| Annual Report of the South Side RR |
| as of October 1, 1862, |
| Superintendent's Report |
| |
| Superintendent's Report
|
| General Superintendent's Office |
|
November 3rd, 1862
|
|
|
|
T. H. Campbell, Esq.
|
|
President S. S. Railroad Co.
|
|
|
|
Sir,
|
|
I present you with my report of the business and
operations of the railroad, for the twelve months ending September
30th, 1862.
|
|
The receipts and expenses of transportation were as
follows:
|
| Receipts |
| Freight |
$206,973.88 |
| Passengers |
343,727.06 |
| Mail |
14,353.93 |
| Express |
14,903.51 |
| Total |
$579,958.38 |
| Expenses |
| General Management |
$39,947.83 |
| Running Expenses |
70,571.98 |
| Repairs of engines and cars |
29,648.72 |
| Repairs of road and bridges |
64,005.93 |
| Miscellaneous expenses |
33,090.66 |
| Total |
$237,265.12 |
| Leaving the net income |
$342,693.26 |
|
|
A comparison of the gross receipts of transportation with
those of the previous twelve months, shows an increase of $221,534.20.
Of this increase $42,864.79 was in freight, and $178,669.41 in
passengers and mail.
|
|
Of the transportation done $77,388.61 was in freight for
the Government, and $145,464.93 for carrying soldiers, of whom we
transported 128,973. The number of other persons carried was 98,807,
making 227,780 passengers in all. The Government freight amounted to
19,447 tons, the other freight to 32,296 tons, making in gross 52,243
tons. The expenses increased $37,022.22. This was caused by the
increased business and the enhanced cost of supplies. But the expenses
would have been still greater if we could have procured some material
badly wanted for the increased business. I mention this because we
shall have to lay out a good deal of money as soon as we can purchase
the articles needed. We put in the road, during the year, 39,826 new
cross ties, and used in repairs more than half the new iron we had on
hand at the date of my last report. The road bed is generally well
ditched, and, with the exception of two sections, the track is in very
good order. There is an extra force at work on those sections, and
with this, and the vigilant supervision exercised by our new road
master, the track will soon be got in as good condition as it can be
made, until we procure some new iron. We have new rails enough to take
out all unsafe bars, but there are many rails, more or less mashed,
which make the track rough in many places.
|
|
In regard to the want of railroad iron, you are aware
that some of the railroad companies are making efforts to establish a
rolling mill, in which we have been asked to participate. It is very
desirable that something of the kind should be done, and it is a
matter of importance enough to be brought to the attention of the
Government. With inexhaustible stores of iron-ore, coal and limestone
in the Confederate States, especially in our own, it only requires
concert of action among the parties interested, to provide an
abundance of iron, and indeed all the other things so much needed on
railroads.
|
|
We have done a large amount of work on the bridges, and
have a good deal more to do to them before we can get them properly
required. We have put several new chords, bearing and other timbers,
in the High Bridge, and made other repairs to it. We finished a new
span in the Farmville bridge, and put a good deal of new timber in the
bridge at the lower end of the island at Lynchburg. In the beginning
of the year two spans of the bridge at the upper end of the island
were accidentally burnt, and these we replaced with a substantial
trestle bridge. We rebuilt a small thirty-feet bridge, and put in new
braces, and otherwise strengthened the wagon-bridge to the Lynchburg
depot. All this work swelled the expenses of the year materially.
|
|
Since the army evacuated Norfolk, we have done very
little business on the City Point branch. Last summer the enemy burnt
all our warehouses and wharves at that place, and greatly damaged most
of the houses in the town. The injury done to our property alone was
about $35,000. The Government, when it comes to a final settlement
with the Yankees, doubtless will see that we are compensated for this
wanton destruction of our property.
|
|
In consequence of the great increase in the business of
the twelve months, and our inability to procure many things needed for
repairs, our rolling stock has suffered a good deal. We have fifteen
of our twenty engines in fair running order, but the cars, especially
the passenger cars, are considerably deteriorated. Of the latter, we
only had a sufficient stock to do the business when the war commenced,
and of course it was entirely inadequate to carry the travel of last
year. We could not get any new cars built, for there were no
manufactories making them; and we were unable to construct them
ourselves, for the want of some material which was not to be had in
the Confederate States.
|
|
The freight cars suffered in the same way, but not to the
same extent as the passenger cars, as for a portion of the time we
were able to rent some cars belonging to a neighboring road. But,
happily, we have lately been able to make such arrangements as will, I
think, secure us a sufficiency of the right kind of material to supply
our wants for repairing and building cars. In anticipation of this I
have commenced the construction of passenger cars, and have one
finished, and the timber nearly dressed for two more. We built also
the bodies for three new freight cars.
|
|
We had several accidents during the year, but only one
was attended with fatal results. It happened to a soldier train of
Richmond & Danville cars, drawn by one of our engines, shortly
after it left the Junction. Three cars ran off the track down an
embankment, and about thirty soldiers were more or less injured, of
whom four died from the effects of their wounds. Whether the accident
was caused by a defect in the track or the cars, I could not
ascertain, although I made a personal examination of the spot, soon
after it happened. It occurred on a straight line and on an
embankment, places where accidents do not often happen from defects in
the track, while accidents, from cars getting out of order, are liable
to occur at any point of the road. It was, fortunately, one of those
dreadful accidents that happens very rarely, this being the first one,
attended with serious consequences, that ever occurred on this road.
