| Annual Report of the North Carolina RR |
| as of June 1, 1865, |
| Examining Committee's Report |
| |
| Report of Committee of Inspection
|
|
| To the Stockholders of the North Carolina
Rail Road Company:
|
|
| Gentlemen,
|
|
We, your Committee of
Inspection appointed to examine and report upon the condition of your
road at this, your 16th annual meeting, beg leave to submit
the following:
|
|
The past year is
one that will ever stand memorable in the annals of your company;
memorable as that in which the first passenger’s life was lost by
collision or other accident on your line, and for the first explosion
of a locomotive; also as a period in which your road has suffered
unparalleled damages from heavy rains and high water; but till more
memorable as being that period in which the almost entire length of
your road became the closing scene of one of the greatest, bloodiest,
and most terrible struggles ever known, in which, for four years,
immense hosts fiercely contended for the mastery, summoning to their
aid every engine for the destruction of life and property which modern
science could invent or suggest. In the providence of God this state
of things has passed away, and we are quietly permitted to take a
survey of the losses sustained by your road, ascertain its present
condition, and what is nece3ssary first to be done, and determine what
is the best course to pursue in the future.
|
|
General Statement of Losses
|
|
During the past
year, seven of your bridges have been burned, namely: Little River,
Neuse River, Stoney Creek, West Buffalo, Deep River, Rich Fork and
Abbott’s Creek. Your depots at Goldsboro’, Raleigh, High Point,
and Salisbury are all burned. At Charlotte, the passenger shed,
offices, and one-half of the joint depot are in ashes. The wood shed
at McLean’s station is also burned. Some ten miles of the track in
the vicinity of Salisbury was partially destroyed by fire. Besides a
number of cars loaded with cotton and other freight have been burne4d
at various points along your line. The heavy freshet of January filled
up many of the side ditches of the road bed, washed out the trestling
put in room of bridges at Rich Fork and Abbott’s Creek, overflowed a
portion of the road along Swearing Creek, destroying the track and
embankment for a considerable distance. Six locomotives have been
lost; one by collision, one by explosion, and four bought from the
Confederate States have been claimed by other companies and taken away
by the United States authorities. The supply of cross ties and lumber
in the long leaf pine below Raleigh have been destroyed and cut off,
together with the services of your saw mills, for a time. Many of the
cars, from long running and hard service, have broken down. Much of
the iron in track has been rendered useless from the hard wear as well
as by injury from fire. The services of the negroes bought by the
company have been lost by the recent change in their condition. In
addition to all this, the sudden change in the currency constitutes an
item of no inconsiderable loss to your company.
|
|
The Present Condition
|
|
The road from
Raleigh to Goldsboro’ is in possession of the Government, and at
present, under the control of the military and worked exclusively by
them. We have, therefore, not examined that portion of the line.
|
|
Road Bed and Track
|
|
With the exception of bad
iron, the road bed and track are in better order than might have been
expected. The alignment of track and condition of the road bed of main
line being generally good, while those of side tracks are generally
inferior. The division in best order is that from Raleigh to the
Shops, the worst is that from the Shops to Greensboro’. The best
section on the road is that in charge of James Anderson, near
Jamestown. In many places much ditching is necessary to be done to put
the road bed in order for the winter. The breaks in the embankment are
at present supplanted by trestle, which should be made permanent, or
what is better, have banks rebuilt. New iron should be got as early as
possible to replace the bad in the track, as it largely increases the
labor in keeping it up, while it injures the god iron, and is also
very damaging to the machinery and rolling stock. It will require at
least twenty miles of new iron and sixty thousand cross ties to put
the road in first rate order.
|
|
Culverts and Bridge Masonry
|
|
The two
culverts in heavy embankment at Raleigh are still in very bad order.
The balance westward are generally good. The masonry of bridges burnt
has been injured, but its permanency has not been destroyed; with
slight repairs it will answer well for new bridges. The masonry of the
other bridges remains as it was last year, answering well the purpose
for which it was erected.
|
|
Bridge Superstructure
|
|
None of the bridges
burned have been rebuilt, temporary trestling having been substituted
in their room. The bridges standing are generally in safe condition.
Leonard’s Creek bridge requires new stringers, South Potts’, new
stringers and floor beams, and that at Morrisville, a new roof. Some
of the principal bridges have been used by the armies in crossing
their wagons and artillery, thereby somewhat injuring their roofs. All
the deck bridges are at present covered with plank which makes neither
a good nor a safe roof. They ought all to be covered with sheet iron.
|
|
Warehouses
|
|
Nothing has been
done toward rebuilding the depot buildings burned. This ought to be
attended to at once. Besides rebuilding those destroyed, joint
passenger accommodations are needed at Raleigh, and passenger and
freight accommodations at Greensboro’. At your 14th
annual meeting, you instructed a passenger shed to be built at
Raleigh, which was not done, principally because a location could not
be agreed upon. While the officers of your road had several meetings
with those of the Raleigh & Gaston road for the purpose of
erecting a joint passenger shed, the result was that they could not
agree upon a plan – the freight depot being then in the way of
making the best arrangement. That building being now burnt down, the
present is a favorable time for the officers of both roads at once to
meet and fix upon a general plan for both freight and passenger
buildings. The depot buildings, generally, need repairs on roofs,
gutters, doors and windows, and especially on the platforms, several
of which are rotting down, having the plank torn off them, &c. The
wood sheds at stations are generally much out of order, the under
timbers of some are decayed, some have been torn down, others have
plank torn off. Better policing is necessary at several depots,
especially at Charlotte, where the ground ought to be raised under
platforms and better drainage made to prevent the accumulation of
stagnant water and mud.
