Ohio History Journal

OHIO RAILROADS.

 

BY R. S. KAYLER,

STATE COMMISSIONER OF RAILROADS.

Ohio was among the first of the States to commence the

building of railroads. As early as 1832, when there were but

two hundred and twenty-nine miles of railroad in operation in

the United States, a special charter was granted by the State of

Ohio for the construction of a railroad to extend from Sandusky,

Huron County, to Dayton, Montgomery County, a distance of

one hundred and fifty-six miles. The road was completed as

far as Bellevue, sixteen miles, and put into operation in 1839.

The balance of the road was not completed and put into oper-

ation until 1844. It is now a part of the "Big Four" system.

In order to aid this enterprise, special acts were passed by

the Ohio Legislature authorizing the State to loan its credit

to the amount of $200,000, and also authorizing some of the

counties through which the road was to pass to subscribe cer-

tain amounts, ranging from $25,000 to $60,000 toward the cap-

ital stock of the company. The city of Springfield was also

authorized to subscribe $25,000.

Another road was projected in 1832, the Kalamazoo and

Erie, to extend from Toledo, Ohio, to Adrian, Michigan, thirty-

three miles. A company was formed in 1835 and the road was

completed the following year, this being really the first road

constructed in the State.

Oak stringers, covered with strap iron, five-eighths of an

inch in thickness and two and one-half inches in width, were

used for track in place of rails. The road was first put into oper-

ation by means of horse power in 1836, and continued in that

primitive way one year, when a locomotive was purchased and

steam power was used thereafter.

In October, 1837, a contract was made with the United

States government for carrying the mail.

(189)

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190       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.   The first passenger cars were of a very crude pattern, a sort of a double-deck affair, built somewhat after the style of the body of an old stage coach, and having seating capacity for twenty-four persons. The first engine was built similar to the road engines that are now used for thresher engines, and weighed about ten tons, including water and coal tanks loaded. Speed for passenger was less than ten miles per hour, and less than one-half that for freight. The passenger rate was four and one-half cents per mile, and one and one-fourth cents per hundred weight per mile for freight, or twenty-five cents per ton per mile.

Very few miles of railroad were built in this country by any of the States until after 1848. The average number of miles con- structed in the United States from 1835 to 1848 was but three hundred and eighty per year, and there were but five thousand, nine hundred and ninety-six miles in operation in this country up to the latter date. During the year 1848 a road was completed across the State from Cincinnati to Lake Erie, two hundred and eleven miles. In 1851 the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati road, two hun- dred and sixty-three miles, was completed and put into operation from Cincinnati to Cleveland. The Erie road reached the lake the same year, extending across a part of the State; and a por- tion of the Cleveland and Pittsburg was put into operation this

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Ohio Railroads.                  191

 

year, the charter for which had been granted in 1836. Small

stretches of road were built here and there in different parts of

the State at different times, and finally were connected up and

reorganized into systems, as they exist today.

We had (June 30, 1899) ninety-nine railroad and railway

companies incorporated under the laws of Ohio, ninety-five of

which are in operation, and four in process of construction.

Seventy of these corporations are entirely within the State, and

twenty-five are incorporated under the laws of Ohio and adjoin-

States. They are operated as follows:

Sixty companies operate the ninety-five corporations.

Seven foreign companies operate twenty-seven corporations

under lease or contract.

Four inter-State lines operate, in addition to their own

roads, seven corporations, under lease or contract.

Seven State corporations operate, in addition to their own

lines, eight corporations.

Eight inter-State and thirty-four state lines operate simply

their own individual roads.

Ohio had at the close of the fiscal year, June 30, 1899,

8,767.27 miles of main line road and 4,619.08 miles of all other

tracks, making a total of 13,386.35 miles, with a total cost of

road and equipment of $644,355,840.29. The main line is repre-

sented by $371,353,547.35 capital stock, with a bonded indebted-

ness of $314,712,947.19. They gave employment last year (1899)

to 57,114 persons, and paid them in wages $32,076,046.35. They

transported 22,028,152 passengers, at an average cost of 2.4 cents

per passenger per mile; 104,537,103 tons of freight at an average

cost of 1.3 cents per ton per mile; earning $72,369,848.68 in gross

receipts.

They expended on road and equipment $4,200,054.04. Paid

into the State treasury in taxes $3,048,541.70; paid $11,336,123.99

interest on bonded indebtedness, and $5,553,963.35 in dividends

to stockholders.

They used in their service 5,410 locomotives, which con-

sumed during the year 3,955,327 tons of coal for fuel; 4,080 pas-

senger cars and 227,771 freight cars were used to do the business

to the roads.

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192       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

In order to appreciate the progress that has been made in

the railroad business in Ohio one must contrast a track made

of wooden rails covered with strap iron with modern "T" rails

made of steel, weighing 100 pounds to the yard; wooden bridges.

set on wooden piling, driven into the earth with steel bridges set

on best of stone masonry; double-deck coaches, built like an

old-fashioned stage coach with modern vestibule and Pullman

palace cars; a small ten-ton engine, built like a modern thresher

engine, with a 280-ton engine with a tank capacity of 7,000 gal-

lons of water and ten tons of coal, with a hauling capacity of

2,000 tons up a grade of 42 feet to the mile at a much higher rate

of speed than the first engines were able to make on a level; a

wooden freight car, ten ton capacity, with a car made entirely of

steel, with a capacity of 50 tons. And finally, an engine and a

couple of cars, coupled together with link and pin, braking done

entirely by hand, lumbering along at a speed of about ten miles.

per hour, with a service each way once in twenty-four hours,

with a train of thirteen cars, each a palace within itself, with

every convenience, coupled together with automatic coup-

lers, which admit of the smallest amount of slack, and handled

entirely by air brakes, running at a speed of a mile a minute, and

so smoothly that the great speed is hardly perceptible to the

passengers, with service in either direction, in the most densely

populated districts, every half hour.

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