AR, NC 6/1/1865 EC

Annual Report of the North Carolina RR
as of June 1, 1865,
Examining Committee's Report
 
Report of Committee of Inspection
To the Stockholders of the North Carolina Rail Road Company:
Gentlemen,
  We, your Committee of Inspection appointed to examine and report upon the condition of your road at this, your 16th annual meeting, beg leave to submit the following:
   The past year is one that will ever stand memorable in the annals of your company; memorable as that in which the first passenger’s life was lost by collision or other accident on your line, and for the first explosion of a locomotive; also as a period in which your road has suffered unparalleled damages from heavy rains and high water; but till more memorable as being that period in which the almost entire length of your road became the closing scene of one of the greatest, bloodiest, and most terrible struggles ever known, in which, for four years, immense hosts fiercely contended for the mastery, summoning to their aid every engine for the destruction of life and property which modern science could invent or suggest. In the providence of God this state of things has passed away, and we are quietly permitted to take a survey of the losses sustained by your road, ascertain its present condition, and what is nece3ssary first to be done, and determine what is the best course to pursue in the future.

General Statement of Losses

   During the past year, seven of your bridges have been burned, namely: Little River, Neuse River, Stoney Creek, West Buffalo, Deep River, Rich Fork and Abbott’s Creek. Your depots at Goldsboro’, Raleigh, High Point, and Salisbury are all burned. At Charlotte, the passenger shed, offices, and one-half of the joint depot are in ashes. The wood shed at McLean’s station is also burned. Some ten miles of the track in the vicinity of Salisbury was partially destroyed by fire. Besides a number of cars loaded with cotton and other freight have been burne4d at various points along your line. The heavy freshet of January filled up many of the side ditches of the road bed, washed out the trestling put in room of bridges at Rich Fork and Abbott’s Creek, overflowed a portion of the road along Swearing Creek, destroying the track and embankment for a considerable distance. Six locomotives have been lost; one by collision, one by explosion, and four bought from the Confederate States have been claimed by other companies and taken away by the United States authorities. The supply of cross ties and lumber in the long leaf pine below Raleigh have been destroyed and cut off, together with the services of your saw mills, for a time. Many of the cars, from long running and hard service, have broken down. Much of the iron in track has been rendered useless from the hard wear as well as by injury from fire. The services of the negroes bought by the company have been lost by the recent change in their condition. In addition to all this, the sudden change in the currency constitutes an item of no inconsiderable loss to your company.

The Present Condition

   The road from Raleigh to Goldsboro’ is in possession of the Government, and at present, under the control of the military and worked exclusively by them. We have, therefore, not examined that portion of the line.

Road Bed and Track

  With the exception of bad iron, the road bed and track are in better order than might have been expected. The alignment of track and condition of the road bed of main line being generally good, while those of side tracks are generally inferior. The division in best order is that from Raleigh to the Shops, the worst is that from the Shops to Greensboro’. The best section on the road is that in charge of James Anderson, near Jamestown. In many places much ditching is necessary to be done to put the road bed in order for the winter. The breaks in the embankment are at present supplanted by trestle, which should be made permanent, or what is better, have banks rebuilt. New iron should be got as early as possible to replace the bad in the track, as it largely increases the labor in keeping it up, while it injures the god iron, and is also very damaging to the machinery and rolling stock. It will require at least twenty miles of new iron and sixty thousand cross ties to put the road in first rate order.

Culverts and Bridge Masonry

    The two culverts in heavy embankment at Raleigh are still in very bad order. The balance westward are generally good. The masonry of bridges burnt has been injured, but its permanency has not been destroyed; with slight repairs it will answer well for new bridges. The masonry of the other bridges remains as it was last year, answering well the purpose for which it was erected.

Bridge Superstructure

  None of the bridges burned have been rebuilt, temporary trestling having been substituted in their room. The bridges standing are generally in safe condition. Leonard’s Creek bridge requires new stringers, South Potts’, new stringers and floor beams, and that at Morrisville, a new roof. Some of the principal bridges have been used by the armies in crossing their wagons and artillery, thereby somewhat injuring their roofs. All the deck bridges are at present covered with plank which makes neither a good nor a safe roof. They ought all to be covered with sheet iron.

Warehouses

   Nothing has been done toward rebuilding the depot buildings burned. This ought to be attended to at once. Besides rebuilding those destroyed, joint passenger accommodations are needed at Raleigh, and passenger and freight accommodations at Greensboro’. At your 14th annual meeting, you instructed a passenger shed to be built at Raleigh, which was not done, principally because a location could not be agreed upon. While the officers of your road had several meetings with those of the Raleigh & Gaston road for the purpose of erecting a joint passenger shed, the result was that they could not agree upon a plan – the freight depot being then in the way of making the best arrangement. That building being now burnt down, the present is a favorable time for the officers of both roads at once to meet and fix upon a general plan for both freight and passenger buildings. The depot buildings, generally, need repairs on roofs, gutters, doors and windows, and especially on the platforms, several of which are rotting down, having the plank torn off them, &c. The wood sheds at stations are generally much out of order, the under timbers of some are decayed, some have been torn down, others have plank torn off. Better policing is necessary at several depots, especially at Charlotte, where the ground ought to be raised under platforms and better drainage made to prevent the accumulation of stagnant water and mud.
   Hitherto very little attention has been paid to the health, comfort or convenience of passengers arriving or departing from our depots – no privacy being provided for either ladies or gentlemen. More attention ought to be paid to this matter, if we expect popular favor and patronage as a passenger road.

