| From the Richmond Enquirer |
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| October 17, 1861 |
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| The Virginia & Tennessee Railroad |
| The fourteenth annual report of R. L.
Owen, President of the company, printed copies of which were laid
before the City Council on Monday evening, state its gross earnings
for the fiscal year which ended on June the 30th, at $798,928.50, and
the expenses of operating it, at $309,414.66, leaving a nett gain of
$299,513.94, a fraction over fifty per cent, or five and one half per
cent upon the total cost of the road. Compared with the operations of
the preceding year the result is an increase of $58,441.72 in the
receipts, and of $5,885.82 in running expenses. There was a decrease
in the amount of tonnage recorded, of 7,426 tons, caused by the almost
total failure of wheat and other crops in the West and South-West, and
an increase of 20,426 passengers, caused by the movement of troops, of
whom 84,000 had been transported. The total receipts of the company
from its organization to the close of the fiscal year, have been
$10,524,119.95, and the total disbursements in the same period
$10,002,205.79. |
| The company own 39 locomotives; 41
passenger and mail, and 290 freight and cattle cars. The bridges
&c., washed away, or injured by the heavy freshets of last October
have been permanently rebuilt, and a telegraphic line extends along
the entire road. |
| The General Superintendent of the road,
Wm. E. Gill, calls attention in his report, to the present difficulty
of obtaining railroad supplies. In the whole Confederacy, he states,
"there is no manufacture of steel, locomotives, tire or many
other articles absolutely necessary. There is but one rolling mill at
Atlanta, Georgia engaged in making rails, and there is no supply on
hand to replace those which are wearing away. No one single company in
this State has the ability, even if its propriety was unquestionable,
to construct the necessary works, but it is probable that an assurance
of patronage would induce other companies to the same pledge and
thereby engage a sufficiency of private capital. The Government, too,
in view of its great importance, might be induced to lend it
aid." |
| {The numbers are, in many cases,
very had to make out. Reference should be made to the annual report
itself.} |
|