Report of the Department of the Interior ... [with Accompanying Documents].

REPORT

OF THE

COMMISSIONER OF RAILROADS.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF RAILROADS,

Washington, D. C., October 1, 1888.

SIR: The lateness of the passage of the appropriation bill by Congress delayed by more than a month the inspection of the railroads and other railroad property of the companies subject to the supervision of the Commissioner of Railroads, as well as the examination of their books and accounts; hence the want of punctuality in the presentation of this report.

The inspections were made by Mr. Hassard, the engineer of this office, and me; he taking the roads south of the Union and Central Pacific and east of California, and I the Union and Central Pacific and all the roads in California and Oregon connected with the latter, and those in Washington Territory. These roads are all in very satisfactory condition. They were well built originally and have been kept in excellent order since. Steel rails have been substituted for iron almost everywhere.

The examination of the books and accounts of the subsidized companies, viz, Union Pacific, Central Pacific, Sioux City and Pacific, and Central Branch Union Pacific, was made by Mr. W. M. Thompson, assistant book-keeper, and Mr. K. Kemper, clerk. It included a comparison of the reports of the companies, made to this office, with their books and accounts. No errors or discrepancies were detected. Mr. Herrick, book-keeper, remained in charge of the office.

UNION PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY.

Of these roads the Union Pacific Railway is the most important and received the greatest subsidy from the United States. Its present organization was made in 1880, by the consolidation of the Kansas Pacific Railway Company and the Denver Pacific Railway and Telegraph Company with the Union Pacific Railroad Company. Its length, according to the last report of the company, is 1,824.06 miles.

At the close of the year 1887 the company operated, "in addition to its own road," twenty branches owned by independent corporations in which it has a controlling interest. The total length of those roads is 2,939.89 miles, not subsidized. They, with the Union Pacific Railway Company, constitute the "Union Pacific System," the roads of which have a length of 4,763.99 miles. The portion of the Union Pacific Railway between its initial point and Ogden, and 394 miles of the Kansas Pacific, measured from its initial point in Kansas City, were aided by the Government with its bonds and lands, and the portion between Denver and Cheyenne with land only.

I carefully inspected the road and other railroad property between the Omaha bridge and Ogden, and found that what I wrote of them in my last report is as applicable now as it was then, viz:

The tracks are in excellent condition, the ditches sufficient, the road-beds well raised and leveled, and the ties and rails accurately and firmly laid. There is, however, the defect of a want of proper ballast, materials for which the country does not furnish. The bridges, culverts, workshops and equipments, stations, tanks, and rolling stock are in excellent order. In the extensive workshops in Omaha there are ample means of maintaining the necessary supply of rolling stock, and the branch establishment at Armstrong, Denver, Grand Island, North Platte, Cheyenne, Rawlins, and Evanston are well located and equipped to make all the repairs that may become necessary along the roads. Their shops, except those at Omaha, are substantial and commodious. In the course of the year, 6,561 tons of steel rails, making 70 miles of track, and 1,624 tons of iron rails, making 19 miles of track, were laid on the Union Pacific Railway, at a cost of $106,091.44, and 614,600 ties were laid at a cost of $406,460.89.

The sum of $111,355.54 was expended in repairing bridges. Eighteen and ten one hundredths miles of the road have stone ballast, 12.43 gravel, 26.96 cinders, and 1,772.78 earth only.

On the Kansas Division $12,214 was expended in renewing and repairing trestles. A station house, built at Junction City, of stone, cost $14,292. One of wood at Quinter cost $1,306.

The equipment of the road consists of 382 locomotives, 353 of which are provided with Westinghouse automatic air-brakes; a three-fourths interest in 55 Pullman cars; 175 passenger, 53 emigrant, 77 baggage, mail, and express, and 12 officers' cars, making a total of 319 cars in the passenger department, all of which are equipped with Westinghouse automatic air-brakes and Miller platforms. There are 4,665 box, 786 stock, 1,317 coal, 482 flat, 143 combination stock, 77 refrigerator, 25 fruit, and 177 caboose cars, making a total of 7,672 cars in the freight department, 5,541 of which have Westinghouse automatic air-brakes. There are 173 cars for use in road repair service.

On December 31, 1887, the company had disposed 12,944,781.19 acres of land, the total cash receipts from all sales amounting to $26,395,951.12. There remained outstanding, on account of time sales, the sum of $13,538,861.24. The average price per acre for all sales was $2.53 for the Union Division, $3.72 for the Kansas Division, and $4.24 for the Denver Division.