| Annual Report of the Wilmington & Weldon RR |
| as of October 1, 1863, |
| Superintendent's Report |
| |
| Report of the Chief Engineer and
Superintendent |
| Wilmington & Weldon Rail Road Company |
| Wilmington, N. C., October 1st, 1863 |
| |
| S. D. Wallace, Esq., President: |
| |
| Sir, |
|
I have the honor to submit my ninth Annual Report of the operations of
the Road for the fiscal year which terminated on the 30th of
September last. |
|
Receipts and Expenditures |
|
The gross earnings for the fiscal year have
been as follows: |
| Receipts |
| Receipts from Through Passengers |
$293,008.09 |
|
| "
" Way Passengers |
563,671.45 |
|
| "
" Freights |
480,449.52 |
|
| "
" Mails |
25,000.00 |
|
| "
" Miscellaneous sources |
40,702.54 |
|
| Gross receipts for 1863 |
|
$1,402,831.60 |
| "
" " 1862 |
|
965,750.35 |
| Increase for 1863 |
|
$437,081.25 |
| The receipts from the Tarboro'
Branch are included in the foregoing statement. No separate
accounts of that work have been kept since September 30th, 1862. |
| Expenditures |
| Maintenance of Permanent Way -- |
|
|
| Cost of ordinary repairs of track |
$60,432.18 |
|
| Extraordinary repairs of track |
22,251.15 |
|
| Repairs of bridges |
17,437.50 |
$100,120.83 |
| Department of
Transportation |
| Rolling Stock -- Cost of repairs of
Locomotive Engines and materials on hand for repairs |
$75,847.22 |
|
| Cost of repairs of Passenger Cars and materials
on hand for repairs |
20,585.64 |
|
| Cost of repairs of freight cars and materials on
hand for repairs |
16,357.32 |
$112,790.18 |
| Train Expenses -- Pay of Conductors,
Engineers, Baggage Masters, Train Hands and Firemen |
51,421.98 |
|
| Cost of fuel for Engines, Cars and Stations |
42,931.98 |
|
| Cost of Oil,
Tallow, Grease and Waste |
66,516.72 |
|
| Miscellaneous expenses of trains |
4,320.15 |
$165,190.83 |
| Station Expenses -- Cost of repairs of
Wood and Water Stations, Buildings, &c |
15,560.20 |
|
| Cost of Tickets, Ticket Books, Blank Way Bills,
Freight Manifests, &c., Time Tables and Advertising (in
part) |
741.50 |
|
| Pay of Physician and Nurse for Hospital, pay of
Station Agents and Warehouse hands |
23,654.99 |
|
| Cost of pumping water at Stations |
3,000.00 |
|
| Miscellaneous expenses of Stations |
950.00 |
$43,916.69 |
| General Expenses |
| Cost of new Locomotives and Tools for Shops |
$44,000.00 |
|
| Cost of new Passenger Cars and Tools for Shops |
6,000.00 |
|
| Cost of new Freight Cars |
25,000.00 |
|
| Cost of Clothing, Subsistence and Medical Stores |
62,995.00 |
|
| Loss and damage |
6,477.20 |
|
| Half the cost of Steam Ferry at Wilmington |
2,000.00 |
|
| Office and Miscellaneous Expenses |
4,317.03 |
|
| Salaries of Officers |
13,202.27 |
$163,991.50 |
| Total cost of operating the Road |
|
586,010.03 |
| Cost of Construction, &c. |
|
7,168.90 |
| Total Expenditures for Fiscal Year |
|
$593,178.93 |
|
|
Loss and damages by the enemy for the fiscal year have
not been less than $100,000, which should be added to the gross
expenditure, to make the proper exhibit of our true nett
earnings and receipts. The bridges destroyed have been only
temporarily replaced -- permanent structures will be required at the
termination of the war. |
|
While the gross receipts seem very large, and the
dividends are correspondingly large, we should bear in mind that we
are wearing out the track and machinery, without the usual means of
renewal, and that they must be replaced at the earliest moment
practicable, and at a heavy cost. |
|
In view of the whole subject, I am satisfied that a
dividend of ten per cent., with the Roadway and machinery in fine
order, would be far preferable to the present exhibit. I mention
these facts that persons not familiar with the real state of things,
may not place too much weight upon the apparent large nett
income. |
|
It is due to this corporation also to state the
gratifying fact, (in this connection) that the large receipts are
rather the result of hard work than of high prices, or
constant employment at moderate rates. |
|
While some corporations in and out of the State, have
made large exhibits, by increasing largely their former rates of
compensation, this company has not greatly increased its rates over
those of former years, and that these rates, with all the increase
recently made, bear no proportion to the increased value of almost
every article that constitutes their list of supplies -- the labor
of their mechanics not excepted. |
|
It is not necessary to explain how the
expenditures have so far exceeded those of former years, further
than to say that we had on hand at the beginning of the previous
