Handbook of Railroad Construction; For the use of American engineers. / Containing the necessary rules, tables, and formulæ for the location, construction, equipment, and management of railroads, as built in the United States.

All that is required to render the efforts of railroad companies in every respect equal to that of individuals, is a rigid system of personal accountability through every grade of service.—D. C. McCallum.

ORGANIZATION OF EMPLOYEES.

397. Railroad management may be divided into two grand departments,—

The first of these does not properly come into a work of the present kind. It embraces the entire system of accounts. Its officers are a president, secretary, treasurer, attorney, and directors.

398. The operating management is subdivided as follows:—

The first embracing every thing relating to the adjusting of tariffs, the transport of passengers and freight, the embarking and delivering of goods, and the weighing and measuring, ticket and receiving offices, steamboat, stage, and railroad connections. The second, the maintaining the road-bed, superstructure, bridging, masonry, buildings, and fixed stock in working order; making all repairs, renewals, enlargements, and alterations, and the purchase, inspection, maintaining, and operating of the rolling stock. These departments are again divided and subdivided until we come to the minutest details.

Note.—That part of Chapter XVI. in italics is extracted, by permission, from the elaborate Report of D. C. McCallum to the stockholders of the New York and Erie Railroad, (March 25, 1856).

399. The following general principles govern the formation of an efficient system of operations.

First. A proper division of responsibilities.

Second. Sufficient power conferred to enable the same to be fully carried out, that such responsibilities may be real in their character.

Third. The means of knowing whether such responsibilities are faithfully executed.

Fourth. Great promptness in the report of all derelictions of duty, that evils may at once be corrected.

Fifth. Such information to be obtained through a system of daily reports and checks that will not embarrass principal officers nor lessen their influence with their subordinates.

Sixth. The adoption of a system, as a whole, which will not only enable the general superintendent to detect errors immediately, but will also point out the delinquent.

400. A system of operations to be efficient and successful should be such as to give to the principal and responsible head of the running department a complete daily history of details in all their minutiæ. Without such supervision the procurement of a satisfactory annual statement must be regarded as extremely problematical. The fact that dividends are made without such control does not disprove the position, as in many cases the extraordinarily remunerative nature of an enterprise may insure satisfactory returns under the most loose and inefficient management.

All subordinates should be accountable to, and directed by, their immediate superiors only. Each officer must have authority, with the approval of the general superintendent, to appoint all persons for whose acts he is held responsible, and to dismiss any subordinate when in his judgment the interests of the company demand it.

401. The following table shows the rate and direction of subordination for a first class railroad:—

DUTIES OF EMPLOYEES.

402. The General Superintendent has entire control of all of the heads of departments; he issues his orders to the heads only, and is the main agent for transferring the resolves of the directors to the operating department, and the channel through which the reports of the departments go to the directory.

The Superintendent of the Road has complete charge of the road-bed, superstructure, bridging, masonry, and buildings; also all removals, enlargements, and alterations. He should be a thorough civil engineer, able in every respect to build a railroad from beginning to end.

The Superintendent of Machinery has charge of the purchase, inspection, repair, and operating of all of the rolling and fixed machinery, of shops, engine houses, turntables, tanks, and weigh scales. He is responsible for the good condition, proper adaptation and efficiency of the entire equipment of engines and cars.

The General Passenger Agent fixes, under the direction of the president and general superintendent, the prices of passenger transportation, has charge of all conductors, ticket sellers, station police, mail and express agents, of stage, steamboat, and railroad connections, and of all operations incident to transporting passengers.

The General Freight Agent has charge of all persons occupied at all of the stations in forwarding and receiving merchandise, in measuring and weighing, in receiving money, and bookkeeping, station agents, and train hands. He makes and regulates, with the approval of the president and general superintendent, the tariff for freights; contracts with connecting roads, and insures the benefits of such agreements, examines all claims for damages to freight, and sees that such are properly settled.

The Agent for Wood contracts, with the approval of the general superintendent, for the supply of the necessary amount of fuel; attends the measurement, inspection, and delivery at the proper places; registers each month the amount of fuel supplied and used, and the location and amount on hand.

The Supply Agent has charge of the supply of all materials in use in all departments; iron, timber, engines, rails, bridges, and every thing in use upon the road; charging each department with its correct quantity and quality of material received.

Road-masters will have charge, under the superintendent of the road, of the maintenance of the road-bed and superstructure of divisions of from twenty-five to fifty miles in length, depending upon the care that the road-way may need. They will have charge of gravel trains, and of wood trains, which run under the orders of the superintendent of the road. They should pass over their divisions at least once per day. Under them are placed section men, having care of ten miles each, being supplied with the proper tools and signals. They must pass over their respective sections at least once per day in a hand car. They should see that every switch, frog, chair, and rail on their section is in proper order, and report at once any defects, which cannot be remedied by them, in the track, to the road-master.

Engineers are subject to the superintendent of machinery when off, and to the conductor when on, the trains. None but a man well acquainted with the details of machinery, and who has served in a locomotive machine shop, and is in every respect temperate and steady, should fill this berth.

