road.... 672 1209 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.. T "Providence Railroad .....1610 Concord and Montreal Railroad... 870 Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad.. 280 STEAM NAVIGATION, COMMERCE, FINANCE, PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY JOHN H. SCHULTZ, AT NO. 9 SPRUCE ST., NEW YORK, AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM. Railroad Bridge over Niagara River.... Baltimore and Potomac Railroad.. The New Line Through West Virginia.. Railroads of the United States by Mr. Sea ooke on the first of January-in- ished." Tie president of the road, Hon. Oden Bowie, was prevented by previous engagements from accompanying the party. This was a source of regret as his friends in Charles county were anxious to thank him in person for his constant and labious efforts in behalf of the road. The dew Line Through West Virginia. DENDS, and those who wish to IN .2, 4 CREASE THEIR INCOME from A trip from Charleston, the capital of West Vir means already invested in other less profit-ginia, on the Kanawha, to the east, over the Ches- ....17 able securities, we recommend the Seven- apeake and Ohio Railroad, will ere long be an .16, 18 Thirty Gold Bonds of the Northern Paci- everyday occurer.ce, and hence will lose much of its novelty. Anticipating that rapidly approach- the trip. Leaving Charleston at 12 M., on Satur- day, the 22d, by a special car, furnished a portion The bonds are always convertible at Ten of the members of the Legislature of West Virgin- per cent. premium (1.10) into the Com-ia by the officers of the Chesapeake and Ohio .... .... New York, Saturday, January 4, 1873. ton. American Railroad Journal. pany's Lands at Market Prices. The rate awba about 2 P. M., where, by the care of Capt. object is to bring the Lake Ontario Shore road into connection with the Canadian system, and for Northern Pacifics ON MOST FA- ultimately to form a northern line from the sea- VORABLE TERMS. board to the great west. From the Buffalo Courier JAY COOKE & CO. we learn that this object is to be secured from the three great points: New York, Boston, and Port- New York, Philadelphia and Washton, land-from the first via the Midland; from the second via the Hoosac tunnel, and from Portland via the northern line through New Hampshire, Financial Agents N. P. R. R. Co. The character of the road with which I propose to deal principally is really worthy of those who double track. Every part has the appearance of of the old carriage bridge which was so nearly They were accompanied by Mr. Seabrooke, the graphically described. The C. and O. R. R. Co. destroyed a few years ago. A meeting of parties general contractor. It is understood that the has everything to attract the tourist, the capital- interested in this enterprise was recently held at road will be formally handed over to the company ist, the worker of wood or iron. The Montclair Railroad. The occasion of the completion of the Montclair brauch of the New York and Oswego Railway, which was consummated on Saturday last, suggests a few facts in regard to the manner and nature of the enterprise, which is of no mean importance to the county and the state. The road is about forty miles long, commencing at Jersey City, passing through Kearney, North Newark, Bloomfield, Montclair, Little Falls and Pompton to Greenwood Lake, where it will connect with the Short Line of the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad and become the eastern or New Jersey section of that great route. The Montclair Railway has two branches now building, one leading to Orange, the other to Morristown. The Orange branch will be running about the 1st of March and possibly earlier. The Morristown branch is in course of construction, the tunnel through the mountain at Montclair having been already driven about five hundred of the two thou sand feet necessary. The chief advantages to the community are the opening up of a large section hitherto dormant, and the infusion of a new life along its entire line by connecting all that region closely with the city of New York. The connections westerly will in crease the supply and lessen the cost of all the great staples of consumption. The actual increase in value of property along the line may be understood by a comparison of prices at the time of beginning with prices now prevailing at the time of completion of the road. will receive stock in the new company at the rate increase of mileage and cost in the severa .ccof ten shares for every one-thousand dollar bond. tions as deduced from a comparison of the statistics of the previous year and those of the present -Length in Miles. Cost of Road N. E. States..... 