fiscal year a supply of materials for repairs, that had been
accumulated when prices were scarcely one-tenth of what they have
been the past year. |
|
Prospects and Wants for the Current Fiscal Year |
|
I think the Road and its machinery is in better condition
for another year's service than it was one year ago. This is in part
due to the great depletion we were then suffering from, in
consequence of the great epidemic that had so severely crippled us
at the close of that year. While none of our machinery is in a high
order of repair, yet it is in fair working order, and we are
improving it steadily and surely. |
|
We can now obtain many materials for repairs that we have
not been able to secure at any time previous, since the war began.
We are becoming every day more self-reliant, and more hopeful of
maintaining our Road and Rolling Stock in fair working order for an
indefinite period. |
|
This, the principal Southern line, has done a vast amount
of work for the Government, as well as for individuals and without
being too sanguine, I think I may truly say, we are in condition to
do much more for the public during the present than we were able to
accomplish during the past fiscal year. |
|
One great improvement has been made during the past year,
in preserving our means of transportation, viz: reducing the speed
of our passenger trains, whereby our Machinery has been relieved
from a very serious cause of deterioration. |
|
Permanent Way |
|
The Roadway and Bridges have been kept in as good a state
of repair as we have had the means of doing. About 500 tons of
Rails, as good as new, and about 1000 tons of mended Rails, have
been put in the track during the fiscal year. |
|
Much more is still required to make a good track, and I
must urge upon you the importance of calling upon the Government to
aid us in obtaining for the current year at least 1,000 tons of
rails for repairs. With that quantity we can, by welding and
repairing the old rails, maintain and probably have at the end of
September next as good a track as we have at this time. With les we
may get along, but I cannot hope much less will carry us
through the year; and our wants are greater in rails than in any
other department of our repairs. |
|
Rolling Stock |
|
Our Engines and Cars are in tolerable working order, and
the condition for efficiency is improving, with the increased means
we are now obtaining for making thorough repairs. -- Three Engines
have been purchased during the year, two from the Confederate States
and one from the {Richmond &} York
River Rail Road Company. |
|
One Locomotive and two Passenger and seven Freight Cars
have been burned by the enemy during the year, leaving us
twenty-four Engines, nineteen Passenger and one hundred and
thirty-five Freight Cars: of the latter one hundred and ten are box
and twenty-five are flat Cars. |
|
The Locomotive burned at Rocky Mount can probably be
repaired. Of the Engines, seventeen are in running order, or can be
made so with small repairs. We expect to put some thirty or forty
new Freight Cars on the road during the year, and to rebuild one or
two Passenger Cars, which will enable us, with other means at our
disposal, to conduct our Transportation Department with considerable
efficiency, considering the state of the country. |
|
Department of Transportation |
|
The mileage was 475,000 miles. The number of passengers
transported was 52,537 through, and 235,980 way; who paid in the
aggregate $856,679.54; while the receipts from freight have reached
$480,449.52; the mail pay $25,000 -- making the gross receipts from
the working of this department $1,362,129.06. |
|
The amount of work done by this department during the
past year, has been greatly beyond that of any former year in the
Road's history. It should be borne in mind that the income, though
as stated, was for the whole fiscal year, (terminating
September 30, 1863,) yet it was in reality but for a little more
than ten months, for during the months of October and
November, the existence of the Yellow Fever here, rendered the
operations, beyond a small local business, of no comparative
importance. |
|
The Tarboro' Branch |
|
The receipts of the Branch have not been kept distinct
from the accounts of the main stem. It is well known, however, that
during the fiscal year, it has rendered most valuable aid in
supplying food and forage, not only to the army, but to individuals
and corporations. A vast amount of supplies have been carried over
this road, giving a most liberal profit on the cost of operating, as
well as on the investment of capital therein. |
|
New Buildings -- Raids of the Enemy &c. |
