| Annual Report of the North Carolina RR |
| as of June 1, 1861, |
| Examining Committee's Report |
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| Committee of Inspection's Report |
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| To the Stockholders of the North
Carolina Rail Road Company |
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| Gentlemen, |
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We, a part of the Committee appointed at your last
meeting "to examine into the condition of this road, and make a
full report," desire to state that we have had the same under
consideration, and have been somewhat at a loss to know, the extent of
our duties.
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report" of the condition of the road would require a close
examination of all its business, accounts, books, cash, &c., and
would necessarily take much time and labor, and as you had a Finance
Committee appointed, we concluded it was only intended that we should
examine the road-line, its superstructure, stations, ware-houses,
&c., &c. Before making our report we would state, |
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First. That your committee has been deprived of
the services of its most experienced and talented member, (Ex-Governor
Morehead,) and we hope therefore you will excuse the lack of ability
and errors of judgment you may discover in our report.
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Second. That your road has lost its President and
the Road-master of the Eastern Division, they both having mustered
men, drawn the sword, and gone forth to defend with their lives, our
homes, our property, and our liberties, and drive from our borders the
invading foe.
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Third. That the war, brought upon us by the
fanaticism, usurpation, and attempted tyranny, of a portion of the
people (and would-be-rulers) with whom we have hitherto been united,
has stopped some of the sources whence your road derived its supplies
by spades, shovels, &c., for doing its work; besides this, it has
upset, and in a great measure changed the general business of the
road. We therefore ask you to give due weight to these statements
whenever a seeming want of order or neglect of duty may appear. With
these preliminary remarks we beg leave to submit to you the following
report:
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From the morning of July 1st, 1861 until the night of the
4th, we passed and repassed over the entire length of your road. We
went first over the larger portion of it in the regular trains, then
repassed over it from Goldsboro' to Raleigh with a handcar, and then
from Raleigh to Charlotte with an extra engine, thereby giving us the
opportunity of walking over as much of the road as we desired, and of
stopping and examining into any thing and every thing we thought
proper, and we have arrived at the following general conclusions,
namely: That while your road, at the present time, and in its present
condition is capable of doing, with safety, a large business, there is
still much required to be done to make it what it ought, and is
intended to be, a first class road, in first rate order, with
protection for its stock and every convenience for the safety and
economical dispatch of its business, unaffected by the storms of
winter and the drougth of summer. Your committee would here
respectfully suggest some of the things necessary to be done to make
it such a road, while at the same time, they will set forth more
particularly its present condition.
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Culverts. While; they are generally in good order
and answering the purpose intended, a few on the eastern portion of
the road have given way, or the embankment has been washed away, and
the track now crosses on trestle. These with open water-ways that were
originally put in with timber, when again required, ought to be put in
with brick or stone, likewise, the opening in the bank at Sugar Creek,
the latter with several of the former ought at first to have been made
open water-ways instead of covered culverts.
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Bridge Masonry. A portion of the brick-work at
Little River requires repointing and a small portion of the brick-work
at Cate's Creek should be repaired, and the stone masonry at Neuse
River and at Coddle Creek require each, three hour's work of a man to
point some open joints. With these exceptions the masonry is in good
order and standing well.
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Bridge Superstructure. While the bridges have been
lately examined, the most of them adjusted, and some of them repaired,
still there is something to do to many of them. All the deck bridges
leak more or less, being covered with plank which makes neither a
tight nor durable roof, and subjects the whole bridge to extra danger
from fire. They ought to be roofed with tin or iron and painted. The
trestle at Cate's Creek where the bridge was burned, requires repair,
we would recommend, in its stead, a Howe-truss-bridge. Several lateral
braces require to be fixed in Walnut Creek bridge. Leonard's Creek
bridge requires a new cord, and new stringers are required at the
track at the ends of the Yadkin bridge and several others.
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Neuse River bridge requires new wall-plates and new
bolsters at the east end. Several of the bridges have been somewhat
injured in the ends of bolsters, and cords by embankments being
allowed to encroach upon them. Attention ought to be paid to this
matter and the evil corrected.
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Road-bed. Many portions of the road-bed in the
ends of cuts and on embankments require widening, and in some places
raising.
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Balasting. While there appears to have been a
quantity of balasting done in several places along the road during the
past winger, there are still many places that ought to be balasted. It
is fortunate for our road that plenty of good balast is found in many
places along its line.
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Ditching. A large amount of ditching is required
along the line of the road. Many of the cuts are very much filled up,
and some appear as if they had not been ditched out during the past
year.
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Weeds and Bushes. We find in many places that both
are allowed to grow up too much in and near the road-way.
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Cross-ties. There has probably been over ninety
thousand new sills put into the road since your last annual meeting
and we believe there ought to be at least thirty thousand more put in
before the middle of September.
