Description of Track | 1908 | 1907 | 1906 | 1905 | 1904
---------------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-------
Single track (miles) | 23,209 | 23,112 | 23,063 | 22,870 | 22,601
Second track | 13,048 | 12,963 | 12,934 | 12,819 | 12,692
Third track | 1,435 | 1,385 | 1,363 | 1,324 | 1,271
Fourth track | 1,141 | 1,103 | 1,091 | 1,067 | 1,030
Fifth track | 208 | 195 | 186 | 170 | 153
Sixth track | 122 | 117 | 111 | 97 | 85
Seventh track | 59 | 51 | 47 | 40 | 35
Eighth to twentieth tracks | 94 | 87 | 75 | 44 | 34
Sidings | 14,353 | 14,145 | 14,032 | 13,891 | 13,733
+--------+--------+--------+--------+-------
Total trackage | 53,669 | 53,189 | 52,904 | 52,322 | 51,634
---------------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-------
Here it will be perceived the mileage of British roads increased only
608 miles and the trackage only 2,035 miles in four years. During the
same period, as shown in the preceding table, the mileage of American
railways increased 18,251 miles and their total trackage 36,543. It
is this continuous demand for increased mileage and trackage in the
United States, to say nothing of equipment, that differentiates the
problem confronting American railway management from British. In the
United States we need more railways and still more railways, and the
problem is to get the capital on reasonable terms to provide the
facilities.
In railroad mileage alone we have over ten times that of the United
Kingdom and we have more than six times as many miles of track. We
have enough trackage in our yards and sidings to double track all the
British railways, with enough over to put four tracks where they have
only two tracks now.
II
EQUIPMENT
AN OBJECT LESSON IN EQUIPMENT.
No car shortage occurred to interrupt the orderly movement of railway
traffic during the fiscal year 1908-09. On the contrary, there was
an unprofitable surplus of cars throughout the year, ranging from
110,912 in September, 1908, to 333,019 in January, 1909. From this
high figure the surplus was slowly reduced by the demands of traffic
until subsequent to the close of the fiscal year, in September last,
it reached a practical level of shortages and surpluses. During the
year there was an average of 150,000 freight cars in the shops, where
in times of ordinary activity the mean would be in the neighborhood
of 100,000.
These conditions, which prevailed since November, 1907, account for
the greatly reduced purchases of rolling stock during the years 1908
and 1909 shown in the following record of locomotives and cars built
in the United States during the past eleven years:
ELEVEN YEARS' OUTPUT OF CARS AND LOCOMOTIVES.
_From the Railroad Age-Gazette._
========================+=============+===========+==========
| | Number |
Year | Locomotives | Passenger | Freight
| | Cars | Cars
------------------------+-------------+-----------+----------
1909(a) | 2,887 | 2,849 | 96,419
1908(a) | 2,342 | 1,716 | 76,555
1907(a) | 7,362 | 5,457 | 284,188
1906(a) | 6,952 | 3,167 | 243,670
1905(a) | 5,491 | 2,551 | 168,006
1904 | 3,441 | 2,144 | 60,806
1903 | 5,152 | 2,007 | 153,195
1902 | 4,070 | 1,948 | 162,599
1901 | 3,384 | 2,055 | 136,950
1900 | 3,153 | 1,636 | 115,631
1899 | 2,475 | 1,305 | 119,886
+-------------+-----------+----------
Total | 46,709 | 26,835 | 1,617,905
------------------------+-------------+-----------+----------
(a) Includes Canadian output.
Between 1898 and 1908 the Interstate Commerce Commission reported an
increase of 21,464 locomotives, 11,697 passenger cars, and 856,999
freight and company cars. Allowing for the Canadian output in the
above table, this would show 22,742 more locomotives, 13,821 more
passenger cars, and 674,023 more freight cars built in ten years
than are accounted for in the official returns. Roughly speaking,
these last figures represent the number of locomotives and cars worn
out beyond repair or destroyed that have to be replaced annually.
It means that provision has to be made every year for the purchase
of new equipment amounting to approximately 5% of locomotives and
passenger cars and 4% of freight cars in order to maintain the
equipment numerically, irrespective of the sums spent on maintaining
the remainder in serviceable condition.