Foremen of the blacksmith, machine, carpenter, and car shops, are subject to the superintendent of machinery, and have charge of the repairs and cleaning of the engines, cars, and other machinery.

Car-masters have charge of the men employed in cleaning, oiling, and examining the cars and their wheels. The cars should be thoroughly examined at the end of each trip, and at each stop, by an inspector who accompanies the train and looks to the wheels, axles, boxes, and brakes.

Conductors.—A conductor of a train should be a machinist, a prompt, active man, who should station himself on the top of the cars in such a position as to see the whole train, and able at any moment to communicate with the engineer. He should direct the running of the train, and control the engineer and the person who takes the fares. The latter should confine himself to the inside of the cars.

NUMBER OF TRAINS TO BE USED.

403. This is determined by the quantity and quality of the material to be transported, and by the character of the road. The train should not be so heavy as to be beyond the power of the engines upon the steepest grades, nor so light as to increase unnecessarily the number. A road doing a large passenger business must accommodate the public as far as possible as regards the time of departure and arrival, and the connections with other roads. A freight road must regard more the character of the road. Some classes of freight (ice, beef, etc.) do not admit of delay. As we increase the number of trains, the ratio of time employed in actual work to the whole train under steam is decreased, as there must be much time lost on sidings in waiting for trains to pass. Liability to accidents is also incurred. Commercial circumstances, more than any other, will determine the proper number and class of trains.

AMOUNT OF SERVICE OF ENGINES.

404. This is much less than is generally supposed. The number of engines required to perform any amount of work is considerably greater than the number actually in motion, because of liability to accident, time required for cleaning and repair. The New York State Engineer’s Report for 1854 gives, as the number of engines on 2,500 miles, 668, or one engine per 3¾ miles. Also, 668 engines run per annum 11,393,000 miles, or 17,055 miles per annum per engine; thus requiring .00005863 of an engine per mile run per annum.

This is very nearly fifty-five miles per day, (313 days per annum). Also, 968
2500 gives 27
100 of an engine per mile of road, and the same report gives the following:—

Or each mile needs

Or to one engine 781
100 passenger cars, and 1072
100 freight cars. From Lardner’s Railway Economy it appears that the average daily run of an engine is forty-two miles, or seventy-five miles per day, working four days in the week. That the daily service is two hours working, and three and three quarters hours standing with steam up. The maximum annual mileage mentioned by Lardner is that upon the Belgium lines, and was 21,737. The maximum in America has been, as far as we have been able to ascertain, 22,000, and this for eighteen years.

Note 1.—Two little eight ton, four wheeled, Stephenson engines, cylinders 10 × 16, four and a half feet drivers, inside connection, copper fire-boxes, have averaged 22,000 miles per annum, with trains weighing forty tons exclusive of engine and tender, for eighteen years, costing about $700 per annum each for repairs, or $3.18 cents per mile run, upon the Bangor and Oldtown Railroad (Maine).

Note 2.—In the Report of the Railroad Commissioners of the State of New York for the year ending September 30, 1855, is the following:—

One engine is required for each three and a half miles; or one engine in constant use for five and a quarter miles. The average run per annum by each engine in actual use is 22,823 miles; or 16,302 to all of the engines. Also, as regards the work done by cars.

the number of miles being 2,615.

EXPENSES, RECEIPTS, PROFITS.

EXPENSES.

405. American railroad reports as a general thing do not analyze the cost of working. The gross expense is given, and in some cases is primarily divided. Besides the retrospective use of a minute division of expenses, which enables us to see what system is the most economical, there is a prospective use, namely, the formation of estimates for future operations and a correct base for establishing tariffs. If the circumstances of the traffic remain the same, an estimate of what the cost will be at any time is easy; but if they change, the data for the estimate change also. That we may at all times possess these data, we should know every year just the cost of working each article of traffic. It is not enough that the gross receipt exceeds the whole expense; even then the road may be working unprofitably. Unless each item of transport pays for itself, we are taxing unjustly some other item, (except, indeed, in such cases as adopting low rates in order to fill trains running in one direction which would otherwise run empty). An analysis of cost will also show whether or not it is best to attract an increased amount of business by a reduction of rates.

406. The whole cost of operating and of maintaining a railroad may be generally and specially divided as follows:—

The actual general division of the operating expenses upon the New York State system of roads was, for 1854, as follows. (See State Engineer’s Report).

That the detailed expenses may be charged to the proper departments, and that we may be able to take out the exact cost of working any one class of trains, or of carrying any article of transport, the following form should be filled.

408. The following general measures are recommended by Lardner in his Railway Economy, as being the means of obtaining increased economy in the working of railroads.

1st. So to manage the traffic as to cause the cars to carry more complete loads.

2d. To encourage the transport to long distances.

3d. To regulate the tariff so as to give the largest possible number of cars to each engine.

4th. To adjust the tariffs where the business is chiefly in one direction, so as to attract return traffic, that the cars may not run without a load.

5th. Not to increase the number of trains beyond a reasonable accommodation of traffic.

6th. To diminish as far as possible express trains, if it be not practicable to abolish them altogether.

