AR, SS 10-1-63 S

AR, SS 10/1/1863 S

Annual Report of the South Side RR

as of October 1, 1863,

Superintendent's Report

General Superintendent's Office

Petersburg, Nov. 5, 1863

Lemuel Peebles, Esq.

President S. S. R. R. Co.

Sir,

I present you with the following report of the business and operations of the Railroad for the twelve months ending September 30th, 1863:

Receipts of Transportation
Transportation of passengers	$491,765.85
" of freight	318,004.25
" of express freight	50,648.75
" of mail	14,456.22
Rent of cars, &c.	5,137.05
Total receipts	$880,012.12
Expenses of Transportation
Cost of general Management	12,400.11
" of agents and labor at depots	43,012.83
" of running trains	87,480.32
" of repairs of engines and cars	47,437.95
" of " of railroad and bridges	141,116.13
Miscellaneous expenses	74,040.66
Total expenses	$405,488.00
Leaving the net income	$474,524.12

These are the current expenses of the twelve months, and do not include the following items:
Interest paid	$97,405.11
Taxes paid	38,649.10
Balance of materials on hand	64,104.74
	$200,158.95
These added to the expenses above, make $605,646.95, the amount given in the Treasurer's report.
Of the above receipts the government paid as follows:
For transportation of 130,764 troops, and other travel	$201,165.14
For transportation of 13,864 tons of Army supplies	83,140.60
For transportation of mail	14,456.22
Making the total gov'mt transportation	$298,961.96
The amount paid by individuals was 103,575 passengers	$290,400.71
14,741 tons of individual freight	234,863.65
Express freight and rents	55,785.80
	$581,050.16
The receipts from the government business were, therefore, about one-third the gross receipts.
A comparison of the receipts with those of the previous twelve months, shows the following results:
Increase in government travel	$55,900.21
" in other travel	92,138.58
" in government freight	5,751.99
" in individual freight	105,278.38
" in express freight	35,745.24
" in rents, &c.	5,137.05
" in mail pay	102.99
Total increase	$300,053.74

This is equal to 51-74 per cent.

The expenses of transportation increased $168,221.88, equal to 70.9 per cent. It is scarcely necessary to say that this increase was caused by the enhanced price of labor and railroad supplies during the year. As every thing continues to rise in price, we must expect our expenses to increase in a corresponding degree. Indeed, so serious in the prospect for another year, that I invite your attention to the necessity of providing more means of carrying on the operations of the road. We are now charging for individual travel and freight nearly double the rates with which we commenced the year, while the charge for carrying troops has only been advanced 50 per cent, and for freight not over 33 per cent. Some of our rates on individual transportation will no doubt bear a further increase, but there is no reason why the government business, which is now carried at less than half the rates charged individuals, should not pay more. As this business not only takes precedence of all others, but it is required to be done at all hours, and frequently occupies the road for days, to the exclusion of every thing else; and as it is much harder on the cars, and in fine more expensive to carry, it seems to be fair that it should pay better than it does.

There is one item of government transportation, to which I invite your attention, as it not only pays very little, and has not been increased any during the war, but we have to do it frequently to the injury of our other business, and at a great addition to our expenses. This is the mail. We carry it now at night, and in addition to its obliging us to run passenger cars with our freight trains in the day time, to accommodate the local travel, it actually costs us for the single item of lights for the trains and depots, about as much as it pays. As it is a matter of so much difficulty and expense to keep up the railroads, and they are of such vital importance to the government, they certainly deserve a more generous support from it. Fully half the expenses of last year were incurred in doing the government transportation, and if interest and all be charged to the account, it did not pay expenses.

We had two freshets, or rather rain storms during the year, which injured the road very badly in some places; several culverts and portions of some high embankments were washed away, and the repairs of them added materially to the labor of keeping up the road. Notwithstanding these, the road, with the exception of a good many mashed rails, is in very good order. The road bed is better ditched, some portions of the track, where the soil is very bad, have been ballasted; the joints of the rails have been broken over a large extent of the road, and a variety of work has been done to improve it. In doing this work we have had an extra force of about sixty hands for the last three months. Our want of iron to replace the mashed rails became so urgent lately, that I was compelled to commence taking up the City Point track for the purpose. So far I have taken about two miles, but it will require all the good iron on that road to repair the main stem.

