EXPENSES DEPENDENT ON FREIGHT AND PASSENGER-TRAIN MILEAGE.

In comparing two routes of different grades, since the number of cars per train depend on maximum grades, it is proper to estimate separately those expenses which are chargeable to the cars themselves, and are therefore distinct from the preceding, which have been charged to train mileage.

Expenses in cents per mile run by one car.

Loading and unloading freight.

A mean of the amounts paid on the New York and Erie Railroad and New York Central shows this to be for each ton of freight put on and taken off cars 20 cents.

Station and miscellaneous expenses.

These depend on all the preceding expenses, as they are for superintendence of maintenance of way, train and car expenses, and repairs, daily movement of trains, passengers and freight, &c. Any considerable alteration in any one item of expense will have an influence on station and miscellaneous expenses. The latter, therefore, should be estimated as being a given fractional part of the sum of the other expenses. It would be easy to show the error arising from making it depend on length of road, train, or car mileage.

On the roads already referred to we find these expenses per train mile as follows, in cents:

Maintenance of way, annual cost per mile of single track = $672 59+

$7,136 91

t

number of cars from table corresponding to grade and velocity for road=t; a mean of its passenger and freight values should be used.

Expenses dependent on train mileage:

Cost per mile run by freight trains, 55.5 cents.

Cost per mile run by passenger trains, 49.214 cents.

Expenses dependent on car mileage:

Cost per mile run by freight cars, 0.726 cent.

Cost per mile run by passenger car, 1.750 cent.

Expense loading and unloading freight :

Twenty cents per ton, handled twice.

Miscellaneous and station expenses:

Twenty-two per cent. of sum of preceding.

freight tonnage

or

No. of passengers

No. of cars in train x No.

X length of road in miles.

Car mileage = train mileage × No. of cars in train.

APPENDIX C.

No. 1.

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY,

Engineer Department, 13 William street, New York, August 29, 1865.

COLONEL: I have the honor to place in your hands the following named data relating to the proposed change in the route of the Union Pacific Railroad between the Missouri river and the Platte valley, to wit:

1. Communication from the Union Pacific Railroad Company, with reference to their future policy as connected with the change of route west of Omaha.

2. Report of the consulting engineer on the location between Omaha City and the Platte valley, dated December 21, 1864.

3. Letter of J. L. Williams on the location between Omaha City and the Platte valley, dated January 2, 1865.

4. Map showing the different routes surveyed for the Union Pacific Railroad between the Missouri river and Frémont.

5. Profile showing the grades upon the different routes surveyed for the Union Pacific Railroad between the Missouri river and Frémont.

6. Estimate of cost of different routes between the Missouri river and Platte valley, August 24, 1865, by S. Seymour, consulting engineer.

7. Extract from estimate of first 100 miles, 80-feet grades, September 1, 1864, by Peter A. Dey, engineer in charge.

8. Approximate estimate West Pappillon and Mud creek, January 23, 1865, by J. E. House, division engineer.

9. Estimate of D. H. Ainsworth, engineer in charge, August, 1865.

10. Surface profiles of routes Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

The communication from the company with reference to their future policy as connected with the proposed change of route west of Omaha is intended to convey the strongest assurances that can be given by the Union Pacific Railroad Company, that, in case of the approval by the President of the United States of the amendment of the route between Omaha and the Platte valley, as submitted to him through the Secretary of the Interior on the 12th of May, 1865, and represented upon the accompanying maps, profiles, and estimates as "Route No. 3," the company will within a reasonable time adopt and carry out the improvements in maximum grades of which this route is claimed to be susceptible, as the same are represented upon the map, profiles and estimates by "Route No. 4."

The report of the consulting engineer, dated December 21, 1864, together with the letter of Hon. J. L. Williams to Mr. T. C. Durant, vice-president of the road, dated January 2, 1865, contain the reasons which induced the company in January last to abandon the route as originally located between Stations 150 and 900, and substitute for it what is called the Mud creek and Pappillon valley route, between the same points.

You will observe that the case, as presented in the documents above referred to, is a supposititious one, based upon certain assumptions, which it was believed a survey of the route recommended for adoption would prove to be true. The company, therefore, in the first instance, adopted the change upon the condition that the surveys of the new route proved the correctness of the data assumed in the argument, which being afterwards done to the satisfaction of the company, so far as the Mud creek and Pappillon valley line was concerned, the work of construction was during the early part of last February suspended upon the old line and commenced upon the new line.

