AR, P 1/1/1864 P
Annual Report of the Petersburg RR
as of January 1, 1864,
President's Report
 
President's Report
 
Office Petersburg Rail Road Comp'y
January 1st, 1864
 
To the Stockholders of the Petersburg Railroad Co.:
 
   On behalf of the Board of Directors, I respectfully submit the annual report and accompanying tabular statements, exhibiting the operations of the Company for 1863, and the condition of its property at the end of that year.

   It appears from the Treasurer's statement that the gross receipts for transportation of passengers, goods, mails, &c., was $1,325,069.25, and the drafts given by me on the Treasurer amounted to $852,438.67, leaving a balance of $472,630.58.

   The following statement will show the amounts properly chargeable to cost of maintaining and operating the Road, and the net profit that has been made during the year.
The cash outlay as before stated is $852,438.67
And the amount of Liabilities incurred during the year 1863 79,510.36
Making the sum that would have been paid if all Liabilities had been settled, before the close of 1863 931,949.03
Deduct the amount paid in 1863 for Liabilities of previous years    71,334.45
Deduct amount advanced to purchasing agents                                 55,000.00 126,334.45
Leaving the amount that would have been chargeable to expenses, if the property of the Company had not increased 805,614.58
Deduct the increase of property as per Inventory (see page 11) 163,346.60
The remainder shows the cost of maintaining and operating the Road for 1863 $642,267.98
Which if deducted from the gross receipts leaves a balance as profits for 1863 of $682,801.27
   It has been found necessary to increase the rates of toll both for passengers and freight during the last year much beyond what they were before the war, but this increase was not in proportion to the increased prices of other things, or to the increased expenses of the Company and depreciation of its property.
   Until last year there had been no increase in our tolls on passengers, and only an addition of about 25 per cent. on freights, which went into effect on the 1st of July, 1862. The present rates of this Company are not higher than those of other Companies and are much below some of them.
   In consequence of the constant increase in prices a still further advance of rates may be found necessary.
   It may seem, upon casual observation, that the profits of the Company are very large, but when it is considered that the basis upon which the per centage of profit is calculated is estimated at its specie value, while the profit is paid in Confederate money, it will be seen that the profit is really small. Thus, if the profit is forty per cent. per annum on the nominal capital, and the depreciation of the Confederate currency is as one to five, the profit is really only eight per cent., if it is one to ten, it is only four per cent., and if we convert the Confederate money into specie at one to twenty, the profit is only two per cent., and when it is considered further, that the road and the machinery and equipment of all kinds are rapidly wearing out and cannot now be replaced, but will have to be replaced after the war in specie funds it will be obvious that most of these profits will be absorbed, and that in the long run the profit to the Stockholders is really merely nominal. As stated in the last report it is probable that after the war the Stockholders will have to submit to a great abatement, if not a total suspension of Dividends for a time, in order to restore the Road and its equipments to proper condition.
   This Company has been able to do the great amount of business pressing upon it with considerable regularity, but the difficulties attending it have been greater than most persons probably understand. It must be admitted that the cars of all classes are not such as they should be and that the passenger cars are not as clean or as well provided with fire, water, lights and other conveniences as could be desired; these things are the source of much complaint against the Rail Road Companies, especially those on the great lines North and South, but the injustice of these complaints will be perceived when the difficulties which embarrass the Rail Roads are understood.
   It may be worth while to suggest a few of these difficulties. 
   The number of passenger cars in our possession, though we have some on hire from the Seaboard Road, is insufficient to accommodate the great stream of present travel, and consequently they cannot be kept idle a sufficient time to cleanse and repair them. Besides, they are necessarily used for the transportation of troops in large bodies, not only on our own but on other Roads, and return always dirty and more or less injured, and frequently with seats broken, cushions, stoves, lamps, dippers, water-coolers and other things carried off, lights broken out -- in a word more loss and damage to the cars often occurs in one such trip than in a whole year's use before the war. Many of the things thus taken or destroyed cannot be replaced at any price, nor can time or labor be spared sufficient to repair the damages, as far as we might be able to do it.