Wood and Water

   The supply of wood is small and ought to be at once largely increased, that it may dry and giver proper supply for winter. The water accommodations are amply sufficient.

Engines and Cars

   The Fisher, a superior new fist class engine, just put on the road, was designed, built and finished in your shops. She is a tangible proof of the skill and ability of your workmen. There are eight engines on the road in good order, three in fair order, three in bad condition, and five in the shop undergoing repairs. Three or four more engines ought to be added to the stock. Many of the cars need a thorough overhauling. There are about one hundred and thirty-five box cars fit for service, and thirty unserviceable; about thirty-five flats serviceable, and twenty-three unfit for use. Besides the above, there are eighteen cars on that portion of the road occupied at present by the Government, which it is hoped, will soon be turned over to you; and there are six box cars in shops nearly ready for the road. Passenger cars are sadly deficient, there being only two in god order, two in fair order , and some six or seven require to be thoroughly overhauled, and, in the main, rebuilt. There are three good mail cars. At least four additional passenger and two mail cars are needed.

Running of Trains

   Your road and machinery do not appear to reap the full benefit of the slow time schedule, on account of too much time being spent at depots and wood and water stations, thereby causing fast running betwixt them, which is injurious to both road and stock, while in hot weather, especially, it causes passengers, in transit, to complain. More lights, water and brooms are necessary for passenger trains, and the brooms should be freely used.

The Telegraph

   That which is so essential for the dispatch of business and the safe running of trains on a Rail Road is, at present of but very little if any assistance to your officers in the working of the road. It being operated by the military, dispatches on the business of the road are only sent when convenient, and are then frequently detained by the way, having to be re-sent at Greensboro’. It is hoped that your road may soon have again the benefit of the line, and as the Company that put up the telegraph line is amongst the things that were, steps should be taken that the road may obtain exclusive control of the line.

Work Shops

   These, for the past few years have spoken for themselves, and fully demonstrated that they are the main spring of the road. Without them your road could not have been kept running. Their necessities and wants should, at all times, be promptly supplied that they may still be enabled to meet, with efficiency and dispatch, the requirements of the road. The round house directed by you two years ago for stabling the locomotives, though much needed, has not been built. There is a scarcity of supply of lumber for building and repairing cars. This scarcity of lumber exists throughout the entire length of the line, rendering it indispensably necessary that the company should have at least another saw mill as early as possible. The stationary engine in shops requires a new cylinder, which is being made. The stock of tools and machinery are at present good. Some of these, with a considerable amount of materials necessary for building and repairing now in hand, have been purchased during the past year. The extensive repairs necessary to put all the rolling stock in good order should be promptly done, and as much as possible of the new stock required should be built at these shops that they may be of uniform plan. Uniformity of construction is greatly desirable, for various reasons: it lessens the cost of construction and repairs, the making up of trains easier, and their motion more steady and uniform, while it renders available all the sound parts of damaged cars or machinery. To do the repairs and building necessary, a stock of lumber, coal, pig iron, with some iron and steel, and a few hands added to the mechanical force, is required.
   *****

The Past, Present, and the Future

   In reviewing the past, we have great reason to be grateful to Almighty God, that, whilst so many thousands of passengers have been transported over the road, and that too, frequently under very unfavorable circumstances, only one life has been lost be accident; and whilst your road has been tried by fire and flood, and immense armies have been in fierce combat along its line, it has lost so little; and that by good management, it has been enabled to do so large a business. Although the road has so many pressing wants, we should be thankful that it is even in running order; for, while so many of our sister roads have been so damaged as to render them incapable of doing anything for some time to come, your road is still in a condition to do a large business; and though there is much to be done during the coming year, and a scarcity of funds to do it with, giving no promise of a surplus for dividends for some years to come, let us have faith in the future, proving that faith by our works, in doing all that is necessary to be done, hoping that in future years it will abundantly repay us.
   The late in our system of labor is one of the difficulties with which your road, at present, ahs to contend, and one which may cause trouble for years to come, at least until “the freedmen” learn to do a freeman’s work and prove a freeman’s constancy, or be supplanted by white labor. At present many of “the freedmen” do not work as well as they have hitherto done; besides, no dependence can be put in them. They come to-day and engage to work for a month or three months, commence work, receive rations, and to-morrow they are gone. The negro, as a general thing, cannot understand that freedom which requires constancy and labor. They have yet to learn that if ever they succeed as freemen, they must do a freeman’s work, which will require them to strike more and harder blows than many of them have heretofore done, and exercise a freeman’s constancy and economy to which most of them are now strangers.
   As the detail of the several departments will be given you more fully by the officers in charge thereof, we close by stating that we have been afforded every facility by both officers and men.
Wm. Murdock
W. R. Holt
J. M. Morehead
Committee

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