TABLE EXHIBITING THE QUANTITY OF WORK DONE IN FIVE YEARS, (1846 TO 1850 INCLUSIVE,) ON EACH OF THE FOLLOWING ROADS, EXPRESSED IN PASSENGERS CARRIED ONE MILE AND IN TONS OF FREIGHT CARRIED ONE MILE; ALSO THE GROSS EXPENSES OF EACH ROAD FOR THE SAME PERIOD. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS COMPARISON THE COST OF TRANSPORTING A PASSENGER ONE MILE AND A TON OF FREIGHT ONE MILE IS ASSUMED TO BE THE SAME. The above table, it will be seen, contains a statement of all the work done on all the roads before named in five years, (1846 and 1850 inclusive). It exhibits also the entire cost of doing the work; that is to say, all three classes of expenses are included, being the amount expended of every kind, except interest on capital. The general result furnished by this table is as follows: 759,390,026 passengers or tons of freight were transported one mile on all roads named, during the five years specified, at a gross cost of $10,977,839; and to do this work the trains ran 13,755,550 miles. The table will show that the maximum cost was 1.961 cents per passenger or per ton, carried one mile; that the minimum cost was 1.302 cents; and that the mean or average of the whole was 1.445 cents per mile. In the Western, its figures stand: 213,925,952 passengers or tons carried one mile, at a gross cost of $2,937,593; and the average or mean cost, 1.373 cents per mile. The following table shows the useful effect produced-being the amount of available or paying work done for each mile run by trains in the five years, (1846 to 1850 inclusive,) expressed in passengers or in tons, carried one mile. The general result is this: 13,755,550 miles were run by trains, 759,390,026 passengers or tons of freight were moved one mile, and the average number of passengers or tons of freight carried for each mile run by trains was 54.12. The maximum number was 68.4; the minimum 40.0; mean 54.12. In the case of the Western 3,696,713 miles were run by trains; aggregate of passengers and tons carried, 213,925,952: average number carried for each mile run, 57.9. It will be observed that no allowance has been made to compensate for the 2,000 feet and upward of elevation which the Western road has overcome between Albany and Worcester, nor for the heavy grades by which the principal summits are passed. It is plain to be seen, however, that with grades not exceeding those of the roads with which the comparisons are made, a large increase in the number of tons transported for each mile run would be exhibited in the table. TABLE EXHIBITING THE USEFUL EFFECT, OR WORK DONE, FOR EACH MILE RUN BY TRAINS ON THE FOLLOWING ROADS FROM 1846 TO 1850, INCLUSIVE, EXPRESSED IN PASSENGERS AND TONS OF FREIGHT CARRIED ONE MILE. COST OF RAILROADS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK, 1851. Cap. stock by charter in use. & articles. Miles Amount Amount 393,750 393,750 392,866 1,825,000 1,825,000 1,825,000 160,903 160,903 6 2,228,976 89 500,000 168,000 168,000 300,000 231,452 531,452 7 617,313 26 New York and Harlem 131 5,000,000 3,888,750 3,888,750 869,201 115,366 984,567 67 4,873,317 76 4,233,909 18 1,602,790 1,081,881 2,684,621 7 4,299,089 35 35 350,000 350,000 350,000 200,000 10,413 210,413 7 588,678 02 25 610,000 610,000 610,000 25,000 25,000 7 723,565 48 Rochester and Syracuse... Saratoga and Washington Troy and Greenbush. 104 5,549,800 5,549,800 4,170,000 821,000 821,000 6 4,861,361 94 52 1,350,000 886,200 886,200 596,500 120,000 662,500 7 1,452,635 07 201 650,000 650,000 650,000 73,800 2,654 76,454 7 681,046 86 53 2,400,000 2,400,000 2,400,000 103,000 none. 103,000 7 2,570,981 71 6 275,000 274,400 274,400 3,850 none. 3,850 7 294,731 43 Utica and Schenectady. Watertown and Rome Buffalo and Conhocton Valley.. 