NP, GP 7/10/1862

From the Greensboro (N. C.) Patriot
 
July 10, 1862
 
For the Patriot
Rail Roads
   The line of a rail road should be as free from curves as possible, and no curve should be of less radius than 1000 feet: because curves, as the radius lessens from 5000 feet, retard the speed of trains in the relation of grades on a straight line, and when grades occur on curves, the latter tends to double the labor of the engine to pass over them. In that section of the N. C. Railroad which lies between Hillsboro' and the Yadkin river, no curve need have been necessary under 1000 feet radius, and many of the grades might have been lessened, and the line of them lengthened, thereby avoiding the many frequent changes from ascent to descent which requires the engine driver to keep increasing or decreasing his steam to run his train at a regular speed, and in order to arrive promptly at the time fixed for the arrival at different stations.
   It may not be the fault of the engineer who constructed the road, that so many curves and grades and frequent changes of grade are used, for it is reasonable to suppose that it was done to lessen the cost of building the road. But it is doubtful that it did. For curves lengthened the line which increased the quantity of iron, spikes, chairs, sills and earthwork. The narrow road-beds, cuts and embankments did lessen the cost of the earth-work, and which entails on the company a yearly increase in cost of repairs over what it has been in the last three years, to have made the line and grades what they should have been, and what will have to be done before the company will rid the road of a vexatious expense to the future managers of its affairs.
   Further, its construction made it necessary to stock the road with powerful and heavy engines, many of which on the eastern and western portions of the road are able to draw twice the number of laden cars which they can draw over the middle portion.
   The iron rails of the N. C. Railroad are No. 1, as compared with other American roads, its vertical depth being 4 inches. Other roads have used a rail from 3 inches to 3 3/4. The square of the depth gives the relative strength. The superior strength of this iron was well adapted to keep the line in better adjustment on uncovered sills, and bear the weight of heavy machinery. The sills are near enough to give a good support to the iron, and the length of the sill is quite sufficient to give a good base to the road. But the road bed, embankment or earth under the sills is too narrow to afford a bearing to the entire length of the sills; and the earth being clay chiefly, and sometimes mixed with decomposed substances, similar to clay when acted upon by water which are not fit to put under sills. But on this road, gravel, coarse sand or broken rock would be expensive to obtain in sufficient quantities to ballast under the sills one foot deep, while less than that would do no good.
   The body of the sills being nearly all naked, checks and cracks by the heat of the sun, and in rains these cracks are filled with water, as also are the pores of the wood. The surface of the sill holds all the water which falls upon it, and conducts it into its bed underneath, where the clay earth is made soft again, and as trains pass over, the narrow sills settle deeper into the earth than wide ones, and hence the necessity for raising the sill up to the rail. But it does not long remain so, and the earth not being a uniform substance, as gravel or rock, the sills give way under the passing of trains, both crosswise and lengthwise, and tilt and cant the rails out of adjustment. The rails are strained also, and the spikes and chairs become loosened, which require constant repair, and when wet weather occurs the labor of the ordinary gang of section hands is insufficient to make good repairs.
   From my experience in building and repairing rail roads from an early day, until within a few years, I would advise the managers of the N. C. Railroad to widen the road-bed 30 or 36 inches from each end of the sill, replace defective sills with new ones, and put new sills where the chairs are loose, and bring the superstructure into a true adjustment both ways. Also raise the disk where the grades meet descendingly, so that the bars will meet at the point as they were originally laid, and cover the sill its whole length, and one or two inches over its depth, making the slope of the sides of the bank one and a half or tow to one, and making good, open drainage for running water, and fasten the plank firmly at all road crossings, and repair the crossing so a vehicle can pass quickly over, when a train is approaching. I am confident that the sills on an average will last double the time, and they will be much easier kept in adjustment, and avoid much disaster which now occurs, and lessen largely the ordinary repairing expenses. The trains will carry more freight at the same expense, or the same freight with less fuel, and can be more regular and prompt.
   The effect of covering the sills from the sun's heat gives it a more uniform temperature with the earth, and when rain falls, moderately it is not changed; it is not filled with cracks to hold water, and when rain falls copiously it does not absorb as much nor carry the drainage into its own bed as if the earth about absorb it, and then the earth about the sill becomes mushy, and soft. If the sill does settle under the pressure of the train, as the sill rises, the earth settles under it by the pressure of the air, and the gravity of its more solid parts, and adjusts its own body. The rapid decay of timber is owning to several causes. But chiefly in the present condition of the sills, by wet and heat, and the oftener it occurs the more rapid the decay.
H.

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