Most of our bridges are in better order than they were a year ago. The bridge at Buffalo, has been entirely rebuilt, the two remaining spans of the Farmville bridge have been framed and are ready to put up, and some small bridges have been renewed. The High Bridge has been considerably improved and strengthened. Out of twenty-one spans new chords have been put in thirteen, and new bearing timbers on all the piers and abutments. I have had a good force of carpenters on this bridge during the year, with the exception of the floor, which needs renewal, it is in very good repair. Timber has been so hard to get that I have not yet been able to rebuild the wagon bridge at Lynchburg, or replace the burnt spans of the upper James River bridge. The former was temporarily repaired. In the latter, the trestles originally put up, have stood two heavy freshets, and if not washed away they will last for years. But as soon as timber can be obtained they should be replaced in a permanent manner.

In our machinery department, our cars are in better order than they were a year ago. We were so fortunate as to procure from the government a number of wheels and axles, and with these we are improving our cars. We built four new passenger cars during the year, and rebuilt some of the old ones. I have a good force of carpenters now engaged in building and repairing cars.

I regret to say that I have not been able to keep the engines in as good condition as is desirable. Want of good workmen (which it has been impossible to get,) have retarded the repairs of the engines, and some of them are laid up for want of material to repair them, which could not be got in the Confederacy. We purchased some supplies and tools in England early in the year, and have been so fortunate as to procure a portion of them, but some are still behind, and our engines are suffering for the want of them. We are endeavoring to supply the want at home, and may eventually be successful, but it is a very slow business to depend upon any of our workshops, as long as the government makes such demands on them.

In regard to the supply of railroad material, I stated in my last report that the railroad companies were making efforts to get up manufactories to supply their wants. I regret to say that nothing has yet been done, and in the meantime our wants have become more pressing. If another year is allowed to pass away without doing any thing, the consequences may be serious. It is with great difficulty the commonest kind of material can be obtained, no matter what prices are offered; tires for engines cannot be got, and there is not a bar of railroad iron to be bought in the Confederacy. Indeed, when we have to take up one part of our road to repair the other, or when the railroad companies generally have had to reduce the speed of their trains nearly one half, to retard the deterioration of their tracks and rolling stock, it is time for those who have the active management of them to speak out. It is a matter of common notoriety, that most of the railroads cannot do the business offered to them, without great delay, and some have almost given up transporting freight for individuals, and even have difficulty in carrying their passengers. If it is not as notorious that they will all get worse and worse, and many of them even go down, if speedy measures are not taken to repair them, it is just as certain. I do not suppose there is a road in the Confederacy now able to do as much transportation as it did a year ago; it certainly cannot do it with the same safety and dispatch. Yet most of the roads have made money, many have made large dividends, and they are in a better condition to furnish the means of improvement. If, therefore, they be allowed to go down, it will be the fault of those who have charge of them, or of the companies. If the stockholders were alone to be the suffers, the loss, though great, would not be a vital one. But in the present state of the country, mightier interests are at stake, and it becomes almost a sacred duty to protect them. The government depends upon the railroads to feed its armies, to transport them. Already this business is not done as well as it was when the war commenced. We cannot now comply with the demands of quartermasters and commissaries fast enough to supply their wants. In other places it is well known that the army has suffered because provisions were not sent forward as speedily as they were needed. If great battles have not yet been lost for want of more rapid transportation of troops, great victories have no doubt been rendered nugatory, or have not been followed up for want of it. If the railroads are permitted to go down, it is hazarding little to say that the republic will go down with them. Is there a stockholder willing to risk this dreadful catastrophe without making an effort to prevent it? Patriotism demands that the effort should be made, even to the loss of life. but in this case, nothing is lost, nothing is even hazarded; on the contrary, the companies will be benefited by it, for if they make money now, they will make more by improving their roads and means of transportation. Interest and patriotism do not often go together, but here they certainly do; and while our compatriots are in the field shedding their blood for the cause, we owe it to them, to ourselves, and our country to assist them by every means in our power.

The necessity therefore, for iron works to roll rails and shops to build engines and supply other railroad material, has become so great, that immediate steps out to be taken to get them up. They will cost a good deal of money and it will take some time to start them. One or two, or a few companies could not do it themselves, but if a number would combine together, it could be done; and the more that could be induced to unite in it, the less expensive it would be to each. I hope therefore, you will bring this matter before the stockholders at their next meeting.

We have had no fatal accidents this year. The operations of the road have gone on without any serious difficulties or delays, and the large amount of receipts from individual transportation shows that the public has been accommodated to a considerable extent. It is to be regretted that we are not able to do the large amount of business now offering on the road. I am doing every thing that can be done to effect it, and shall spare no labor or expense in the effort to increase the accommodations of the road.

I take pleasure in stating that most of the Agents of the Company have done their business faithfully during the year; some of them have had a great deal to do, and but few mistakes have been made; and the losses have been small considering the universal system of plundering that prevails in the country.

Respectfully submitted,

H. D. Bird

Gen'l Sup't.