In submitting the case at the present time for your final investigation and report to the Secretary of the Interior, to whom it has been referred by the President, for the purpose of vindicating the officers of the company from the charge of improper motives in prematurely adopting this change of route, it appears proper that I should lay before you the following brief history of the case prior to the date of my report of December 21, 1864, and the letter of Mr. Williams of January 2, 1865:

In October, 1864, I, for the first time, passed over and examined the line, as then located and being constructed, under the direction of Mr. Peter A. Dey, engineer in charge, in company with Mr. Jesse L. Williams, Mr. John E. Henry, and Mr. Dey. In doing this, I took occasion to study the drainage and topography of the country in the immediate vicinity of this line, and to obtain from Mr. Dey what information I could respecting the surrounding country. I found that the line, as then located, crossed the headwaters of Mud creek at or near Station 170, and, on examining the map, I found that this creek ran southerly, and discharged into the Pappillon at a point four or five miles west of the Missouri river, at Bellvue. Before leaving Omaha, I asked Mr. Dey if he had studied the topography of the country sufficiently to render it certain that the maximum grades between Omaha and the Platte valley could not be reduced at a reasonable expense by increasing the length of the line. He replied, very positively, that he had, and that it could not be done. I then called his attention particularly to the eighty-feet grade descending westerly from the bluffs into the Platte valley near the Elkhorn river, and told him that I was satisfied, from my examination of the

ground, that by turning the line upon the face of the bluffs the grade at that point could be reduced to almost any limit, and the cost of grading materially reduced. He admitted that this was possible, but claimed, at the same time, that the eighty feet grade at that point was of no importance, so long as the same grade occurred in several instances between that point and Omaha. I then asked him if he would run such a line as I suggested, before commencing work at that point, and send me the result of the survey to New York, which he promised to do.

On leaving Omaha for St. Joseph, by steamboat, I took occasion to examine from the pilot-house the bluffs between Omaha and the mouth of the Pappillon, for the purpose of ascertaining whether there were any depressions between those points, through which a line could pass, with low grades, between the Missouri and Mud Creek valleys, and I became satisfied that it could be done. The opinion was then formed that a very palpable engineering mistake had been made, either in fixing the terminus of the road at Omaha, or in the location of the line between Omaha and the Platte valley.

Soon after returning to New York, in November, I inquired of Mr. Durant, the vice-president of the company, whether the location of the line between the Missouri river and the Platte valley was to be regarded as fixed beyond change, or whether it could be so far regarded as an open question that I would in any manner be held responsible for it hereafter, as consulting engineer of the road. He informed me that he regarded the terminal point as fixed beyond change, but if I could suggest any change in the location of the first forty miles that would be regarded as a decided improvement in the route, it was unquestionably my duty to do so at once, and before any further expenditure had been incurred upon the line as then located.

I immediately commenced an investigation of the subject, by collecting the data on file in the office, which consisted of a map and profile of the located line, together with maps and profiles of preliminary surveys from the Elkhorn, down the Platte valley to its mouth, and down the West Pappillon to Bellvue.

In the mean time a correspondence bearing upon this subject occurred between Mr. Dey and this office, a copy of which is annexed hereto.

From the information obtained from these profiles, and the correspondence with Mr. Dey, together with the general knowledge of the country acquired during my hasty visit in October, resulted the report of December 21, 1864, Mr. Williams's letter of January 2, 1865, and the subsequent abandonment by the company of the old location between Stations 150 and 900, and the adoption of the line as then recommended down Mud creek and up the Pappillon valleys.

It should be borne in mind, however, that the change in location and grades between Stations 150 and 900 was not all that was specified, either in my report or the letter of Mr. Williams, as being necessary for the company to do before realizing the advantages claimed for the new route by reason of the reduction of the maximum grades to forty feet per mile in

each direction.

The grading, then nearly completed, between Omaha and Station 150, was to be used only temporarily; and it was recommended, "that for the present as little money as practicable be expended in grading in the valley of Mud creek, between Station 150 and the point where a line with moderate grades in both directions would naturally leave this valley to enter the valley of the Missouri river." The line here referred to, with moderate grades in both directions," was the route heretofore alluded to, as passing through the depression in the bluffs between Omaha and the mouth of the Pappillon, and which I assumed would, as a matter of course, be adopted hereafter by the company.

It was also stated in the report that the grade of eighty feet per mile, near the Elkhorn, must hereafter be reduced to forty feet per mile, either by a slight change in the location, or by deepening the excavation and raising the embankment upon the present location. With these changes in alignment and grades, it was claimed that the new route would possess all the advantages over the old route assumed for it in the report.