|
|
Hitherto very
little attention has been paid to the health, comfort or convenience
of passengers arriving or departing from our depots – no privacy
being provided for either ladies or gentlemen. More attention ought to
be paid to this matter, if we expect popular favor and patronage as a
passenger road.
|
|
Wood and Water
|
|
The supply of wood
is small and ought to be at once largely increased, that it may dry
and giver proper supply for winter. The water accommodations are amply
sufficient.
|
|
Engines and Cars
|
|
The Fisher, a
superior new fist class engine, just put on the road, was designed,
built and finished in your shops. She is a tangible proof of the skill
and ability of your workmen. There are eight engines on the road in
good order, three in fair order, three in bad condition, and five in
the shop undergoing repairs. Three or four more engines ought to be
added to the stock. Many of the cars need a thorough overhauling.
There are about one hundred and thirty-five box cars fit for service,
and thirty unserviceable; about thirty-five flats serviceable, and
twenty-three unfit for use. Besides the above, there are eighteen cars
on that portion of the road occupied at present by the Government,
which it is hoped, will soon be turned over to you; and there are six
box cars in shops nearly ready for the road. Passenger cars are sadly
deficient, there being only two in god order, two in fair order , and
some six or seven require to be thoroughly overhauled, and, in the
main, rebuilt. There are three good mail cars. At least four
additional passenger and two mail cars are needed.
|
|
Running of Trains
|
|
Your road and
machinery do not appear to reap the full benefit of the slow time
schedule, on account of too much time being spent at depots and wood
and water stations, thereby causing fast running betwixt them, which
is injurious to both road and stock, while in hot weather, especially,
it causes passengers, in transit, to complain. More lights, water and
brooms are necessary for passenger trains, and the brooms should be
freely used.
|
|
The Telegraph
|
|
That which is so
essential for the dispatch of business and the safe running of trains
on a Rail Road is, at present of but very little if any assistance to
your officers in the working of the road. It being operated by the
military, dispatches on the business of the road are only sent when
convenient, and are then frequently detained by the way, having to be
re-sent at Greensboro’. It is hoped that your road may soon have
again the benefit of the line, and as the Company that put up the
telegraph line is amongst the things that were, steps should be taken
that the road may obtain exclusive control of the line.
|
|
Work Shops
|
|
These, for the past
few years have spoken for themselves, and fully demonstrated that they
are the main spring of the road. Without them your road could not have
been kept running. Their necessities and wants should, at all times,
be promptly supplied that they may still be enabled to meet, with
efficiency and dispatch, the requirements of the road. The round house
directed by you two years ago for stabling the locomotives, though
much needed, has not been built. There is a scarcity of supply of
lumber for building and repairing cars. This scarcity of lumber exists
throughout the entire length of the line, rendering it indispensably
necessary that the company should have at least another saw mill as
early as possible. The stationary engine in shops requires a new
cylinder, which is being made. The stock of tools and machinery are at
present good. Some of these, with a considerable amount of materials
necessary for building and repairing now in hand, have been purchased
during the past year. The extensive repairs necessary to put all the
rolling stock in good order should be promptly done, and as much as
possible of the new stock required should be built at these shops that
they may be of uniform plan. Uniformity of construction is greatly
desirable, for various reasons: it lessens the cost of construction
and repairs, the making up of trains easier, and their motion more
steady and uniform, while it renders available all the sound parts of
damaged cars or machinery. To do the repairs and building necessary, a
stock of lumber, coal, pig iron, with some iron and steel, and a few
hands added to the mechanical force, is required.
|
|
*****
|
|
The Past, Present, and the Future
|
|
In reviewing the
past, we have great reason to be grateful to Almighty God, that,
whilst so many thousands of passengers have been transported over the
road, and that too, frequently under very unfavorable circumstances,
only one life has been lost be accident; and whilst your road has been
tried by fire and flood, and immense armies have been in fierce combat
along its line, it has lost so little; and that by good management, it
has been enabled to do so large a business. Although the road has so
many pressing wants, we should be thankful that it is even in running
order; for, while so many of our sister roads have been so damaged as
to render them incapable of doing anything for some time to come, your
road is still in a condition to do a large business; and though there
is much to be done during the coming year, and a scarcity of funds to
do it with, giving no promise of a surplus for dividends for some
years to come, let us have faith in the future, proving that faith by
our works, in doing all that is necessary to be done, hoping that in
future years it will abundantly repay us.
|
|
The late in our
system of labor is one of the difficulties with which your road, at
present, ahs to contend, and one which may cause trouble for years to
come, at least until “the freedmen” learn to do a freeman’s work
and prove a freeman’s constancy, or be supplanted by white labor. At
present many of “the freedmen” do not work as well as they have
hitherto done; besides, no dependence can be put in them. They come
to-day and engage to work for a month or three months, commence work,
receive rations, and to-morrow they are gone. The negro, as a general
thing, cannot understand that freedom which requires constancy and
labor. They have yet to learn that if ever they succeed as freemen,
they must do a freeman’s work, which will require them to strike
more and harder blows than many of them have heretofore done, and
exercise a freeman’s constancy and economy to which most of them are
now strangers.
|
|
As the detail of
the several departments will be given you more fully by the officers
in charge thereof, we close by stating that we have been afforded
every facility by both officers and men.
|
|
Wm. Murdock
|
|
W. R. Holt
|
|
J. M. Morehead
|
|
Committee
|
|