   It often happens, too, that when stoves, wood, vessels of water, &c., are all in place, and every effort is made to render the cars comfortable, the Conductors and servants are unable to carry out the standing orders of the Company for that purpose.
   One or two facts of common occurrence will illustrate this.
   Water-coolers such as were used before the war being found wholly inadequate were substituted by large casks. These could not be used with cocks because they would not furnish water fast enough, and were liable to be broken off. The water is therefore dipped out of the top of the casks. From filling canteens, &c., the water soon becomes unfit to drink, and is poured out by the passengers, and the cask is turned up side down and used for a seat; and the servants are usually not allowed to fill it again during the balance of the trip.
   Often fires are not allowed to be made at all by the crowd around the stove, and when made, it is often extinguished when the heat becomes too great for those who are near it.
   Another source of complaint is the want of sufficient accommodation for the sick and wounded who require room to lie down.
   This can only be furnished by adding box freight cars to the trains when this class of passengers are to be carried, but these cars cannot be added even if we had them because the engines are already taxed to their utmost capacity. The speed of trains has been reduced one half so as to add more cars to the trains, but such is the amount of travel, that with the increased number of cars the trains are almost always overcrowded, one hundred passengers being often crowded upon a car inside and out which is designed for only sixty.
   These suggestions will be sufficient without adding more to indicate the difficulties of providing for the comfort of passengers. Those who understand the facts will rather be inclined to wonder that the Rail Road Companies have been able to do so well under the heavy pressure upon them that to complain at what is found deficient by the standard of former times. The difficulties are beyond the reach of correction, and any attempts to correct them by Legislation, as for example, to require water and fire to be always provided must be abortive and can produce no other effect than to harrass the companies and their employees. Everybody understands this who has any practical acquaintance with the subject, and those who have not can be easily satisfied of it by a little observation.
   The condition of the freight cars will be easily understood when we consider that they are necessarily used to transport troops, and often are sent beyond our own Road with troops, horses, ammunition and other things. The planking is broken out to afford light and air; the tops are rendered loose and incapable of turning water by the crowd of soldiers that travel on then; the locks are broken open by thieves, or by the agents of other roads who have not the fitting keys, and the Company has neither the time, the men nor the materials to keep the cars in proper order, or to add to their number by new ones. This class of cars might be kept in better order, if a sufficient supply of men and lumber and other materials could be obtained. 
   But the military necessities of the country have restricted the number of mechanics to the lowest possible limit, and lumber especially it has been almost impossible to obtain in any adequate quantities. This difficulty has been so seriously felt that the Board have purchased a saw mill recently by means of which it is hoped a better supply will be obtained hereafter. In conclusion, I may add that the Board have spared no expense to keep the Road in efficient working order, and feel confident of their ability to meet the wants of the Government and the public as heretofore, but all concerned must be content to submit to the discomforts, inconveniences and delays inseperable from the situation of affairs.
   Arrangements have been made, at great expense, to obtain important supplies from abroad, some of which have already been received, and the remainder of which, it is hoped, will arrive in a few weeks.
   The condition of the Company's property in detail will appear by reference to the tables marked C and D accompanying this Report. In reference to the Inventory it is proper to say that like all previous Inventories it has been made up merely for purposes of comparison, and that everything is put down at cost prices, in the actual currency in which it was paid for. The depreciation upon what was held before the war, which is valued at old prices in specie currency is of course estimated in the same currency, and so of other things.
   A bridge guard was run over and killed by a train; no other white person has been killed or seriously injured.
   One of the negro hirelings in passing from one car to another fell between them and was killed.
   The mail trains failed to make connections fourteen times during the year, owning chiefly to the transportation of troops.
   Since the last meeting of the Stockholders, Judge Joynes has resigned the Presidency in consequence of his election to the bench, and the undersigned has been elected President in his stead. No Superintendent has yet been appointed.
Respectfully submitted,
C. O. Sanford
President

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