Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1878 — Railroad Construction in 1877. [ARTICLE]

Railroad Construction in 1877.

The last number of the Railway Age contains a carefully-prepared table showing the number of new roads and extensions constructed during the year 1877, and the miles of track laid. It appears that during a year of continued depression to all industry no less than 2,265 miles were added to the railway system of the United States, which are divided among the various States as follows: r Wide. yarrow. Total'. Alabama 1 X ■■ IX California 100 39 229 Colorado 69 54 323 Connecticut 5 .. 5 Florida 5 .. 5 Illinois 73 .. 73 Indiana 16 .. 16 lowa 136 33 139 Kansas 62% 24 76X Kentucky 21 6 27 Massachusetts 17 8X 25X Michigan 33 8 41 * Minnesota 182 29 211 Missouri 23 27 60 Nebraska 69 10 79 New Hampshire 18 .. 18 New Jersey 28% 54 82% New York 99 -12 111* North Carolina 27 .. 27 Ohio 61 166 227 Pennsylvania 63X 86 149 X Rhode Island 1 .. 1 South Carolina 36% 5 41X Tennessee 7% 20 27X Texas 62 142 X 294 X Utah 20 20 Vermont €6 .. 66 Virginia 25 25 Washington Territory. 53X 53% West Virginia 25 .. 25 * Wisconsin 24 30 64 Total 1,3G5% 799 2,264% This is almost equal to the new mileage reported at a corresponding time for the year 1876. It is a notable fact, however, that the cost of construction and equipment never ruled so low as during the past year, and also that railways were never before built so nearly for the cash cost and with so little fictitious capital ; so that the aggregate of capital invested in the 2,300 or so miles of new road is far less than that represented in a corresponding increase of mileage in former years. To show the remarkable gr&wth of the narrow-gauge system inaugurated only half a dozen years ago in this country, the Age has given in its summary the figures for “wide-gauge” (including, in two or three instances, roads of five feet) and narrowgauge separately. No less than 65 per cent, of the roads in number, and 55 per cent, in mileage, were of the latter class—three-feet gauge—except iu one or two cases, where three feet six inches was used, and in another, where the novel width of two feet was chosen. These narrow-gauge roads have all been constructed very cheaply, aud iu many cases where it would have beeu difficult or impossible to raise the money for even a “ light” standard-gauge road. Iu some cases a mistake has been committed in varying from the usual standard of the country, but in may others the threc-feet gauge is equal to all possible demauds that will be made upon it, and as the roads are intended solely to supply limited local needs, where the people have no expectation of or ambition for building parts of a great “through” system, they are well adapted to their localities.