Handbook of Railroad Construction; For the use of American engineers. / Containing the necessary rules, tables, and formulæ for the location, construction, equipment, and management of railroads, as built in the United States.

by George L. Vose

REPRODUCTION OF ROAD AND STOCK.

416. Besides the annual repairs necessary to maintain a road in proper working order, there is needed a periodic expenditure for reproduction. Evidently the time will come, upon all roads, when rails and sleepers, buildings, bridges, etc., need to be replaced. Knowing the life of rails, we also know the annual depreciation, and from that can easily find what sum must annually be laid aside, which being properly invested, shall, at the end of the life of the rail, together with its interest, be equal to the cost of renewing.

RAILS.

Suppose rails to last ten years, the annual depreciation is ten per cent. At sixty lbs. per yard we have one hundred and five tons per mile, which, at $60 per ton, amounts to $6,300. Let the cost of rerolling and relaying be $30 per ton, the depreciation is then $30 per ton for ten years, or $3 per ton per annum, or $315 per mile per annum.

SLEEPERS.

If sleepers last seven years, and cost forty cents apiece, their annual depreciation per mile (at 2,400 per mile) will be $138 per mile (nearly).

BRIDGES.

If wooden bridges cost $30 per lineal foot, and last twenty years, the annual depreciation per foot will be $1.50, and if there is ten feet per mile of road, $15 per annum per mile.

EXTRAS.

Allowing for the annual depreciation per mile of buildings, fences, etc., $33, we have as the whole annual depreciation, $500 per mile; and the amounts which yearly reserved and placed at compound interest for each of the ten years, will pay for reproducing the road, are as follows:—

At the end of the 1st year $298

At the end of the 2d year 315

At the end of the 3d year 333

At the end of the 4th year 354

At the end of the 5th year 373

At the end of the 6th year 397

At the end of the 7th year 417

At the end of the 8th year 446

At the end of the 9th year 472

At the end of the 10th year 500

which, at six per cent., gives, at the end of the tenth year, $500 each.

Note.—Reproduction of rolling stock has been proved to be nothing more than repairs, as a locomotive may be fitted with one and another new part until none of the original machine remains. See Lardner’s Railroad Economy.

As the business upon a railroad increases, so does the amount of station accommodation necessary, and also of rolling stock, which increase should be debited to capital, and not to revenue.

The permanent investors in a railroad are in favor of having capital maintained, even at the expense of revenue. The temporary shareholders, and the speculators in stock, wish most to produce large dividends, even at a sacrifice of capital, and would charge nothing to revenue.

The rights of both of the above classes are to be regarded, as the road is often built mainly by the efforts of the temporary investors.