| Annual Report of the Pensacola &
Georgia RR |
| as of April 1, 1866, |
| Superintendent's Report |
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| Superintendent's Report |
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| Pensacola & Georgia and Tallahassee
Railroads |
| Tallahassee, April, 1866 |
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Edward Houstoun, Esq.
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| President |
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Sir,
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Road Bed
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During the past year a good deal of work has been done
upon the Road bed, in ditching the excavations and repairing the
embankments. It is hoped that during the coming six months we may be
able to employ a sufficient force to ensure thorough drainage by
ditching thoroughly all the cuts, and also to ballast with sand all
the clay cuts and embankments on the road. Until this is done it will
be impossible to have a smooth track at these localities; and the
influence of a smooth or rough track upon the operating expenses is
too well understood to need comment.
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Bridges, Trestles and Culverts
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The truss bridge over the Suwannee, on the Live Oak
Branch, has been covered in. The truss bridges on the main line are in
good order. The trestle works on the whole road have been repaired at
a heavy cost, and may now be considered safe at low speeds. During the
coming year the trestle work at Black Creek and at Bayliss' Mill Creek
will require renewal at a cost of from $1,600 to $1,800. With ordinary
repairs, the remainder of the trestle work will stand during the
coming year. Trestle work, however, as ordinarily constructed and
resting upon mud sills, is, of all forms of support for a Railroad
track, the most insecure, and at the same time requires constant
supervision and expensive repairs; and I propose, wherever and
whenever it is practicable, to substitute for it more permanent
structures. I hope soon to be enabled to replace a considerable length
of it with embankments in the valleys of the Suwannee and the
Ocklockonee rivers.
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During the year a brick culvert has been constructed on
the Monticello Branch; and during the coming year it is proposed to
substitute, for the present wooden structures, three brick culverts,
viz: one about three-quarters of a mile west of the Tallahassee depot,
one near Ellenwood's Brick Yard, and one a short distance east of the
depot at Madison, These three culverts are estimated to cost about
$1,600.
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During the year, 85,039 new ties have been placed on the
track, at a cost of $25,000. This number is about one-fourth of the
whole number of ties on your roads and branches; and it is estimated
that at least the same number will be required during the year ending
March 31st, 1867, and, probably, for each year thereafter. This
estimate is confirmed by the experience of railroad employees in
Florida, which assigns four years as the limit of durability of good
pine ties. The annual cost of the renewal of ties on your road,
therefore, is one of the chief elements which constitute the operating
expenses. In fact, during the past year it amounts to more than
one-fifth of your operating expenses. During the past fifty years many
experiments have been made to ascertain the influence of chemical
reagents upon the durability of wood. Mr. Kyan and Sir William
Burnett, in England, and M. Boucherie, in France, (not to mention
others,) have distinguished themselves by their investigations on this
subject. Kyan's process -- generally known as "Kyanizing,"
-- consists in saturating the wood with a solution of bi chloride of
mercury. This method, which undoubtedly arrests decomposition most
effectually, was extensively practiced in England, and to some extent
in this country; but it fell into disuse from the great expense
attending its application. M. Boucherie injected oils and solutions of
various neutral salts; he seems, however, to have preferred the
pyroliginite of iron. His method has been extensively adopted in the
preparation of ties and telegraph posts in France. Sir Wm. Burnett
used chloride of zinc. "Burnettizing," as this
process is called, has been practices to some extent in Europe, and in
America has been more generally adopted as a means of preventing decay
in timber. The protracted experience of European and American
engineers seems to corroborate the results of the experiments above
cited, from which it also appears (as indeed common sense would seem
to dictate) that the use of the deliquescent salts must be avoided
where the ties are to be imbedded in humid sols, as would be the case
in the road beds of Florida. A suitable apparatus for the application
of the processes would cost, delivered here, about $12,000; and it
seems to be proved by experience that the ties can be prepared at a
cost of about 10 cents per tie, while their durability would be
increased, according to the authorities, from two to three or
four-fold. I would, therefore, recommend that a suitable apparatus for
this purpose be purchased.
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Iron Track and Joint Fastenings
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The durability of iron rails varies, of course, with
varying conditions; but on a dry and well ballasted road-bed, with
adequate drainage at all times, and with good and abundant ties
and joint fastenings, and always kept in adjustment, rails will
show a durability twice as great as when laid on an undrained road-bed
of earth or clay with ordinary cross ties and joint fastenings and
inadequate drainage. I have already recommended thorough drainage and
abundant ties. I will now add that the joint fastenings or chairs on
your road are very far from answering the purposes for which they were
designed; and as the durability, not only of the rails, but also of
the rolling stock, depends in a great measure upon the character of
these fastenings, I trust that I shall be authorized to replace the
old chairs with effective joint fastenings. The five miles of track
next to Quincy, heretofore without chairs of any kind, will soon be
supplied with suitable joint fastenings or chairs; and I hope that the
same fastenings may soon replace the very inferior chairs now in use
on the rest of the line of your road.
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*****
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Respectfully submitted,
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R. Walker
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Gen'l Sup't.
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