It is worthy of remark, that the only persons killed and maimed were
riding on the platforms and tops of the cars. It is in vain for the
conductors to warn soldiers, and indeed many other passengers, of the
danger of riding outside. They will do it; and the consequence is,
that many valuable lives are lost and the railroads are blamed for it.
|
|
Last summer, agreeably to instructions from you, I had a
survey made for a track to avoid the High Bridge, and present you with
the report of the engineer and a map of the line. He makes the cost
$255,299.90, which will probably be reduced to $188,399.90, by the
value of the iron and other available material on the old line. The
new line starts from the turnout at Rice's depot, and runs to the
turnout at Farmville, a distance of six miles and 1500 feet. Its
advantages over the old line, besides avoiding the High Bridge, are
that it is two miles 1100 feet shorter than the old line, and does not
cross the Appomattox river at all, and has only two short bridges on
it, each of one hundred feet span. Its disadvantages are, that it has
one grade of 45 feet to the mile, half a mile long, and two grades of
fifty feet to the mile, one half a mile long and the other two miles
long, opposed to the western trade, while the old line has no grade
exceeding sixteen feet to the mile. This is of great advantage in the
old line. But it becomes a far greater one, when it is known that its
construction made the grade of sixteen feet to the mile the heaviest
grade between the first depot from Lynchburg and Petersburg, a
distance of 110 miles. This, you are well aware, was the reason that
determined the engineer who built your road to encounter, not only the
additional length of line between Farmville and Rice's, but the
construction of the High Bridge with all its cost.
|
|
It is useless to discuss the comparative merits of the
two lines in a professional point of view. It is certain that the old
line is far more eligible than the new one for engines carrying heavy
burthens; and it might be conceded that the Company would make more
money on such a line, notwithstanding the great cost of keeping up the
High Bridge. If these and other kindred questions were the only ones
to be considered, the idea of constructing a new road would never have
been entertained. But unfortunately, there is a difficulty in the old
line, which probably never entered into the mind of the engineer who
constructed it, but which has brought it into such disrepute, that the
question now with the Company is, whether it is not better to build a
new road to avoid it. I need scarcely say, that that difficulty is the
apprehension which so many travellers entertain that the High Bridge
is unsafe. It is not worth while to enquire what has given rise to
this fear, or to try to show that it is unfounded or even foolish.
There are higher bridges on some railroads, (bridges of twice the
height of the High Bridge,) and there are many bridges not so strongly
built. We watch the bridge better than we do any other; we do more
work to it; we run our trains shower over it; in fine, we take more
precautions with it than we do with the other bridges, all of which,
in my deliberate opinion, make it the safest one on the road. But this
all seems to be useless, for the public are still afraid of the High
Bridge. The panic, like most other panics, has no real foundation, but
is nevertheless, kept up, and the Company suffers materially by it.
Whether we are injured so much that we will gain greatly by
constructing the new line, is a mere matter of opinion. My own opinion
is that we do not lose so much by the fear the public have of the
bridge as many seem to think. But I have two objections to the bridge,
which, without counting the above, are sufficient in my judgment to
induce me to recommend the construction of the new line, as soon as
the Company is in a condition to do so. The first of these is, the
constant risk we run of losing the High Bridge by fire. It is a very
combustible structure, and although we keep it well watched, and
indeed take more than usual care to protection it, yet we are
liability to have it burnt at any moment. In these times the danger is
particularly great. The consequence of such a catastrophe would be,
that in a few minutes, we would have a chasm in the road one hundred
feet feet deep, and nearly half a mile long. This would destroy the
business of the road for months, without counting the cost of
rebuilding the bridge.
|
|
The other objection I have is, that the bridge, being of
such height and extent, and perched upon such slender piers, cannot be
properly protected from the weather without endangering its safety in
storms. I have known lower and stronger bridges blown down; and I
believe, the High Bridge, if weather-boarded, which is the only way to
protect it properly from decay, would be prostrated by the first
tornado that would sweep down the valley of the Appomattox.
|
|
The exposed condition of the bridge requires constant and
heavy repairs. We are renewing the timbers in it now, and in a few
more years the same process must be gone over again. An iron bridge of
the magnitude of the High Bridge, would be too costly to erect. From
these circumstances, especially from the hourly danger we are under of
losing the bridge by fire, I would recommend the construction of the
new road as soon as possible. Iron cannot yet be obtained, but the
road could be graded and the bridges built; and if any accident were
to happen to the High Bridge, we could in a few days remove the rails
from the old track to the new one.
|
|
The Agents, with a few exceptions have done their duty
well during the year. The exceptionable persons were removed, and
their places supplied by others; and, except the difficulty of
procuring workmen and laborers, which for the last few months has been
considerable, and the scarcity of material, the business and
operations of the road have been carried on satisfactorily.
|
|
Respectfully submitted,
|
|
H. D. Bird
|
|
Genl. Sup't.
|
|