78 4,500,000 4,500,000 4,124,000 102,500 none. 105,500 7 3,971,155 89 72 1,500,000 890,100 659,715 442,000 53,385 495,385 7 1,133,397 36 1,400,000 1,411,900 230,494 110,000 ....... a274,267 62 87,177 87,177 7 6640,696 42 46 1,600,000 458,700 402,589 251,000 256,870 507,870 7 c883,304 11 171 380,000 380,000 70,000 none. 70,000 7 d490,000 00 500,000 78,450 12,460 e10,781 77 175,000 175,000 66,613 none. 6,556 f68,917 81 a First report no part in operation. b No part in operation. g Reorganized December, 1850. h Leased to Rensselaer and Saratoga Company. c Operated by Erie Railroad Co. d Leased to ditto. none. e First report no part in operation. ƒ Second dit to g556,090 62 h462,131 35 VOL. XXVI-NO. VI. EARNINGS AND EXPENSES OF RAILROADS OF NEW YORK, 1851. Earnings from passen gers..... Profit per mile run... per mile.. Profit per passenger Cost per mile run..... Earned per mile run.. Cost per passenger per mile Earned per passenger per mile.......... business.... Expenses of passenger trains..... Miles run by freight Albany and Schenectady. 17 56,763 303,045 5,152,258 90.9 384 54,824 147,247 4,565,954 83.3 ...... ..... 22 31,334 150,792 3,028,300 96.6 83,677 76 194,319 322,985 18,025,158 92.7 366,245 35 42,160 27,731 728,800 17.3 20,698 144 232,346 31 38,500 749,124 45,512 24,721,092 106.4 361,653 707,889 18.4 19,192 27,530 2.76 0.91 89,431 2.03 0.50 9,878 2.84 1.35 323,686 1.46 1.39 13,139 2.71 1.85 $146,649 $57,089 2.84 1.11 259. 101. 1.73 158. 44,162 ... New York and Harlem... 131 N. York and New Haven. 61 820,862 796,936 30,323,236 94.5 118 107,919 3,084,149 28.5 2,042,268 39 67,538 83,560 725,978 688,789 52,213,092 71.9 1,163,535 434,791 2.23 0.83 66. 372,652 243,810 2.55 1.67 216,462 2,673,077 14,595,518 67.4 595,500 not giv. 1.96 42,937 2.71 1.39 160. 60. 174. 108 185. 1.4 100. 733,222 250,096 0.88 98,426 47,904 ... 90,355 60,525 78. 40. 1.32 38. 129,736 109,700 52,360 80,288 57,710 35,039 2.82 1.72 110. 67. 1.1 48. 20,000 19,992 Rensselaer and Saratoga.. 25 178,740 4,697,853 ... Rochester and Syracuse.. 104 356,304 Saratoga and Washington 52 513,241 30,519,808 85.6 134,224 8,850,901 54,658 2.86 1.12 134,288 690,948 238,195 2.23 131,093 not giv. .. 1.74 ... 27,194 0.78 194. 67. 1.45 127. 121,056 83,569 Schenectady and Troy.... 20 52,755 70,473 1,444,696 27.4 28,652 53 169,373 449,870 18,392,881 108.6 871,935 3.40 40,678 1.98 150,910 2.02 0.82 219. ... ... .. ... 2.81 54. 77. L. L. 6,075 15,898 89. 1.2 180. 58,006 86,849 6 30,548 135,458 812,748 26.6 19,704 23,917 2.42 2.94 64. 78. L. L. 5,040 29,44 27,462,475 111.9 560,523 180,083 2.04 0.66 228. 73. 1.88 155. 134,268 115,759 Watertown and Rome.... 97 52,544 56,907 1,508,964 28.7 37,870 14,164 2.51 0.94 72. 26. 1.57 46. 19,472 34,370 Amount of dividends, Total transportat❜n ex- penses Total earnings....... gers and freight.... Earnings from sources Profit per mile rum.... Profit per ton per mile! Cost per mile run.... Earned per mile run.. Cost per ton per mile. Earnings per ton per mile..... EARNINGS AND EXPENSES OF RAILROADS OF NEW YORK IN 1851-CONTINUED. Freight expenses .... ... Buffalo and Rochester, ten months. Albany and Schenectady Albany and W. Stockbridge, leased 1,564,986 35.4 $87,432 $46,599 5.58 2.98 198. 105. 2.6 6,479,165 44.8 .... 6,066 ... ... ... 851,158 39.6 4.12 30,549 21,715 6.53 4.41 159. 107. 2.12 52. 61,483 New York and New Haven not given. ... ... Saratoga and Washington. Schenectady and Troy 325,909 53.6 Syracuse and Utica... 8,784,507 64.4 Troy and Greenbush, 8 months.. 176,697 35. Utica and Schenectady. Watertown and Rome. ........ 65. 50. 0.69 15. 22,682 93,415 45,148 12,250 3.38 ... ... 2.26 13,039 189,383 79,884 39,300 22,033 950,512 321,111 ...... ... ... ... ... .... 164,883 77,069 53,172 Freight earnings..... Tons each mile run... Total tons freight car- ried one mile...... Name. THE POETRY OF RAILROADS AND CANALS NO FICTION. J. E. BLOOMFIELD, Esq., a gentleman known to the readers of the Merchants' Maga- It is more than eighty years ago that Darwin wrote:- "Soon shall thy power, unconquered Steam! afar a prediction as remarkable as its accomplishment. Joel Barlow wrote his epic poem of the "Vision of Columbus," seventy years ago. * * * * In distant glory, where the watery way, * * * * * He saw, as widely spread the unchanneled plain, From dim Superior, whose unfathom'd sea And towns and empires rise along their side; The prediction of Darwin, relative to railways, is not more singular than the de |