|
Under the general authority of the Stockholders and the
special orders of the Board of Directors, contracts were made for
Warehouses at Burgaw, Leesburg, Mount Olive, Pikeville, Wilson and
Whitakers, and a passenger station house at Wilson. Under these
contracts, Warehouses have been constructed at Leesburg, Mount Olive
and Whitaker's, and passenger house at Wilson. A Warehouse to
replace one destroyed by the enemy, 16th December, 1862, has been
erected at Dudley; one is now in course of erection at Warsaw, to
replace one burned there by the enemy, July 5th, 1863. Materials are
ready, and during the month of November, we hope to have a new
Warehouse at Rocky Mount, to replace one there destroyed by the
enemy, 20th July, 1863. Two Warehouses were destroyed the same day,
by the enemy at Tarboro', which will be rebuilt at an early day. The
passenger house destroyed, at that place, is in course of
reconstruction. The permanent brick Warehouse, designed for Wilson,
has not been commenced, mainly for want of materials of a suitable
character. That work will be undertaken early in the spring. |
|
During the several raids referred to above, we lost one
Locomotive, two Passenger Cars and seven Freight Cars, together with
four Warehouses, tow Wood and Water Stations, and two covered
Bridges of two spans each, one over Neuse, and the other over Tar
River, near Rocky Mount. |
|
The entire loss by these raids cannot be less than
$100,000, to say nothing of the diminution of income, in consequence
of the interruption to the communications for ten days on each
occasion of the burning of the bridges. |
|
The most humiliating circumstance connected with the loss
of these bridges, is that their destruction was entirely
unnecessary. Neuse bridge was fired bt a single man with incendiary
materials, in the face of a large force. The Tar River Bridge was
burned by a few cavalry, when ten well armed, resolute men would
have put this force of the enemy to flight and saved the bridge. |
|
It should be here remarked, that Gen. D. H. Hill had
shortly before this, withdrawn the force specially assigned to the
work of guarding the Rail Road Bridges, and left them as they now
are, without military guards of any kind. |
|
Future Improvement of the Track and Machinery --
Rails, Their Quality and Weight |
|
I have in a special communication to the Board on the
subject of Renewal, estimated that one-half, at least, of the
whole of the main stem should be laid with new rails, whenever it
shall be possible to procure iron for the purpose. I would recommend
that all new rails to be supplied, shall not be of lighter weight
than fifty-six, nor heavier than sixty, pounds to the yard. |
|
The reason for the increase of weight is obvious to all
Engineers or practical Railroad officers. Rails should bear a
certain relative proportion in weight per foot to the weight
of the load they have to sustain, and the blows falling upon
them -- which are composed of the weight and speed of engines -- and
though much may be done by improving the quality of Rails, and by
increasing the number of supports or ties, to make a light rail do
duty in a track traversed by heavy machinery at high speed, yet all
experience has shown that we cannot safely depart from certain laws
of proportion. Rails of much less weight than sixty pounds to the
yard have been found here to be too light for Engines of twenty-five
or thirty tons weight. |
|
'Tis true the lighter the rail the more thoroughly will
the iron of which it is composed be worked, and hence the lighter
the rail, within the limits of due proportion, the better will be
the track we shall obtain. |
|
Many experiments have been made in England and America to
test the quality of rails, and obtain the very best of rails without
regard to cost. |
|
From my own experience, and what I have been able to
gather from reading the results of numerous experiments made on both
sides of the Atlantic, I am fully persuaded that the Road should be
laid over as soon as practicable with a sixty-pound rail -- not
heavier, though it might be a little lighter, say, as a minimum,
fifty-six pounds to the yard. I give these as my limits for a
track like this, almost an air line, and a dead level for 162 miles. |
|
I respectfully recommend that as soon as practicable a
contract be made with some American or English manufactory of
Railroad Iron, to make 10,000 tons or Rails of the best quality;
specifications to be carefully drawn; the Rails to be submitted to
the most thorough tests before being received. -- Our own
State should supply them. |
|
In this way the road may be re-laid in such a manner as
