Tender.—Tank to hold 1,600 gallons, top and side plates ⅛ inch, and bottom plate ¾ inch well riveted and caulked inside and out. Brakes to apply from a single wheel to each side of all of the wheels, that is, at sixteen points; brake blocks hung with safety chains and springs to carry them away from the wheels. One spring 26 inches long, of ten levers 3 × 5
16 inches over each wheel. Frame of seasoned oak 10 × 4 inches, centre beam 5 × 20 inches. The whole to be thoroughly painted and varnished.
General Provision.
All of the material, both of engine and tender, to be of the very best quality, and all of the construction done in the most thorough and workmanlike manner. The engine and tender being in every respect equal to the best that has heretofore been sent from the —— shops. For more detailed information, see plans accompanying.
H.
RELATIVE COST OF TRANSPORT BY RAILROAD AND BY STAGE.
Too great a reduction of the cost of travel was both expected of and given by railroad companies at the commencement of the system, as the following will show:—
Voted, “That the directors are hereby earnestly and urgently requested forthwith to increase the rates of transportation, both for passengers and freight, in all cases in which, in their opinion, they are now too low, and hereafter to decline all business that will not give to the corporation a full remuneration for expenses and a fair profit for its transportation.”
Why the railroad rates should have been placed so low, it would be hard to show.
The cost of moving eight passengers by stage one hundred miles, would be somewhat as follows. Let a common road cost one thousand dollars per mile, and suppose the stage travel to use one tenth of the capital expended; the daily interest for one trip is
| (100 × 1000 × 6 100)/365 ÷ 10 or | $1.64 |
| Ten horses and one stage, | |
| (1500 + 500 × 6 100)/365 or | 0.33 |
| Daily salary of driver and stable hands, | 5.00 |
| Daily interest on stable cost, repairs, &c., &c., | 1.03 |
| Whole cost of moving 8 passengers 100 miles, | $8.00 |
| Cost of moving one passenger one mile, | .01 |
| Again. Let a railroad cost $25,000 per mile, one hundred miles cost $2,500,000, and if we run ten trains per day the daily interest, at six per cent., for one train is | |
| (2500000 × 6 100)/365 ÷ 10 = | $41.10 |
| A locomotive costs $10,000, | |
| Two cars cost 4,000, | |
| and (14000 × 6 100)/365 is | 2.30 |
| And the daily cost of road and equipment, | $43.40 |
| divide by 100, for the cent per mile, | 0.43 |
| The average number of passengers carried in one car, (see New York State Engineer’s Report,) is 17; two cars, 34, whence 43 34 = | 1⅓ cents |
| The daily cost per mile, per passenger, is then, for the use of the road and equipment, | 1⅓ cents |
| The cost of maintaining and working is, per passenger, per mile, (see New York State Engineer’s Report for 1854.) | 1¼ cents |
| Whence the whole cost of carrying one passenger one mile upon a railroad will be | 27 12 cents |
| The relative cost of transport is, then, thus, | |
| By stage, | 1 cent |
| By railroad, | 27 12 cents |
| and the relative charge thus, | |
| By stage, | 5 cents |
| By railroad, | 3 cents |
And the comparative profit as 5 less 1, or 4; to 3 less 27
12, or 5
12; or as 1 to 9.6.