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Track. This appears generally in a fair condition
at present so far as regards iron, surface and alignment, but you will
see from the foregoing statements that a large amount of sills and
hard labor is necessary to put it in a safe condition to do the
business of the coming winter.
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The question now arrives, can the work pointed out, be
done and the road ;prepared for winter with its present force of
hands?
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Some of the section-masters think that it can if they are
supplied with tools, sills, and gravel-trains. We think the present
force of section-hands abundantly large for keeping up the road, and
if properly supplied, and do their duty, they ought to be able under
favorable circumstances, with the assistance of four gravel-trains, to
put your road in good order by December.
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Quarters for Section-masters and hands are all
convenient and in good order, except the Negro Quarters on second
section from Goldsboro', which are bad and ought to be re-built, and
the Quarters on second section from Charlotte are not convenient being
placed at the end of the section.
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Ware-houses. Nearly all their platforms require
some repairs and several of the houses have leaks in their roofs or
gutters, and require new pipes for conducting off the water. The roofs
of those covered with tin ought to be painted. A small amount for each
station would put the whole in good repair. With but a few exceptions
we found the ware-houses neat and clean inside, and the books of the
Agents apparently all kept in good order. In some of the ware-houses
we find goods or produce stored. When such is allowed ought not storage
to be charged We also find some goods and produce without owners.
Ought there not to be a law whereby such things may be sold before their
value is destroyed, and with the proceeds pay the freight and
expenses, and put the remainder at interest for the owner, would such
ever be found? We also find where goods and produce are left in
ware-houses became of litigation between parties. Ought not such goods
to be charged with storage and risk?
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While we rejoice to see and know something of the immense
advantage our road has been to our country and our State, as well as
to individuals hitherto, but more especially during this trying crisis
that has come upon our country, we think that the books of all its
Agents ought to be so kept, that if necessary they will show what is
done, and your road receive credit for all the gratuitous favors it
may bestow in the way of carrying either persons or supplies. At
Goldsboro' we found the general passenger-shed very dirty, and would
suggest that some arrangement be made between the Agents of the three
railroads and the Telegraph Agent, to have the premises swept every
day. Our yard and side tracks, at this place, are neither of them in
good condition. Both here and at Salisbury a change made in the
switches and tracks would be of great advantage in the shifting of
freight cars. At your last annual meeting your President reported that
some better arrangement ought to be made, both at Goldsboro' and
Charlotte, for the better preservation of the engines and cars, and
other property of the Company constantly standing at these two points.
Your passenger coaches and mail cars still stand there, without sheds,
exposed to the weather, and we think it bad economy to allow them to
stand so. You were informed also by him last year, that a joint
passenger shed was much needed at Raleigh, and to be built before
winter, the same necessity still exists, as no shed has been erected.
Two years ago he called your attention to the great value and
necessity of having q telegraph line erected along your road, you then
instructed your Board of Directors to take such steps as they thought
best for the construction of a line the whole length of the road. It
has been built only from Greensboro' to Raleigh, and we think there is
more necessity existing now, than before, of having it built through
to Charlotte.
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Engines and Cars. Expecting that your Master
Machinist will make a full report to you of the numbers, condition,
&c., of both, we pass them by, with merely the remark, that many
of the old cars are becoming shackly and their roofs leak, and instead
of repairing them it might be economy to have their places supplied,
as soon as practicable, with new ones.
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As regards both engines and cars, we think, that there is
too much variety, and if more uniformity, in the size, plans and
construction of both, was observed, we think it would add much to the
convenience and economy of the road.
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Work-Shops. though last they are still far from
being least in importance to your road. In the past, while much
difference of opinion has existed in regard to their location, cost of
building, &c., all must agree that they are a very necessary and
important department, and have already been of efficient service to
the road -- they have been called "the centre from which must go
out the arteries of life," -- if they have been so in the past,
ought they not, from the change of relations taken place in our
country, to be more emphatically so in the future.
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We would recommend this important department to the
special care of future directors, believing that henceforth all our
engines and cars of every description required for our road, should
then be made as well as repaired. Let our style of work be plain but
substantial, that we may have service with economy. While much might
be said in praise of the general plans and arrangements at the shops,
your Committee think there are also some defects, and would specially
call your attention to one. The engine-shed is so arranged as to
require both much time and labor either to put the engines in, or to
take them out, so much so, that in many cases it will prevent them
from being stabled or when stabled, should a fire occur, they stand in
danger of being burned, before they could be taken out.
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Before closing our report it is due to the officers of
the road to state that from the President down to the humblest
employee, they afforded us every facility for the fullest
investigation and examination of every part of the road and its
appurtenances, and we cannot but congratulate the company in having in
their employ so many officers and men, whose general deportment,
respectable appearance, and appropriate bearing and decorum are such
as would do credit to any Company.
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All of which is respectfully submitted,
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William Murdock
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W. L. Means, Committee
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