to be of great durability, and in point of economy of repair, beyond
anything known in this country. |
|
With such Rails, and Joint Fastenings of the most
approved kinds, a track may be obtained upon which such a speed may
be attained, within limits of safety, as will defy all competition
-- so that the distance between Wilmington and Weldon can be made
with great ease in five and a half hours, and at this speed with as
much safety as the route by way of Danville and Greensboro' can be
run at a rate of twenty miles per hour. |
|
In connection with this, let the Cape Fear be spanned by
a substantial Bridge, the route South to Kingsville be put in good
condition, and we shall not feel any drain of our passenger business
by the opening of the much-dreaded "Piedmont" Route, by which an
imaginary "military necessity" has given Richmond her
long-coveted and much wished for grasp at the agricultural products
of this State; while it materially injures, if it does not destroy,
the North Carolina system of Railroad improvements. |
|
Joint Fastenings |
|
The double lipped rolled chairs which was adopted by the
Board in 1860, has been of great service to our track, and had these
chairs been several pounds heavier, (and which I strongly urged at
the time,) they would be of much more value today, as they would
have been vastly more durable. |
|
In re-laying the track, let the chair be of not less than
fifteen to eighteen pounds weight, and rest on two cross-ties with
joint of rails between, and we shall have a track that will not
injure the machinery, and itself be of the greatest possible
durability, and hence of the most economical description. |
|
Improvement in Machinery |
|
Should the war terminate during the present fiscal year,
we should be in condition to procure, and probably be in need of ten
Locomotive Engines of the best quality, and most approved
description, one hundred Freight Cars, and from fifteen to twenty
Passenger Cars. |
|
The entire reconstruction of the Warehouses, Track and
Repair Shops at Wilmington, according to a plan heretofore
submitted, should be made. |
|
To that end materials are now being accumulated and with
ordinary energy during the year in collecting means, all these
improvements may be made without affecting a reasonable and healthy
dividend to the Stockholders. |
|
The longer we delay the work of improving the machinery,
both stationary and moveable, just in that proportion will we
retard the rightful prosperity of the Company. |
|
***** {in original document} |
|
I refer to the great delay in loading and unloading
freight, both here and at Weldon; the great loss of labor in making
repairs, from the crowded condition of the Repair Shops and yard,
and for want of proper housing and shelters for Engines and Cars;
the want of small repair shops at some other proper points on the
line of the Road, together with the want of a complete system of
Warehouses and Passenger houses at all the Stations -- and last
though not least, the almost entire absence of masonry on the line
of the Road, except at the principal streams. It is quite
time now that the whole Road should be completed and finished in the
best and most durable manner. And that we may look forward to that
object and accumulate means and materials for that purpose, I call
attention to it now. |
|
In concluding this Report I desire to call attention to
the pay of the officers and employees that have served the Company
under my direction during the past two years. |
|
In most cases their pay is entirely disproportionate to
the cost of living, and bears no just comparison to their
compensation in former times. It is a very serious matter, and one
that requires immediate remedy. |
|
Thos who were able to "pay their way," and get along with
families in summer, are now sustaining the additional weight of fuel
at the most enormous prices. I refer to those whose employment
requires them to reside in Wilmington. |
|
The employees living along the line of the Road can do
better, yet there is not one officer, agent or employee of the
Company paid relatively half as much as he was in 1860. |
|
I have been applied to repeatedly for help in this
matter, and I bring it to your notice, from a sense of duty to
myself, and justice to the servants of the company. |
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The accompanying tables and statements will show in
detail the operations of the Departments committed to my charge. |
|
I have found the officers and employees generally,
faithful and attentive to their duties. |
|
Respectfully submitted, |
|
S. L. Fremont |
|