowell, Baltimore and Ohio, and South Carolina roads." Since the publication of that article, I have received through the politeness of Mr. Latrobe, the able engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio rail road, the report of the operations on that work, for the year 1843, together with some valuable manuscript details, of which I hope to make useful application in the further prosecution of my present study. I am also indebted to Charles S. Storrow, Esq., the valuable superintendent of the Boston and Lowell road, for similar statistics in relation to the excellent, and I believe, prosperous work under his charge, in anticipation of the publication of the report. I have also received from Mr. Storrow, similar information relating to his line, for the year 1841, which I had not before obtained, and from the report of the Baltimore and Ohio rail road company, I find the facts necessary for the application of the formula also to the Baltimore and Washington road for the year 1843. These results have all been procured since the publication of the formula; and I therefore proceed to test it by making the application to those lines. It will be recollected that I offered, in the first place, a formula for the determination of the expenses for a new line, viz : And in the second place, a rule for the computation of the expenses of maintaining an old road, or road which had been opened more than four years, viz : 7P + In both expressions N stands for the number of miles run by the locomotive engines; T for the tons net conveyed one mile; P for the Name of Road. number of passengers conveyed one mile, and h for the length of the road, in miles. In applying the formula to the Baltimore and Ohio road, it is to be borne in mind, that of the 178 miles in use for the year 1843, but 82 miles were opened previous to 1842, and that the whole of the remaining 96 miles is new road. The result of the application to these several lines is exhibited in the three following tables: Bost'n & Lowell, 1841 26 10 125,296 90,113 170,057 $119,469 $111,207 Aggregate for these three years, 403,285 298,751 526,413 359,848 354,620-14 It will be recollected that I anticipated, in the November number, that subsequent results would be more favorable to the Boston and Lowell Road, than that of 1842. We here find it so. In 1842, the formula fell $11,603, or nine per cent. below the actual expenses. In 1843 the calculated expenses rise $14,637 above the actual expenses. But my remark in the December number should be recollected in these comparisons:-"The formula exhibits what it was intended to show-the average for a number of years." And hence, we have another test. The aggregate expenses on the Boston and Lowell Road for three years are, as we observe by the table, $359,848. The calculated expenses $354,620. This is surely close enough. Again, we will take the Baltimore and Ohio Road, for the year 1843, for the purpose of an additional application. Balt. and Ohio, 1843 178 823 509,765 39,519 33,670 287,153 322,075 Aggregate expenses for two years, 507,288 515,000| 14 I have taken no notice of operations on this work for the year 1842, Error per cent. because during that year the line was opened, in parts, from Harper's Ferry to Cumberland. The application for the year 1841, gave a result of $27,210 below the actual expenses. I stated at the time that the subsequent expenses would be likely to fall below the calculated expenses. We accordingly find the result for the next year comes $34,000 below the formula. Here, then, is another, and most conclusive, confirmation of the correctness of the formula, and of the principles on which it is founded. If we take the sum of the expenses for the two years, we find the calculation $515,000, and the fact $507,288. But we have yet a third case: the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad report for 1843, exhibits, as has been stated, the results on the Baltimore and Washington Road, likewise for that year. These, together with those of 1841 and 1842, are presented in the following Here is an agreement within 4 per cent. When I presented this formula in the November number of the Journal, and exhibited its application to seventeen lines of railway, I stated that these seventeen lines were all the roads for which I had been able to collect the statistical information necessary for the application. I had written to many companies, and had generally been supplied with the facts required, and which were not given in their reports. In some instances, however, they were unable to furnish the information which I needed; in two instances I received no reply to my letter; and in one-and I am happy to say one instance only-the officer declined making the affairs of the company public. Since then the three companies above named have published their reports; and they are the only reports for the year 1843, which I have yet received. These reports add confirmation to the previous proof. Still, I advance the formula as an approximation only, which I hope, with the aid of my professional friends, and future facts, so to modify and improve, as to render its application general and certain. It is the expression of the true LAW; but the constants are to be built up by multiplied facts, until there can no longer be room to doubt its indications. I have endeavored, so far, to conform to the method which modern science points out as proper to be pursued in practical inquiries. Much injury has been inflicted on the great cause of internal improvement, and especially of railroad improvement, by the erroneous opinions of enthusiastic, but unwise, advocates. But a new order of things has grown up, and a new system of enquiry is rapidly |