Supply agent. Clerks and teamsters furnishing supplies.
Fuel agent. All men employed about wood-sheds.
All subordinates should be accountable to and directed by their immediate superiors only. Each officer must have authority, with the approval of the general superintendent, to appoint all employees for whose acts he is responsible, and to dismiss any one, when, in his judgment, the interests of the company demand it.
Fast travelling is one of the most dangerous as well as one of the most expensive luxuries connected with the railroad system. Few companies in America have any idea what their express-trains cost them. Indeed, the proper means of obtaining quick transport are not at all understood. It is not by forcing the train at an excessively high speed, but by reducing the number of stops. A train running four hundred miles, and stopping once in fifty minutes,—each stop, including coming to rest and starting, being five minutes,—to pass over the whole distance in eight hours, must run fifty-five miles per hour; stopping once in twenty minutes, sixty-three miles per hour; and stopping once in ten minutes, eighty-six miles per hour.
The proportions in which the working expenses are distributed under the several heads are nearly as follows:—
Management 7
Road-repairs 16
Locomotives 35
Cars 38
Sundries 4
____
In all 100
And the percentage of increase due to fast travelling, to be applied to the several items of expense, with the resulting increase in total expense, this:—
Management 7 increased by 0 per cent. is 0.0
Road-repairs 16 do. 27 do. 4.3
Locomotives 35 do. 30 do. 10.5
Cars 38 do. 10 do. 3.8
Sundries 4 do. 0 do. 0.0
____ ____
100 And the whole increase 18.6
The causes of accident beyond the control of passengers are,—
Collision by opposition,
Collision by overtaking,
Derailment by switches misplaced,
Derailment by obstacles on the track,
Breakage of machinery,
Failure of bridges,
Fire,
Explosion.
Those causes which are aggravated by fast travelling are the first, second, fifth, and sixth. The effects of all are worse at high than at low velocities.