192.45 162,32 $13,639,974 .... Railroads of the United States. The following tabulation exhibits an approxi-year : mate survey of the total length and cost of railroads in the United States at the opening of the year 1873, and of the distribution thereof to the several geographical division, States and Territories, which in the aggregate compose the Union: Gulf & S.W.States 364 85 1,001.59 Sections, States L'gth in Miles. Cost of Road Interior, East....1,604.24 1,444.51 119.178,020 Total. Complete. & equipm't. Interior, West...2,410.96 1,860.07 114,639,874 .2,013.00 906.50 $37,914,406 Pacific Slope. 549.10 29,951,000 27,573,705 40,992,230 Total increase...8,244.33 6,511.38 $423,180,318 88,335,768 The progress of railroad construction in the 7,079,088 United States since 1827, in which year the Granite 45,377,013 Railroad at Quincy, Mass., was inaugurated, to the 5,957.27 5,146.97 $247,272,210 present time is shown in the following table: New York Year. ...6,635.35 4,884.95 $320,971,068 Year. Miles Yearly New Jersey. .1,559.99 1,343.69 107,518,499 open. Increase. Pennsylvania .7,484.35 5,782.55 342,158,593 1827... 8 922.73 and Territories. Delaware .... ..... ...... ....... 230.69 222.69 ........ 2,966.27 2 205.89 Miles Yearly open. Increase. 1850.... 7,475 1,125 7,269,867 1828... 3 1851.... 8,589 1,114 28 577 1863....32,471 702 1,389 582 909 1,545 6,588 75 200 250,000 Pompton Plains...... 2,500 346 1871....55,535 6,675 Pompton (imp'd land) 5,000 150 668 1872....62,647 7,112 Do. (mountain land)..15,000 25 75 750,000 Ohio. .... 69,158 | Increase - - 6,511 The prices affixed are the average prices, and are generally based on bona-fide sales a Av. price Av. pre Inc. in Alabama........3,463.60 1,858.60 $65,640,078 1841...3,319 3,000,000 Arkansas 700,000 Length, 32 miles. Average advance, 123 per cent. To produce this great increase of wealth along its route the company have expended nearly four millions of dollars, of which nearly half a million were required for the great cut at Kearney. The Montclair Railway has been built in the interest of the New York and Oswego Midland Railway Company, under a contract by which the latter company acquires the perpetual use of the road from the time of completion, and by virtue of that contract it is now surrendered and will be hereafter operated by the New York Midland Company, of which Mr. Littlejohn is president. Mr. Pratt, the president of the Montclair Company, will, at his own request, be relieved from farther active duties in the management, and will devote himself to private business as soon as the interests of the company may permit. ......... 38,650,627 1842...3,877 16,111.61 8,033.11 $304,835,970 1849...6,350 4,351.68 2,973.72 136,932,890 5,359.35 3,705.25 180,988,222 The year 1872 terminates with an increase of Minnesota 310.50 In the year ending with December 1867, the 480,000 16,245,000 average cost per mile of railroads in the United States was $42,770, and at the close of 1872, $49,24,376.63 18,198.24 $650,109,933 592, showing an increase of 16.2 per cent. .8,825.80 1,491.30 $70,663,000 1,469.00 569.00 These figures and deductions clearly demark a 50,450,000 rapid and important enhancement in the costli 31,900,000 ness of railroads and their equipments in this 13,450,000 2,750,000 country. It is by no means a fictitious enhance60,000 ment; but on the contrary, the value of money has also been constantly enhancing from the com. mencement to the close of the term of years embraced in the exhibits as above. About three months since the president of the company sent circulars to the citizens at the dif ferent points on the line, inviting them to sub scribe to the stock of the company such amounts as seemed desirable, for handsome depots at the ..2,784.00 various stations; but of about twenty communi- Washington Ter. 620.00 ties thus solicited only one at the present time has Arizona Ter..... 600.00 responded.-Newark (N. J.) Daily Advertiser. 9,935.80 2,788.30 $169,273,000 GENERAL RECAPITULATION BY SECTIONS. N. E. States... 5,957.27 5,146.97 $247,272,210 8. E. States... 9,198.07 6.840.49 Middle States.. 17,905.21 13,542 31 880,351,319 Peculation and knavery bave incessantly G'lf & 8.W.8t't's16,111.61 8,033.11 211,967,529 levied heavy booty on capital used in construc. Interior, East..29,348.01 19,608.65 304 835,970 tion in its transit from a floating to a permanent Interior, West. 24,876.63 13,198.24 972,828,788 condition, and that this roguery has contributed 650,109,933 Pacific Slope.. 9,935.80 2,788.30 169,273,000 largely to swell the cost there can be no possible Grand total... 