RECEIPTS AND PROFITS.

409. The distribution of expenses, as we have seen, is somewhat complicated, and is systematically done upon a very few roads. The classification of receipts is, however, very easy, and is properly detailed in nearly all railroad reports. Upon the New York State railroads, the following was the division for the year 1854.

Average receipts per mile of road,

or fifty-seven per cent. of the receipts.

Receipts per mile run by trains,

Average receipts per passenger and per ton, per mile,

410. Upon the New York and Erie Railroad for the year ending September 30, 1856.

Receipts per mile of road,

or forty-eight per cent, of the receipts.

Receipts per mile run by trains,

Average receipts per passenger and per ton, per mile,

411. Upon the New York State roads,

412. It is of course an object on every railroad to make the gross receipts overbalance the gross expense by the largest possible amount. The elements which determine the gross receipts are,

of which the company’s directors can control the first only, except as adjustment of rates may attract business.

Reduction of tariff, to a certain degree, has the effect of increasing the receipts by augmenting the number of fares; but the reduction may be carried too far. So, also, for a certain distance, increased rates will increase the whole receipts; but in this case, also, the extreme must be avoided. The point to be arrived at is, evidently, that at which the difference of expense and receipt is the greatest, and this is not necessarily when receipts are the greatest.

We can make the receipts nothing either by making the charges so large that nothing can bear them, or so small as to vanish. Even when the receipts are 0, we still have the expense of moving the empties.

By forming a table in which one column shall show the different charges, and the second the corresponding amounts transferred, with the consequent receipts and cost of working, we shall find which rate of charge will give the greatest difference between expense and receipt.

413. Express trains are a source of vast expense, directly and indirectly, which can never be repaid by any practicable tariff to be levied upon them. Dr. Lardner, (1850):—

Resolved, That this meeting recommend the adoption of a higher rate of fare upon express passenger trains, corresponding in some degree to the increased cost of such trains.—American Railroad Convention of 1854.

INCREASED COST OF WORKING.

This is due to the extra wear and tear of engines, cars, and road, from increased speed, and also to the delays occasioned to other trains in motion at the same time.

The influence of express trains is felt not only by themselves, but by nearly all the trains upon the road.

Note.—To determine the most economical speed, regard need only be had to the variable elements of cost, namely: cost of power, and maintenance of superstructure, and rolling stock; assuming the power expended as the resistance, and the cost of repairs of machinery and superstructure as the velocity, we form the following table:—

The result is found by adding the product of columns 2 and 3, or column 4 to column 5, from which the minimum cost is seen to be produced by a very little more than fifteen miles per hour. The variable (and above assumed) element is the rate of increase of cost of maintenance.

All trains in motion at the same time within a certain distance of the express, must be kept waiting with steam up, or be driven with extra velocities in order to keep out of the way.

Where the time table is so arranged as to call for speed nearly equal to the full capacity of the engine, it is very obvious that the risks of failure in “making time” must be much greater than at reduced rates; and when they do occur, the efforts made to gain time must be correspondingly greater and uncertain. A single example will be sufficient to show this:—

A train whose prescribed rate of speed is thirty miles an hour, having lost five minutes of time, and being required to gain it, in order to meet and pass an opposing train at a station ten miles distant, must necessarily increase its speed to forty miles an hour; and a train whose prescribed rate of speed is forty miles an hour, under similar circumstances, must increase its speed to sixty miles an hour; in the former case it would probably be accomplished, whilst in the latter it would more probably result in failure; or, if successful, it would be so at a fearful risk of accident.

But a failure in either case would have the effect of retarding the movement of the opposing train, deranging the time of those of the same and of an inferior class in both directions, involving, perhaps, on the part of the latter, the necessity of similar struggles for time, and thus may prove the primary cause of accident to all trains whose movements may have been affected thereby.

The first cost of locomotives, (assuming the cost to increase with the weight,) is thirty per cent. greater for express trains, than for those of the second or third class.

The cost of repairs being assumed as the product of the weight by distance run, and this distance being the same, is as the weight, or increased thirty per cent. (This assumes the power to be equally well adapted.)

The cost of cars does not (though it ought), differ much for express or slow trains; the cost of repairs will certainly be increased.

The interest of construction capital to be charged to expresses, will be, their mileage proportion plus any expense which may have been incurred in reducing curves and grades; the proportion of repairs of superstructure, charged to expresses, will depend on their weight. The locomotive causes 25
29 of the wear of rails, and as the weight of the engines is increased thirty per cent., the increased wear will be of 15
58.

The use of stations and of employees costs no more for express than for accommodation trains.

The repairs of locomotives will be nearly, if not quite, as the product of their weight by the distance run; and this, from the above, will be thirty per cent. greater on an express than on an ordinary train, the distance being the same.

The carriages for express trains ought to be at once stronger and more convenient than those for the slower work, the shocks arising from irregularities in the rails being very much greater as velocity increases; and the runs being very long, passengers require easier seats, even, in some cases, accommodation for sleeping. The cost for repairs, therefore, of express cars, would be somewhat greater than for any others.