50 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



Number of sheep (averaging 175 head to a car), 48,825 



Number of hogs (175 to a car), 48,825 



Tons of merchandise (S tons to a car), 2,232 



Tons of coal (10 tons to a car), 2,790 



Lumber (25 cwt, per 1 M.), feet. 2,232,000 



" Or, in case of emergency, this road, with this power, would be able to trans- 

 port from Lake Erie to this city iu one clay 150,000 soldiers. And this is the 

 onl}' one out of eight roads centering in this city that could be used for the 

 same purpose. Yerily our railroads, in place of fortifications, are stronger 

 than all Sebastopol. 



"The cost of the equipment of this and other roads may be calculated from 

 the following statement : 



" The cost of a first-class locomotive which weighs thirty tons, and is capable 

 of drawing over the whole road in sixteen hours a train of eighteen cars with 

 1,100 passengers, is about $12,000. The cost of a first-class freight locomo- 

 tive, capable of trucking 600 tons of dead weight in freight cars, is about the 

 same price, though it weighs some two tons heavier. The cost of the smallest 

 locomotives in use is $6,000 to $8,000. A first-class passenger car, with all 

 the modern improvements of ventilation and warming, will cost $3,000. A 

 second-rate car, $2,500, and a second-class passenger car, $1.800. Freight 

 cars will average about $600 each. The iron rails on this road, are 56 Ibs. to 

 74 Ibs. per yard, and, at present prices, would cost $4 per yard, or $7,000 per 

 mile for a single track of the lightest rail. 



" But after all, the most curious part of the whole is the number of men re- 

 quired to keep the machinery in operation. We think we shall astonish many 

 persons by telling them that the Erie Rail-road Company have now upon their 

 pay rolls not less than FIVE THOUSAND employees of all grades, to wit : in 

 the var/ious offices of president, secretary, superintendent, auditor, treasurer, 

 freight-agent, and in the printing-office in the building of the Company, there are 

 60 persons employed. 



" There are 12 division superintendents and assistants in the offices at Jersey 

 City, Port Jervis. Owego, and Dunkirk. There are in the machine shops at 

 Piermont, 225; at Susquehannah, 200; at Dunkirk, 115; and 150 car re- 

 pairers. There are 44 passenger train conductors, and, much to their credit 

 and respectable appearance, all in a neat uniform. There are 80 freight con- 

 ductors ; 450 engineers and firemen ; and 400 brakemen and baggage men. 

 There are 90 ticket sellers and station agents, and 60 telegraph agents. There 

 are about 1,000 laborers and switchmen, and some 800 track repairers, aver- 

 aging about one and a half man to the mile, constantly engaged to keep the 

 road in order. The pay roll of this army is not less than $125,000 a month, 

 or $1,500,000 a year. 



" "We spoke of the printing-office. The business of this road requires a con- 

 stant force of four compositors, and the use of half-a-dozen presses, great and 

 small ; one of which is constantly at work printing tickets, which are never 

 used but once, and are then returned to the auditor's office as checks upon 

 the parties who sold them. There is one large room in the building devoted 

 to the storage of printed blank forms, which are very numerous, in use by the 