On the equipment reported by the Commission for 1908 this would
necessitate the following outlay for replacement alone:
======================+===========+=============+=========+=============
| Number | Needed for | Average | Total
| | Replacement | Cost | Cost
----------------------+-----------+-------------+---------+-------------
Locomotives | 57,698 | 5% = 2,884 | $15,000 | $ 43,260,000
Passenger cars | 45,292 | 5% = 2,214 | 6,000 | 13,284,000
Freight cars | 2,100,784 | 4% = 84,031 | 1,000 | 84,000,000
Company cars | 98,281 | 3,931 | 500 | 1,965,500
| | | +-------------
Total cost for | | | |
replacing equipment | | | | $142,509,500
----------------------+-----------+-------------+---------+-------------
It is probable that the computed percentage for the replacement of
locomotives and passenger cars is too high and that for freight cars
too low. This is the opinion of operating officials. If so, it would
amount to a set off and the aggregate would still be approximately
$142,000,000 to be expended annually for new equipment to take the
place of old, worn out and discarded rolling stock. Conditions
forbade the expenditure of any such sum in 1908 and 1909.
NUMBER AND CAPACITY OF LOCOMOTIVES FOR EIGHT YEARS, 1909 TO 1902.
Next follows a summary giving the number and capacity of locomotives
for the seven years since the Commission has included capacity in the
published returns:
==========================+========+===========================+========
| | | Weight |
| | Tractive | without | Average
Year | Number | Power | Tender | Weight
| | (Pounds) | (Tons) | (Tons)
--------------------------+--------+---------------|-----------+--------
1909 (94.4% represented) | 55,495 | 1,421,114,798 | 4,033,309 | 72.7
1908 Final returns | 57,698 | 1,519,568,551 | 4,071,554 | 71.5
1907 | 55,388 | 1,429,626,658 | 3,828,045 | 69.1
1906 | 51,672 | 1,277,865,673 | 3,459,052 | 66.9
1905 | 48,357 | 1,141,330,082 | 3,079,673 | 63.6
1904 | 46,743 | 1,063,651,261 | 2,889,492 | 62.1
1903 | 43,871 | 953,799,540 | 2,606,587 | 59.4
1902 | 41,225 | 839,073,779 | 2,323,877 | 56.3
+--------+---------------+-----------+--------
Increase seven years | | | |
to 1909 | 34.6% | 69.4% | 73.6% | 29.1
--------------------------+--------+---------------+-----------+--------
Complete returns will raise the totals for 1909 approximately to
57,704 locomotives of 1,465,070,000 pounds tractive power and
4,158,000 tons weight, exclusive of tenders. These figures bear out
the conclusion expressed above that the purchase of new locomotives
in 1909 was barely sufficient to replace those abandoned or destroyed
during the year. The loss, however, was in a measure made good by
the greater weight of the new engines. As the average weight of
locomotives in 1899 was approximately 53 tons, the figures just given
indicate an increase of nearly 114% in the weight of all locomotives
during the decade.
In connection with the estimate of $15,000 put on locomotives in this
report, it is of interest to reproduce the return to the legislature
of New South Wales of the cost of engines built in the railway shops
at Sydney recently. The figures refer to 6-wheel-coupled heavy
mail and express engines weighing, with tender, 163,128 pounds, as
published in the _Railway Age-Gazette_, December 3, 1909:
DETAILS OF LOCOMOTIVE COSTS.
====================================+=============+============+========
| 10 Engines | Cost | Per
| | Per Engine | Ton(a)
------------------------------------+-------------+------------+--------
Direct charges: | | |
Materials | $117,462.77 | $11,746.28 | $161.29
Wages | 76,484.23 | 7,648.42 | 104.99
+-------------+------------+--------
Total | $193,947.00 | $19,394.70 | $266.28
| | |
Indirect charges: | | |
Percentage of shop charges | | |
(exclusive of superintendence) | | |
on wage basis in each shop, | | |
37.84% | 28,943.79 | 2,894.38 | 39.74
Superintendence, on wage basis, | | |
3% | 2,294.51 | 229.45 | 3.10
Interest on capital cost of new | | |
shop and machinery, including | | |
land | 4,850.52 | 485.05 | 6.63
Proportion of interest on capital | | |
cost of old shops on locomotive | | |
work produced for new engines | 5,449.53 | 544.95 | 7.45
Depreciation of machinery and | | |
plant, 2% on capital cost | 5,149.99 | 515.00 | 7.03
+-------------+------------+--------
Total indirect charges | $46,688.34 | $ 4,668.83 | $ 63.95
| | |
Total charges | $240,635.34 | $24,063.53 | $330.23
----------------------------------+-------------+------------+--------
(a) Ton of 2,240 lbs.