112,832.60 69,158.0788,486,638,749 from our figures must be that the character of doubt. But still the main conclusion educed The following exhibit makes a statement of the construction and of locomotive and carrying ma The time allowed for the foreclosure of ...... the first mortgage on the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad, on account of the failure of the payment of interest on the bonds, will expire on the 18th of March. Notice will then be given to the holders of bonds to meet at the expiration of thirty days for the purpose of organizing a new company. The stock and floating debt will by this means be wiped out, and the bondholders as a And so it will be to the end. The impetus! steam power has already given to progress can Locomotives .... ....... .... 1872. 1871. 758 644 780 946 289 254 ..13,880 6,607 We think it very probable that the extraordinary increase in freight cars reported will be found exaggerated, though we cannot discover The Boston Advertiser extracts the the follow-the error unless it be that the freight cars are not ing information from the report of the Massachu-"reduced" to eight wheels. If the figures are correct they show a very gratifying movement on Massachusetts Railroads. setts Railroad Commissioner: chinery has been essentially changed and im THE INDIANA AND The twenty-four railroads reported are, with the part of railway managers. The total passenperhaps one or two unimportant exceptions, aller mileage of the year on twenty roads reached that are operated by the companies owning them. the enormous figure of 504,279,375, against 466,The total length of main line operated by them 099, 613 in 1871. Dividing this mileage by the lines aggregating about 450 miles, but fully one miles in 1871, becomes 15.10 miles in 1872, show. is 1,363 miles. Those not reported have main whole number of passengers carried, we find that the average railroad journey, which was 15.27 half of this mileage is operated by roads included ing that the universal tendency of additional facilin our returns. There are, we believe, but three branch lines in the State that are not reported.ities is to increase the number but to shorten the The total freight mileWe may, therefore, give a view full enough for average length of trips. chusetts railroads. all practical purposes of the condition of Massa- on nineteen roads was 515,942,875 against 411,516,291 in 1871. This indicates that the freight carried in 1871 was transported 52.32 On a general examination of the returns as a miles on an average; while in 1872 it was carried whole we at once notice the healthy growth of 54.36 miles; and this we take to be a proof of the business and of profits. During the year twenty growth of the through freight business. The leased lines, carried 33,395,615 passengers against slightly during the past year. On the whole, we railroads, operating 1,763 miles, exclusive of average rates of fare and freight have varied but 80,514,236 in 1871, being a gain of 2,881,379 think the showing a good one. On some of the passengers and of 9.4 per cent. The freight re smaller roads the transient rates are very high, turns for the Fitchburg road were not included in but on the seven Boston roads the average rate the last report, and we can, therefore, report but per mile varies only between 2.40 cents and 2.93 It will be perceived that in the year 1872, as nineteen, the five excluded roads being the Bos-cents, while season ticket passengers ride at from compared with the previous year, the increase in ton, Barre and Gardner, the Mansfield and Fram 78 cent to 1.47 cents a mile. mileage is less by about 600 miles. This is a less ingham, the Framingham and Lowell, the Fitchretardation in the annual increase than might nineteen roads carried 9,490.323 tons of freight burg, and the Massachusetts Central. The other have been anticipated. The year has been a re- against 7,864, 398 tons the previous year-an in markable one. Mainly throughout, money has crease of 1,525,930 tons, and of 19.2 per cent. The been "tight," both here and in Europe; and gross earnings of twenty-one roads amounted to American Railroad bonds have not been readily last year-a gain of $2,967.147 38, and of 11.7 828,335,058 this year, against $25,367,910 62 ILLINOIS CENTRAL negotiated in foreign markets in which heretofore per cunt.; while the net income of the past year large amounts have found easy "placing." The was for the same roads, $7,823,696 49, against enormous rise in the price of iron and steel have $7,113,722 18 in 1871-an increase of $709,974 31, also contributed largely to hinder progress; and or 9.98 per cent. The increase of net income as above amounts to more than one per cent. on the that we have accomplished so much as the result entire capital of the roads reported-a result shows is probably due mainly to the fact that the which surely reflects great credit upon the manbuilders had the advantage of contracts entered agement which has achieved it. It is not, howupon before the rise in prices alluded to. Of late ever, to be taken for granted that the sharehold. ers in these railroads are to receive an additional prices have become more favorable to buyers, dividend. The companies