| Annual Report of the New Orleans, Opelousas
& Great Western RR |
| as of January 1, 1863 |
| Superintendent's Report |
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| Superintendent’s Report |
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N. O., O. & G. W. R. R. Co.
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Chief Engineer and Superintendent’s Office
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Algiers Depot, December 31, 1866
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B. Seger, Esq., President
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The following report is respectfully submitted, to accompany
your Annual Report to the Stockholders: |
| On the 1st of
February last the military authorities of the United States, in
compliance with orders from the War Department, returned to the
Company their road, with such machinery, rolling stock and
appurtenances as remained upon it, out of the full and complete
equipment, in all of its departments, on the road and belonging to the
Company at the time July 1st, 1862, when said military
authorities, to facilitate military movements, took possession of it. |
| Inventory of locomotive engines
and rolling stock on the road and belonging to the Company, Jlu 1st,
1862, when taken into the possession of the United States military
authorities of the Gulf Department, and value of same at the rates
current in 1860-61: |
| 12 |
Locomotive Engines in good order |
$95,500.00 |
| 14 |
Passenger Cars, in good order |
28,600.00 |
| 5 |
Baggage Cars, in good order |
6,000.00 |
| 2 |
Express Cars, in good order |
2,000.00 |
| 95 |
Freight Box Cars, in good order |
76,000.00 |
| 76 |
Freight Platform Cars, in good order |
53,200.00 |
| 28 |
Freight Stock Cars, in good order |
28,500.00 |
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Total |
$289,800.00 |
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| The value of the above rolling
stock and locomotive engines now, or on the 1st of February
last, when what remained was returned to the Company, is and was fully
fifty per cent. greater in 1860 or 1861. The value of the above in
1866, would have been at least $436,000.00. |
| In addition to the above, on
the 1st of July 1862, there was upon the road, belonging to
the Company, a machine shop, a blacksmith shop and an engine house,
fully equipped with all necessary machinery, implements, tools and
materials for the manufacture of rolling stock and repairs of same; a
full equipment of hand-cars, push-cars, section buildings, tools and
implements for the repairs and maintenance of the track and roadway;
depots, wharves, ferry boat and barge for transporting passengers and
freight over the Mississippi river, station buildings, warehouses and
platforms, water-tanks, wood-sheds, and implements and tools for the
transportation department; also wood for the locomotives, lumber,
cross-ties, rails, chars, frogs, and a large quantity of old wheels
and axles, rails, iron work for cars, cast and wrought scrap iron,
etc., etc. |
| Two of the Company’s
locomotive engines, the “Chris’r Adams,” and “Opelousas,”
and one passenger car, one baggage car, four caboose cars and six box
freight cars, were sent to the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad.
Another engine, the “Great Western,” and cars also, we believe,
were sent to the Brazos Santiago & Brownsville Railroad. No
account was ever rendered to the Company of this valuable rolling
stock, no credit was given for it, and none of it has been returned. |
| We are informed, on what is
believed to be good authority, that the cars and wheels and axles
belonging to the Company, were used for stocking the New Orleans,
Jackson & Great Northern, and the St. Joseph street railways. Also
that a large number of coal or gravel cars were manufactured in the
Company’s shops for the St. Joseph street railway, for which the
Company’s old wheels and axles – shortened by cutting and
rewelding to suit the difference in guage or track – were used. The
Company’s materials, such as chairs, frogs, etc., were also used on
said road, a portion of them having been lately identified in a store
in New Orleans, when offered to us for sale by the person who
purchased them at the Government sale of the materials taken from the
St. Joseph street road. |
| We are informed, and believe,
that pending the negotiations for the restoration of the road to the
Company, a large quantity – several steamboat loads – of cast and
wrought scrap iron, old wheels and axles, etc., were collected on the
road and shipped off, without any account being rendered to the
Company of same, although, to the best of our knowledge and belief, a
large portion of it, if not all, was the property of the Company.
About half a mile of copper pipe, leading from the river to the engine
house tanks, was taken up and carried away without credit to the
Company, notwithstanding that the iron gas pipe which was laid down in
place of it, was charged to the Company at a high price in the
transfer accounts. |
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