Construction.
The succeeding newspapers published a great deal on construction, and when it is remembered that all of it was experimental at that time, it will be interesting to note that the Lexington and Ohio Railroad Company, patterned most closely after the English models, undertaking, however, to improve upon them by the use of our native limestone sills which they believed to be indestructible and found, to their sorrow, to be most perishable.
The Reporter of November 24th, 1830, says: "A great deal of information on the subject of Rail Roads has been disseminated by public spirited individuals in the course of the past two or three years. A number of such works have been projected in the United States and some of them completed within that period. The Baltimore and Ohio is first and most important in every point of view. To the efforts of the enterprising Directors and Stockholders of that Company, we shall be indebted for the creation in a short period of time of a greater extent of Railway communication between the several parts of the Union than Centuries have produced of artificial or canal navigation. We firmly believe that the digging of canals in all parts of the country will cease and that many now in use will be abandoned and railroads substituted in place of them. * * * * * As to the mode of construction—the route is selected upon a minute survey, with as little elevation as possible, with a view to economy—the line is then graded by excavating the earth to near a level, say 50 feet slope to the mile. The excavation for a single line of rails need not be more than one-third the width of a turnpike and, of course, this part of the work is proportionately cheaper than grading for a turnpike. Large pieces of limestone, two feet or more in length and from 3 to 12 inches thick, made straight on the upper edge, are then firmly imbedded along the graduated road in two lines, 4 feet 3 inches apart. On these lines of stone sills are laid iron bars or rails, 2 inches wide, 1-1/2 inches thick, fastened with iron bolts. Bridges to pass water courses and drains to carry off the water are to be made in the common way. * * * The work is now done. As to its cost—Unless the route be through hills and vallies and, of course, a very unfavorable one, the necessary grading of a narrow line for a railway will not cost more than the like work for a wide turnpike. * * * The next item of expense is stone work. The stone sills will cost 20 cents per foot, or $2,112 per mile for two rows. The iron rails and bolts will cost $57 per ton, or $969 per mile, allowing 17 tons which will do, fastening the same from 1 to $200 a mile. * * * No greater difficulty exists in fixing the precise cost of a railway than of a house of given dimensions or of a brick wall. In reference to the Lexington and Ohio Railroad the requisite data to form true estimates of the cost of each separate mile will soon be in possession of the Company. The Engineers are of the opinion that it is throughout an eligible cheap line. The whole cost then is less than $8,000 a mile."
The Reporter of December 1st, 1830, makes an interesting correction: "In speaking in our last of the iron rails, we should have described them as half an inch thick instead of an inch and a half. The engineers have run the experimental line on a grade thirty feet to the mile instead of fifty feet as we supposed. A locomotive engine will act advantageously upon a grade of forty feet or more, but the country between Lexington and Louisville will admit of as low a grade as thirty feet without expensive excavations or embankments, there being no natural obstacle on the whole line except at Frankfort where an inclined plane and stationary power will be required to reach the Kentucky River."
In the issue of March 30th, 1831, the Reporter makes an interesting calculation, proving in dollars and cents the value of the prospective railroad. It says: "It appears by a statement of the performance on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway that an engine has transported 142 tons of freight 180 miles in one day, making six trips between the two towns, and that on the next day, the steam engine travelled 120 miles with similar loads. The transportation of 142 tons in 180 miles is equivalent to the conveyance of one ton 4620 miles. Now, if as it is stated, the cost of fuel, oil, attendance and all other charges requisite to the operations of a Locomotive Engine be only $5 a day, it follows that when once a Rail Road is completed and all its machinery prepared for operations 4620 tons may be transported one mile for $5.00, or 100 tons one mile for 12-3/4 cents. When these results are applied to our own road it will be seen that estimating ten barrels of flour for a ton, the transportation of 100 barrels 100 miles would cost 106-1/4 cents. It is true that no one can suppose that this full result can ever be reduced to continued practice but the simple fact of its having once been accomplished will be sufficient to place Rail Roads far above all other artificial means of transportation. At the same time it should not be forgotten that the wagons on the Liverpool and Manchester Rail Road are of the old construction and are known to require double the power to draw them that the wagons do on our Rail Road."