have during the year but the general complaint of undue cost is heard, added little to their capital stock, but quite mateand the indications are that, for the present, but rially to the total of debt. The aggregate few new enterprises in the railroad line will be indebtedness of all the railroads reported was undertaken. That the great lines already in pro-ed last year. But the debt of the Hartford and $52,026,317 63, against $20,155,777 20, as reportgress (though they must cost immensely beyond Erie road, though not reported in 1871, has not of Indiana, will be completed and ready for business with the original estimates) will be carried to comple- been increased within the year. As a matter of an ample first-class freight and passenger equipment by tion and usefulness there can be no doubt. The fact, the figures for 1872 being $52,026,000, those FEBRUARY, 1873. It traverses a populous and a highly cultivated district Northern and the Southern Pacific Railroads, and for 1871 should be $42,655,000, showing an increase in the year of $9,600,000. The increased now without railway connections, and it is assured a profitothers in the western half of the country, are of revenue, is therefore, just about equal to the payable business from the start, in coal and farm products. too great importance to the Union at large to per- ment of seven per cent interest on the increase of A large part of the cost of construction has been, and will in the end be, paid in cash by the stockholders and people mit of their abandonment, or of any delay in their debt. on the line. construction and final completion. On the 1,789 miles of railroad reported there The financial results of operating existing rail-473 of these crossings are unguarded by either are 1,834 crossings of highways at grade, and 1,roads, as indicated by the monthly returns of gates or flagmen. There are but three roads in earnings on the great thoroughfares during the the whole list that have as high as forty per cent year 1872, have been favorable; and in almost of their crossings so guarded-the Providerce road, which has but nine unprotected crossings, every instance an increased income is shown. The out of forty-seven; the New Bedford and Taun Agents of the Company (of whom pamphlets and informa RAILWAY COMPANY'S per cent. The increase of net income as First Mortgage 7 per cent. GOLD BONDS. AN EAST AND WEST AIR LINE OF 152 MILES FROM INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, TO DECATUR, ILLINOIS, two of the largest railway centres in the West. The WESTERN DIVISION (85 miles) of this important line, opening, for the first time, direct Western communication with the BLOCK COAL FIELDS country is evidently prospering under the stim-ton, with thirteen out of forty-three, and the ulous of an improving system of roads. Every Eastern, with sixty-four out of one hundred and twenty-one. hare apparently Bonds $1,000 each, payable in 30 years, principal and in- For sale at 90 and accrued interest, by the Financial tion may be obtained). line as it is opened to commerce finds ready weyrone, Some of the roads, have appman in Walker, Andrews & CO., a crossing-gate on their lines, nor a flagman work for all the machinery that our shops can their employment. It is satisfactory to find the No. 14 WALL ST., NEW YORK. turn out. It appears, indeed, that the business of railroads adopting safety appliances, and the list the country keeps ahead of the means of trans- of companies using train brakes, on which we The Governor of Virginia has signed the portation, and even on the distant wilds towards commented some time ago, will be a valuable bill repealing the act of March 17, 1872, for the item in future reports. The companies have the setting sun, where but a few years ago civili- added largely to their rolling stock during the payment of interest, so that the interest on the zation had no resting place, the car of commerce year. We make the following comparison for State debt cannot be paid without a further enactfinds a loading, twenty-one railroads : ment of the Legislature. Corporate Titles of Length in Miles. Cost of Road Railroads of the United States. A Tabular Statement showing the Length and Cost of each Work at the close of 10. Portland and Ogdensburg (Ver. Div.).......116.00 the financial year ending nearest to January 1, 1873. (Not including City Passenger Railroads.) 11. Rutland. 12. Southern Vermont.. Area....31,776 sq. M. STATE OF MAINE. Corporate Titles of 1. Androscoggin... .... .120.00 ... 8.00 Burlington Branch. $1,000,000 16. Vermont Valley.. 15. Vermont and Massachusetts (Mass.).. 5,000,000 17. Woodstock.. 1,305,416 1,000,000 Total..... 19. Rensselaer and Saratoga (N. Y.) Rutland Branch... ... 35.00 35.00 7.00 7.00 1,922,723 Granite Branch Shawmut Branch... 7.25 7.25 7,451,078 3.10 3.10 2.50 2.50 |