MEMOIR OF DAXIEL TIIEADWEI.L. :)(\] 



be at certain given points, often many miles asunder; nnd showed tli.it even double 



ould require distinct works in the form of frequent 



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«1 



places from one set of tracks to the other. In this the sidelii 

 in part by a portion of the track appropriated to carriages of an opposite direction, 

 but nothing is gained over the common sideling. As to the difficulties and delaj 

 in commencing the journey, "we have only to say that to accommodate passengers 

 coaches must be provided, and the passengers must by some means be brought to 

 take their places in them. Whether this is done in a short or l<>n«r period the 

 difficulty attending it must be, in the opinion of the committee, very much the same 

 in amount. For it certainly cannot increase the labor of a passenger in taking his 

 place in the coach to have another passenger doing the same thin" at the same 



time. If the usage of the best conducted vehicles in the world, namely, the London 

 mail-coaches, may be thought of authority, it is in this particular in favor of the plan 

 recommended. For it is well known that all the mail-coaches of that metropolis 

 leave it from the same spot for all parts of the United Kingdom at a single horn- 

 in the day only. The remark that there is no authority to be found in the Eng- 

 lish roads for single tracks has no bearing whatever upon the question. For the 

 system of regulated velocities and times of entrance has been but lately proposed. 

 It has never to our knowledge been practised or attempted in England. This is 

 so essential to the success of a single set of tracks, that without it the pn sent com- 

 mittee would not for a moment recommend their adoption. It must not be for- 

 gotten that a railroad is an instrument of transportation, and that the amount of 

 income received from it, compared with the cost of structure, will he the best po~<i- 

 ble measure of success. It may be safely assumed from the estimates made for the 

 road from Boston to Providence that the single track will not cost more than 



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52-100ths of a double set, and if the traffic upon the former should exceed 

 52-100ths of that upon the latter at the same rate of toll, then it is evident that 

 the single set of tracks will be a more profitable work than the double. The cost 



the road in good condition is very nearly in proportion to the amount 

 of track exposed. The double track has nearly twice the quantity of rails, spikes, 

 and keys exposed to rust, and nearly twice as many sleepers, and a much larger 

 amount of bridging exposed to rot and decay, and nearly double the amount of 

 road-bed exposed to storms and frost. The-e taken together make a great item in 

 the vearlv cost of railroads — a most serious drawback upon the profit." 



This report drew forth another counter report. It was again reported that the 



plan is impracticable. " It is not the single set of tracks alone of which we com- 