Applied to a Mallet articulated compound locomotive, such as that
built for the Erie weighing 410,000 pounds on the drivers, the rate
per ton paid by the government of New South Wales would make it cost
over $60,000. It did not cost any such sum, but the Australian
experience is a straw which shows how the cost of locomotives is
soaring. American railways find it necessary economy to build engines
whose average weight is well above that built in the government shops
at Sydney.
PASSENGER AND FREIGHT CARS.
During the same period, 1902 to 1909, covered in the table relating
to locomotives, for which alone full data is available, the increase
in the number of passenger cars and freight cars, and in the capacity
of the latter, is shown in the following statement:
===================+=========+========================+=======+=========
| | Freight Service | |
| +-----------+------------+ |Company's
Year |Passenger| Number | Capacity |Average| Service
| Service | | (tons) | tons | Number
-------------------+---------+-----------+------------+-------+---------
1909 | | | | |
(97% represented) | 44,665 | 2,050,049 | 71,028,266 | 34.6 | 96,739
1908 | | | | |
(Final returns) | 45,292 | 2,100,784 | 73,526,440 | 35 | 98,281
1907 | 43,973 | 1,991,557 | 67,216,144 | 34 | 91,064
1906 | 42,282 | 1,837,914 | 59,196,230 | 32 | 78,736
1905 | 40,713 | 1,731,409 | 53,372,552 | 31 | 70,749
1904 | 39,752 | 1,692,194 | 50,874,723 | 30 | 66,615
1903 | 38,140 | 1,653,782 | 48,622,125 | 29 | 61,467
1902 | 36,987 | 1,546,101 | 43,416,977 | 28 | 57,097
+---------+-----------+------------+-------+---------
Seven years' | | | | |
increase(a) | 20.8% | 35.9% | 64.0% | 23.5% | 69.6%
-------------------+---------+------------------------+-------+---------
(a) Final returns for 1909 will raise these percentages materially.
It is in the increased capacity of locomotives and cars rather
than in their numbers that the seeker after truth will find the
explanation of how American railways have been able to handle freight
traffic that has increased in volume over 80% in ten years where
numerically the increase of equipment has been less than 60%. During
that period the average capacity of the freight car has increased
from 27 to nearly 35 tons, accounting for an aggregate increase of
109.6%.
Between 1899 and 1909 the population of the United States increased
from 74,318,000 to 88,806,000, or 19.5%. (On April 1, 1910, the
treasury estimate was an even 90,000,000.) In the same ten years the
number of passenger cars increased over 36%, accompanied by a steady
advance in their size, strength and conveniences.
Between 1902 and 1907 the Official Statistics furnish the following
information showing the gradual transformation taking place in the
number and capacity of freight cars:
NUMBER AND CAPACITY OF DIFFERENT SIZES OF FREIGHT CARS, 1902-1907.
===========+==========+=========+===========+============
| Capacity | | | Increase or
Class | Pounds | 1902 | 1907 | Decrease
| | | | Per Cent
-----------+----------+---------+-----------+------------
I | 10,000 | 5,122 | 4,277 | Dec. 16.5
II | 20,000 | 15,615 | 7,244 | " 53.5
III | 30,000 | 46,353 | 10,132 | " 78.1
IV | 40,000 | 327,342 | 204,583 | " 37.5
V | 50,000 | 246,684 | 178,827 | " 27.5
VI | 60,000 | 634,626 | 802,187 | Inc. 26.4
VII | 70,000 | 22,493 | 34,652 | " 53.6
VIII | 80,000 | 158,179 | 452,070 | " 185.9
IX | 90,000 | 310 | 5,054 | " 1,527.1
X | 100,000 | 48,834 | 285,241 | " 484.3
XI | 110,000 | 389 | 1,476 | " 279.4
XII | 120,000 | 43 | 60 | " 39.5
All over | 120,000 | 2 | 214 |
-----------+----------+---------+-----------+------------
The line of cleavage between former and modern railway methods of
handling freight is clearly shown in the above table to lie between
cars of 25 and 30 ton capacity. The former and all of less capacity
are on the decline, whereas the latter and all of greater capacity
are on the increase. Numerically the 30-ton cars still exceed those
of 40 and 50 tons, but already they are exceeded by the combined
capacity of the latter.
