The succeeding newspapers published a great deal on construction, and
when it is remembered that all of it was experimental at that time,
it will be interesting to note that the Lexington and Ohio Railroad
Company, patterned most closely after the English models, undertaking,
however, to improve upon them by the use of our native limestone sills
which they believed to be indestructible and found, to their sorrow, to
be most perishable.
The Reporter of November 24th, 1830, says: "A great deal of information
on the subject of Rail Roads has been disseminated by public spirited
individuals in the course of the past two or three years. A number of
such works have been projected in the United States and some of them
completed within that period. The Baltimore and Ohio is first and most
important in every point of view. To the efforts of the enterprising
Directors and Stockholders of that Company, we shall be indebted for
the creation in a short period of time of a greater extent of Railway
communication between the several parts of the Union than Centuries have
produced of artificial or canal navigation. We firmly believe that the
digging of canals in all parts of the country will cease and that many
now in use will be abandoned and railroads substituted in place of them.
* * * * * As to the mode of construction--the route is selected upon
a minute survey, with as little elevation as possible, with a view to
economy--the line is then graded by excavating the earth to near a
level, say 50 feet slope to the mile. The excavation for a single line
of rails need not be more than one-third the width of a turnpike and, of
course, this part of the work is proportionately cheaper than grading
for a turnpike. Large pieces of limestone, two feet or more in length
and from 3 to 12 inches thick, made straight on the upper edge, are then
firmly imbedded along the graduated road in two lines, 4 feet 3 inches
apart. On these lines of stone sills are laid iron bars or rails, 2
inches wide, 1-1/2 inches thick, fastened with iron bolts. Bridges to
pass water courses and drains to carry off the water are to be made in
the common way. * * * The work is now done. As to its cost--Unless the
route be through hills and vallies and, of course, a very unfavorable
one, the necessary grading of a narrow line for a railway will not cost
more than the like work for a wide turnpike. * * * The next item of
expense is stone work. The stone sills will cost 20 cents per foot, or
$2,112 per mile for two rows. The iron rails and bolts will cost $57 per
ton, or $969 per mile, allowing 17 tons which will do, fastening the
same from 1 to $200 a mile. * * * No greater difficulty exists in fixing
the precise cost of a railway than of a house of given dimensions or of
a brick wall. In reference to the Lexington and Ohio Railroad the
requisite data to form true estimates of the cost of each separate mile
will soon be in possession of the Company. The Engineers are of the
opinion that it is throughout an eligible cheap line. The whole cost
then is less than $8,000 a mile."
* * * * *
The Reporter of December 1st, 1830, makes an interesting correction:
"In speaking in our last of the iron rails, we should have described
them as _half an inch_ thick instead of an inch and a half. The
engineers have run the experimental line on a grade thirty feet to the
mile instead of fifty feet as we supposed. A locomotive engine will act
advantageously upon a grade of forty feet or more, but the country
between Lexington and Louisville will admit of as low a grade as thirty
feet without expensive excavations or embankments, there being no
natural obstacle on the whole line except at Frankfort where an inclined
plane and stationary power will be required to reach the Kentucky River."
* * * * *
In the issue of March 30th, 1831, the Reporter makes an interesting
calculation, proving in dollars and cents the value of the prospective
railroad. It says: "It appears by a statement of the performance on the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway that an engine has transported 142 tons
of freight 180 miles in one day, making six trips between the two towns,
and that on the next day, the steam engine travelled 120 miles with
similar loads. The transportation of 142 tons in 180 miles is equivalent
to the conveyance of one ton 4620 miles. Now, if as it is stated, the
cost of fuel, oil, attendance and all other charges requisite to the
operations of a Locomotive Engine be only $5 a day, it follows that
when once a Rail Road is completed and all its machinery prepared for
operations 4620 tons may be transported one mile for $5.00, or 100 tons
one mile for 12-3/4 cents. When these results are applied to our own
road it will be seen that estimating ten barrels of flour for a ton,
the transportation of 100 barrels 100 miles would cost 106-1/4 cents.
It is true that no one can suppose that this full result can ever be
reduced to continued practice but the simple fact of its having once
been accomplished will be sufficient to place Rail Roads far above all
other artificial means of transportation. At the same time it should not
be forgotten that the wagons on the Liverpool and Manchester Rail Road
are of the old construction and are known to require double the power
to draw them that the wagons do on our Rail Road."
* * * * *
"Our Stockholders" pushed the work on "our Rail Road" with all speed;
the engineer submitted his report, and from the Kentucky Reporter,
September 1st, 1830, we find: "The examinations of the route for the
Rail Road from Lexington to the Ohio River has been made as far as
Frankfort which exhibit the following results:
1. There will be one Inclined Plane at Frankfort about 2200 feet long,
descending one foot in fourteen. All the residue of the road can be
graded to 30 feet or less in a mile which is a fraction over
one-fifteenth of an inch rise in a foot.
2. On that grade there will be no "cut" deeper than 19 feet at the apex
and but one of that depth.
3. There will be no embankment over 20 feet high, no bridge over 30 feet
high.
4. The distance to Frankfort will not be increased two miles in length
over the present travelled road.
5. There will not be as much rock excavation in the grading as will be
required to construct the road.
6. On the thirty feet grade which has been tentatively adopted, a single
horse is capable of travelling with seven tons weight with as much ease
as five horses can draw two tons on our present roads in their best
condition. Hence it follows that one man and two horses can transport on
the Railway as much weight in the same time as 35 horses and seven men
on our present roads."
* * * * *
That part of the road from Lexington to Villa Grove, six miles west of
Lex. was known as the "first division"; from Villa Grove to Frankfort
was designated "second division."
* * * * *
Mr. Kneass, the chief engineer, submitted "a grade table and a table
exhibiting the length of straight line, length of curve and radius of
curvature" to the Directors on October 14th, 1831.
* * * * *
John Holburn and Company were employed to furnish stone rail sills at
37-1/2 cents per perch.
* * * * *
On April 20th, 1831, The Reporter, which by the way, was known as "Mr.
Clay's organ," gives a most entertaining description of a Directors
meeting. It says:
"The Stockholders of the Lexington and Ohio Rail Road Company met at the
Court House in Lexington on Saturday last. H. Clay was called to the
Chair and H. I. Bodley acted as Secretary.
The meeting was large, most of the Stockholders, representing upwards
of six hundred thousand dollars, were present. The Stockholders at
Louisville were represented by Messrs. J. S. Snead, B. Lawrence, S. S.
Nicholas, J. I. Jacob and George Keats.
Mr. E. I. Winter (President of the Company) addressed the meeting an
hour and a half. He described the route as surveyed by Mr. Kneass, the
Engineer, entered into explanations respecting the estimates and made
various calculations as to the probable cost of the work. He presented
a very satisfactory and clear view of the means of the Company--its
flattering prospects--the great resources of this section of the
country &c.