by Kingsley's and falls into Route No. 8, at Station 602 of the same.

The second of these lines, (Route No. 14,) leaves the Boston and Worcester Rail Road at Station 0, passing south of Powder House Hill, and the Manual Labor School, it crosses the Springfield road, near S. S. Gates's, and thence descends 19 ft. to Tatnick Brook valley; thence pursuing its course west, it crosses the Ryan summit line (Route No. 1,) at the sand hill, near New-Worcester; thence, instead of crossing the ridge north and west of Jones's tavern, it passes in front or south of his house, and turns it; crossing the Bottomly factory stream near Eldridge and Parson's woolen factories, it continues by the south side of the same, to Station 226 of Route No. 13, before referred to, from thence to 602 of Route No. 8, it is the same as Route No. 13. The description of Route No. 8 from Station 602 above mentioned, to Grout's summit, will be found in the report of 15th September.

From Grout's Summit west, towards Brookfield, two lines were carried down in the general direction of Mr. Baldwin's, and three others were attempted in other directions. The best of these has been selected to make the computations upon. It is represented in the accompanying profile, and numbered Route 13. This line passes down from the summit towards Jesse Bemis's, south of whose house it crosses the Spencer road; thence turning a point of the rocky ridge, N. W. of Bemis's, it follows the side hill and descends at a grade of 79.20 to Sylvester Luther's; at this point it is thrown out of its course by the prominent hill north west of Luther's house; thence it passes north of the hill upon which Warren Livermore resides; thence turning to the south west it descends to the valley of Seven Mile River, near to its junction with Cranberry Meadow Brook; from thence at a moderate grade, it follows the general course of the stream, crossing it three times, to avoid unnecessary curves, and terminates near Station 1132 of Route No. 1, in the Sturbridge road, west of Gallup's mill.

No. 15.-Route by an Inclined Plane from Grout's Summit to the valley of Cranberry Meadow Brook.

The rocky ridge north west of Jesse Bemis's, referred to

in the description of the last route, prevents, effectually, the passage of a line from Grout's Summit, in the direction of the Seven Mile River; and the only practicable line by which the descent by an inclined plane is to be effected, is by the valley of Livermore Brook; this is a branch of Cranberry Meadow Brook, and flows in a direction about west south west. The course of the latter stream being here nearly north, a great deflection at the foot of the plane is obviously the consequence, viz. something like 120°. Were it not for this circumstance, the plane could be carried quite down to Cranberry Meadow Brook, and by this disposition, the whole descent would be effected. To obviate the difficulty of introducing an abrupt curve at the foot of the plane, it is necessary to begin to deflect before reaching Cranberry Meadow Brook; and at the same time, it is, for a similar reason, also necessary to throw the line upon the side hill west of this brook. The plane itself is straight, 3800 ft. in length, and descends at a grade of 194.50 per mile. At the foot of the plane the curve of 1041 ft. radius commences; thence for a distance of 7300 ft. the grade is about 86 ft. per mile. From thence to Station 1132 of Route No. 1, nearly two miles, the whole descent is but 10 ft. This line unites with Route No. 13 near the junction of Cranberry Meadow Brook, and Seven Mile River.

The accompanying Tables, marked A. and B. will exhibit every detail of these three routes-length, grade, cutting, filling, cost, &c. &c. For the present purpose, it will be sufficient to enumerate here the essential points to be considered in the comparisons which are to be made.

Referring to the general table, it will be seen that upon Route No. 14, there is 1.68 miles of this line, on the east side of the summit, which ascends 111.53 per mile, and when we state that the whole length of the line to Brookfield is about the same as Mr. Baldwin's, it may be asked why the grade of 80 ft. had been exceeded in ours, while

in Mr B.'s it did not in any case go beyond it. The answer to this is obvious, viz. the necessity of introducing, upon a line of this great acclivity, the smallest possible number of curves. The resistance produced by the curves on a level road may evidently exceed that which is effected on an inclined plane by gravity; even on a plane elevated 100 ft. to the mile. In comparing these lines, therefore, it is quite as necessary to examine the plan as the profile.

On the west side of the summit, by making the line more crooked than it now is, the grade may be kept within 80 ft. In our present line it exceeds that amount. In assuming 80 ft. per mile, the succession of curves (which it is impossible to avoid in the descent west,) will increase the resistance, quite as much, or more, than an increase of 10 ft. in the grade, together, (on both sides of the summit) say equal to an inclination of 100 ft. per mile.