THE SURPLUS OF FREIGHT CARS.
For two years (28 months as this is written) the reports of the
Committee on Car Efficiency of the American Railway Association show
that the supply of freight cars has been in excess of the demand. In
other words, the railways during that period were paying interest on
a considerable percentage of unremunerative equipment, besides the
cost of its maintenance. The rise and fall of this surplus of freight
cars is set forth below:
FREIGHT CAR SHORTAGES AND SURPLUS BY MONTHS FROM JANUARY, 1907, TO
APRIL, 1910.
===========================+==========+=========+=========+========
| 1907 | 1908 | 1909 | 1910
Month | Shortage | Surplus | Surplus | Surplus
---------------------------+----------+---------+---------+--------
January | 110,000 | 342,580 | 333,019 | 52,309
February | 150,000 | 322,513 | 301,571 | 45,513
March | No data | 297,042 | 291,418 | 45,672
April | 100,000 | 413,605 | 282,328 | 84,887
May | 60,000 | 404,534 | 273,890 | --
June | 40,000 | 349,994 | 262,944 | --
July(a) | 20,000 | 308,680 | 243,354 | --
August(a) | 15,000 | 253,003 | 159,424 | --
September | 60,000 | 133,792 | 78,798 | --
October | 90,757 | 110,912 | 35,977 | --
November | 57,003 | 132,829 | 39,528 | --
December (surplus) | 209,310 | 222,077 | 58,354 | --
---------------------------+----------+---------+---------+--------
(a) In July and August, 1907, there was a net surplus.
At the date of one report in October, 1909, a surplus of cars in one
territory was practically offset by a shortage in another territory.
FREIGHT CAR PERFORMANCE.
According to Statistical Bulletin No. 58 of the Committee on
Relations between Railroads of the American Railway Association, the
average performance of the freight cars of American and Canadian
railways during the year ending June 30, 1909, including and
excluding surplus cars, was as follows:
==================+=======================+======================
| Average Miles | Average Ton Miles
| per Day | per Car per Day
+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------
Month | Including | Excluding | Including | Excluding
| Surplus | Surplus | Surplus | Surplus
| Cars | Cars | Cars | Cars
------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------
July, 1908 | 20.0 | 24.8 | 275 | 342
August, " | 20.8 | 25.1 | 292 | 354
September, " | 22.0 | 25.2 | 320 | 367
October, " | 23.8 | 25.9 | 346 | 376
November, " | 23.5 | 25.8 | 341 | 375
December, " | 22.3 | 25.2 | 332 | 376
January, 1909 | 20.9 | 25.3 | 293 | 354
February, " | 21.7 | 25.9 | 306 | 365
March, " | 22.7 | 27.2 | 330 | 393
April, " | 22.4 | 26.8 | 310 | 371
May, " | 22.5 | 26.8 | 304 | 362
June, " | 22.4 | 26.5 | 314 | 371
------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------
These figures of the average miles per day of freight cars are the
delight of demagogues and other detractors of American railways who
ignore, or have never been able to comprehend, that the average
performance of a car per day depends from six to nine times more on
the time allowed for shippers to load and unload cars than on its
speed in transit. This speed runs all the way from ten to forty miles
and over an hour. But if freight trains averaged 40 miles an hour
it would make little impression on the per day average of cars so
long as 48 hours has to be allowed as a minimum at either end for
loading and unloading and almost as much more for placing notices
and disposing of cars, to say nothing of time consumed in making up
trains.
The salient and significant feature of this table is the proof it
affords that each car of those in commission averages the movement of
one ton 367 miles per day. This means an average load of 14 tons per
car. It would take at least three English or European freight cars to
average such a load.