It may also be proper to state in this connexion, that Mr. T. C. Durant, vice president, never, to my knowledge, advocated the change in location, either in or out of the board of directors. On the contrary, he seemed to be reluctantly forced into a passive assent to the change by the weight of the argument in its favor, and the judgment of the government directors, together with the advice of Mr. Usher, then Secretary of the Interior, who happened to be in the office of the company when the matter was under discussion, and represented to the board that the President, Mr. Lincoln, would undoubtedly favor the change.

The matter, however, was never submitted to Mr. Lincoln for his approval before his death, nor was it officially laid before the Interior Department until the day fixed for the retirement of Mr. Usher as Secretary.

It is not strange, therefore, in consideration of the extra charge upon the government subsidy growing out of the elongation of the line, and the clamor and misrepresentations made as to the facts in the case, and the motives of the company in making the change by parties who suppose that their private interests will be affected unfavorably thereby, that Mr. Harlan, the present honorable Secretary of the Interior, should recommend to the Presi dent that the matter be examined and reported upon by a competent and disinterested government engineer, before taking final action upon it.

You will see from the foregoing statement that I incurred a very serious personal as well as professional responsibility in recommending so important a measure to the company upon information and data so slight and unreliable; but it was an issue that I could not consistently avoid when I found that my own reputation as an engineer was at stake. I am conscious of having entered into the discussion with a single eye to what I regarded as the real interests of all parties who had a right to be consulted in the matter, and whatever may be the final result, I shall always feel that my duty to the company, as their consulting engineer, has been faithfully performed.

You will find, on examining the data herewith submitted, which is principally the result of surveys instituted at your own request, and conducted under your own direction and supervision, that all that was claimed for the amended route, in my report to the company of December 21, 1864, has been much more than realized, all of which, as a matter of course, is exceedingly gratifying to me.

The line, instead of being nine miles longer than the old one, is found to be but a fraction over eight miles. The maximum grade, to which the amended line may be easily adapted, is thirty feet per mile, instead of forty, as claimed in my report. An additional argument, not found in my report, has also been developed by the recent surveys, which should, in my opinion, be entitled to great weight in the discussion of this question; which is, that by constructing, at moderate expense, a branch from the mouth of Mud creek, down the valley of the Pappillon, to the Missouri river, a distance of five and a half miles, the summit between the valley of Mud creek and the Missouri river may be avoided, the line shortened more than three miles, and the grades ascending from the Missouri to the Platte valley reduced to a maximum of twenty feet per mile.

It may, and probably will be claimed, that this latter argument has nothing to do with the question at issue, for the reason that it looks to an eventual change in the eastern terminus of the road, from a point once fixed by the president, without adequate surveys, and probably without due consideration of the important engineering and commercial principles involved in the decision. My own experience and observations, however, have taught me that, however much political and personal interests are allowed to influence and control the initial steps necessary to the commencement of a great national enterprise like the Union Pacific railroad, the result will always show, that in its final location and construction the real interests of all parties will be best subserved by adopting and adhering to the fundamental principles and laws of engineering and commerce, which time and experience have rendered almost immutable.

Without considering the question of the original comparative cost of the respective routes, which in my opinion (as stated on page 5 of my report of December 21, 1864) has very little to do with the subject, it appears to me that the case, as now presented to you, involves the following simple proposition:

Is it better for the railroad company, the government, and the public, that the Union Pacific railroad, in view of all its future eastern connexions and probable business, shall be so located and constructed that thirty miles of its eastern terminus will for all time be subjected to ruling grades of 66 feet per mile ascending westward, and 79.2 feet per mile ascending eastward, instead of being located and constructed upon a route which, by increasing the distance eight miles, and the future expenditure of $245,000, will admit of ruling grades of 30 feet per mile in each direction; or, by increasing the distance five miles and the future expenditure of $132,800, will admit of ruling grades ascending 20 feet per mile westward, and 30 feet per mile eastward, between the Missouri river and the head of the Great Platte valley, a distance of more than five hundred miles.

It is not my purpose, colonel, in this communication, to argue the question any further than to call your attention to the real facts in the case, together with the general principles assumed in my report of the 21st December, 1864, as being applicable to similar cases; and which I believe will be substantially indorsed by all experienced railroad managers in the country.

I enclose for your information a copy of a letter upon this subject, under date of January 11, 1865, from Mr. John B. Jervis, whose opinions are, from his long and varied experience, justly entitled to great consideration in matters of this kind.

I have the honor to be, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Colonel J. H. SIMPSON,

U. S. Engineers, Washington, D. C.

S. SEYMOUR,

Consulting Engineer Union Pacific Railroad.