In comparing Routes No. 1 by Morey Summit, and No. 14 by the Bottomly factory and Henshaw ridge, to Grout's summit, we arrive at the following results. No. 14 is 3.81 miles shorter than No. 1, and it will cost to grade it, say $161,000, (or including superstructure) $199,000 less than No. 1. It has, however, 7.72 miles exceeding 80 ft. per mile; while the line by Morey will have no grade exceeding 50 ft., and even at that inclination, it will have but 4.79 miles. No. 14 will have two grades on the east side of the summit descending to the west, of 19 ft. and 25 ft. each,-making together 44 ft. and this being equated at 18 ft. (the slope which requires double the power required on a level road,) results in a virtual increase of nearly 2.5 miles; or in other words, it adds 44 ft. to the height of the summit, and thereby diminishes the difference in the length of these two lines to 1.3 miles.

We shall now exhibit the load of an Engine upon planes of various inclinations, from 0 to 100 ft. per mile.

We will suppose an Engine weighing 10 tons to be capable of propelling a load of 260 tons (tender included) on a level; the load of this Engine upon any inclination will be thus expressed :

g= Gravity per ton on plane in lbs.

f

=

Friction of load per ton in lbs.

From the above formula we deduce the value of L, or the load in tons, with which this Engine is capable of ascending upon planes, varying in inclination, from 0 to 100 ft. per mile-the rails being in the best state, or the adhesion.

t.

t.

t.

40
L

ft. ft. ft. ft. 80 90 100

t.

t.

t.

t.

t.

t.

tons. 260 00 173.58 128 95 101.87 83.60 70 0160.52 52.83 16 60 41.50 37.25

When the rails are wet, or frosty, the adhesion may be diminished to; the load in this case is also diminished in the ratio of to; or upon a level, the load would be but 78 tons; on 50 ft. per mile, 16.21 tons; on 100 ft. do. 5.40

tons.

We must now consider the cost of maintaining the additional power necessary to be provided, if the shorter route should be adopted. We may safely assert, that not less than two assistant engines will, at all times, be required

-one on each side of the summit. On the Liverpool and Manchester road, at the two planes of, and, equal to 59 ft. and 55 ft. respectively, the freight trains are assisted by additional engines, placed there for the purpose. On that road they have thirty engines, of this number, 10 are in daily use, an equal number in the shop undergoing repairs, and the balance laid aside, being of the older patterns, and less effective than those now made.

engines, one third Hence to have the

On the Worcester road they have 9 of which are at all times in the shop. two additional engines at the summit constantly fit for service, we must be provided with three.

The actual cost of keeping 10 engines in constant order, on the Liverpool and Manchester road, for the year ending 30th of June 1834, exclusive of the expense of running them, was £18,300, or for each, about $8,200.

On the Worcester road the actual cost of repairing and running 6 engines for the year ending 30th June, 1836, was

$30,690, or, including the interest upon the cost of the stock, $34,470; or for each, $5,745.

Cost of 3 engines of a larger size than those generally used, say 10 to 12 tons, at $9,000

Interest upon the same

$27,000 1,620

Upon a road of grades of 80 feet and upwards, the wear and tear of the engines would be far greater than upon either the Liverpool and Manchester, or the Worcester, from the necessity of using the brakes so frequently upon the descents; the effect of which, it may be incidentally remarked, is quite as injurious to the road, as to the engines. We shall therefore assume $6,500 as the cost of maintaining the engines in repair, and of running the same, and this is only about three fourths of the cost of the repairs alone, of those of the Liverpool and Manchester road. Cost of repairing and running 2 Interest upon cost of 3

Total cost of 2 (effective)

$13,000

1,620

$14,620

And this is the interest of $243,660, or upon $44,360 , more than the cost of the additional 3.81 miles, by the Morey summit route. And while to the Corporation, the cost of transportation would be about the same, the sum received for tolls, on the short line, would be only 1 of that upon the longer line.

It will be seen from what has been said, in relation to these two routes, that notwithstanding the distance gained by that through Grout's, and the consequent diminution of first cost in the construction, the total expenditure for power, on each route, will very nearly equalize the cost of construction and transportation, on each route. And when we take into consideration the practical difficulties of applying power upon steep grades, the maintaining it always with certainty, and the great danger of impairing the confidence of the public, in the safety of this mode of travel, from the greater liability to accident, and the more serious consequences resulting from accidents upon the steeper grades, we cannot but believe that your Board will coincide with us, in the preference we continue to give to the route by Morey's summit.

Computations have been made at the request of some members of the Board, to ascertain the cost of grading the