SAFETY APPLIANCES.
Of all the locomotives and cars in railway service in 1908,
aggregating 2,302,055, less than 4% were not fitted with train
brakes, and less than three quarters of 1% were unprovided with
automatic couplers.
BLOCK SIGNALS.
While the gain in mileage protected by some form of block signals
in 1909 is only slightly more than half the increase in 1907, it
shows a healthy revival of this most important constructive work.
At the close of the last calendar year, according to the _Railroad
Age-Gazette,_ the mileage on which some system of block signals had
been installed was as follows:
====================+===============+=============+========+=======
System | Single Track | Two or | Total | Total
| | More Tracks | 1909 | 1908
--------------------+---------------+-------------+--------+-------
Automatic block | | | |
signals (miles) | 6,436 | 7,983 | 14,419 | 11,932
Non-automatic block | | | |
signals (miles) | 40,323 | 8,593 | 48,916 | 48,777
+---------------+-------------+--------+--------
Total miles | 46,759 | 16,576 | 63,335 | 60,709
--------------------+---------------+-------------+--------+--------
Miles of line operated by the companies, 1909 158,938
The second annual report of the government Block Signal and Train
Control Board shows that little advance has been made in the search
after the perfect system of automatic mechanical operation. Since
the organization of the board in 1907 no less than 835 plans and
descriptions of inventions designed to enhance the safety of railway
operation have been submitted for its consideration. Of these 184
were examined and reported upon in 1908 and 12 were found worthy of
further investigation. During the past year 327 others have been
reviewed with a net result that again 12 have been found to possess
enough merit to warrant the Board in conducting further tests. It
finds that the vast majority of the proposed devices are unsound
either in principle or design.
With regard to some form of automatic stop, the Board says that it
is not yet prepared to make a definite and positive recommendation,
but it thinks it reasonable to expect that several forms of automatic
train controlling devices will be found available for use. In this
connection it very sensibly concludes:
"It is not to be expected that trials or tests conducted by the
government will, independently of extended use by railways, result in
the production of devices or systems fully developed to meet all the
exacting conditions of railway operation."
III
EMPLOYES AND THEIR COMPENSATION
NUMBER 1,524,400
COMPENSATION $1,008,270,000
The 368 railway companies reporting to this Bureau had 1,463,429
persons in their employ June 30, 1909, and their pay roll for the
twelve months to that date amounted to $973,172,497. Experience has
shown that these roads employ over 96% of the labor and pay 97% of
the compensation earned by railway employes. From which it appears
that the employes of all the railways in 1909 numbered 1,524,400,
whose compensation for that year was approximately $1,003,270,000.
This would show an increase of 66,756 men employed and a decrease of
$48,362,225 in compensation--a discrepancy accounted for by the fact
that the pay roll in June, 1908, was numerically at low tide while
the aggregate compensation was swelled by the large pay rolls of
the first six months of the fiscal year. The conditions were nearly
reversed in 1909, for the pay roll was at the ebb during the first
half of the year whereas the number on it did not begin to show the
demands of increasing traffic until the very close of the fiscal year.
These statistics would be more enlightening if the number of employes
was determined by the average from the monthly pay rolls throughout
the year and not as at present "from the pay rolls on June 30."
The discrepancies noted are liable to increase if the Commission
succeeds in getting the permission of Congress to substitute December
31st for June 30th as the end of its statistical year. Under the
present practice, the summary which follows reflects the improvement
of business in the increase of employes, while their aggregate
compensation continues to show the effect of the depression that
prevailed throughout the greater part of the year. When, however,
that compensation comes to be divided by the "Aggregate number of
days worked by all employes" during the year, the daily average which
results is found to be within a fraction of a cent the same as for
the preceding year.
The aggregate number of days worked by the employes of the roads
reporting to this Bureau was 434,328,026 days in 1909 against
453,002,228 for the preceding year.
The first summary under this title gives the number, compensation and
average pay of the several classes of employes of the roads reporting
for the year 1909, together with the aggregates as reported to the
Interstate Commerce Commission for the preceding years:
SUMMARY OF RAILWAY EMPLOYES, COMPENSATION AND RATES OF PAY BY CLASSES
IN 1909 AND AGGREGATES FROM 1889 TO 1909.