"Our Stockholders" pushed the work on "our Rail Road" with all speed; the engineer submitted his report, and from the Kentucky Reporter, September 1st, 1830, we find: "The examinations of the route for the Rail Road from Lexington to the Ohio River has been made as far as Frankfort which exhibit the following results:
1. There will be one Inclined Plane at Frankfort about 2200 feet long, descending one foot in fourteen. All the residue of the road can be graded to 30 feet or less in a mile which is a fraction over one-fifteenth of an inch rise in a foot.
2. On that grade there will be no "cut" deeper than 19 feet at the apex and but one of that depth.
3. There will be no embankment over 20 feet high, no bridge over 30 feet high.
4. The distance to Frankfort will not be increased two miles in length over the present travelled road.
5. There will not be as much rock excavation in the grading as will be required to construct the road.
6. On the thirty feet grade which has been tentatively adopted, a single horse is capable of travelling with seven tons weight with as much ease as five horses can draw two tons on our present roads in their best condition. Hence it follows that one man and two horses can transport on the Railway as much weight in the same time as 35 horses and seven men on our present roads."
That part of the road from Lexington to Villa Grove, six miles west of Lex. was known as the "first division"; from Villa Grove to Frankfort was designated "second division."
Mr. Kneass, the chief engineer, submitted "a grade table and a table exhibiting the length of straight line, length of curve and radius of curvature" to the Directors on October 14th, 1831.
John Holburn and Company were employed to furnish stone rail sills at 37-1/2 cents per perch.
On April 20th, 1831, The Reporter, which by the way, was known as "Mr. Clay's organ," gives a most entertaining description of a Directors meeting. It says:
"The Stockholders of the Lexington and Ohio Rail Road Company met at the Court House in Lexington on Saturday last. H. Clay was called to the Chair and H. I. Bodley acted as Secretary.
The meeting was large, most of the Stockholders, representing upwards of six hundred thousand dollars, were present. The Stockholders at Louisville were represented by Messrs. J. S. Snead, B. Lawrence, S. S. Nicholas, J. I. Jacob and George Keats.
Mr. E. I. Winter (President of the Company) addressed the meeting an hour and a half. He described the route as surveyed by Mr. Kneass, the Engineer, entered into explanations respecting the estimates and made various calculations as to the probable cost of the work. He presented a very satisfactory and clear view of the means of the Company—its flattering prospects—the great resources of this section of the country &c.
After much discussion it was
Resolved—That the Directors of the Lexington and Ohio Rail Road Company be requested to take measures to put a proportion of the road under contract, not exceeding eight miles at Louisville and seven at Lexington, provided the same can be done at a cost not exceeding by 10 per cent the estimate made by Mr. Kneass, Engineer.
Resolved—That the Directors be authorized to call from the Stockholders a sum not exceeding $150,000 pro rata. for the completion of the 15 miles of Road named in the foregoing resolution, in such proportion and at such times as the exigencies of the Company may require, and that they are not authorized to extend their expenditures beyond the said $150,000 until after the Stockholders shall have been legally convened and a report laid before them of the progress made in the work."
"The meeting then adjourned, but before the Company dispersed a number of persons came forward and entered their names for stock. The Stockholders dined together with the Louisville delegation at Postlethwaite's Inn. We congratulate the friends of this noble enterprise on the results of the meeting. We especially congratulate the citizens of Lexington on the bright prospects ahead—the 'Winter of their discontent being made glorious summer'—by the proceedings of this glorious day."
The Trustees of the town of Lexington later took $25,000 worth of stock.
At last the great day arrived for the laying of the first rail stone, and the Lexington Observer of October 28th, 1831, gives a brilliant description of this most momentous occurrence. Gives it with a vividness which brings the picture so clearly before the reader that in spite of himself he joins the merry throng and takes his place in the spectacular parade which marks a new epoch in the history of Lexington. The Observer says: