LENGTH OF RAILROADS IN OPERATION SEPTEMBER 30, 1884. [SMALL CAPITALS indicate lessee; indention indicates leased or operated lines.] NEW YORK CENTRAL AND HUDSON RIVER. New York Central and Niagara River Niagara Bridge and Canandaigua.. New York, Chicago and St. Louis 5.75 58.84 19.00 1.00 748.74 42.30 14.12 2.81 134.06 98.46 6.04 .. 6.00 68.07 52.90 1.16 484.34 ... 17.56 7.81 139.95 68.39 12.25 4.26 11.65 13.89 10.22 10.22 12.59 49.24 ... Miles in State of New York. Port Jervis and Monticello...... 23.75 Poughkeepsie, Hartford and Boston.. PROSPECT PARK AND CONEY ISLAND (steam)... 36.16 5.75 New York and Coney Island. .... Rochester and Lake Ontario..... Rochester and Ontario Belt.. Rochester and Pittsburg. 2.41 6.05 6.00 169.60 INSPECTIONS. Below is presented the report of the inspections of the railroads of the State during the year just closed. The defects as reported have been brought to the attention of the roads, and the recommendations for their remedy have generally been conformed to. Where hearings have been requested, they have been granted, and where satisfactory reasons have been given, the recommendations have been modified. The Board can again state with confidence that where the defects have been such as to lead to any immediate danger, they have been remedied without exception. ADDISON RAILROAD, (Central Vermont Railroad Company, Lessees.) From a junction with the New York and Canada railroad at Ticonderoga or Addison junction, to the Vermont State line in the center of Lake Champlain. Length of road, about one-balf mile. Gauge, four feet eight and one-half inches. The road is laid with chair iron upon a road-bed for about 1,500 feet, and 1,000 feet on a pile and trestle bridge extending into the lake. The draw used in spanning the channel consists of a float in which is a strong Howe truss, and when in place, trains are loaded and unloaded at each end with a lift bridge or landing similar to those used at ferry slips. The pile and trestle bridge was carefully examined and found to be greatly run down in life of timber; some of the piles are broken or crushed, many of the stringers old and badly decayed- -no sway bracing on most of the bents. Some re-enforcing with new timber has been done, yet the general condition of the whole structure causes serious apprehension of its safety. The track upon it is out of line and warped in surface. Ties, spruce and hemlock, six by eight inches section, spaced two feet, generally in fair life. The width of bays are variable, ranging from about thirteen to twenty and one-half feet. One span of twenty feet six inches has two stringers ten by fourteen inches outside and new, and two stringers eight by fourteen inches inside, or under the rail, and badly decayed. The outside stringers are two feet six inches from rail. Corbels are used, but of little strength by reason of decay. The entire structure shows little factor for safety, even with a light passenger engine, and the whole of it is crude and un workmanlike, and allowing there is sufficient timber to carry an ordinary train, if the timber was in full life, its actual condition renders its use extremely hazardous. The bridge should receive a complete overhauling at once; all decayed timbers and insufficient piles replaced; ties spaced closely together and a strong guard timber bolted to them. The shore end could be filled, but would require heavy rip-rap protection against the waves from the lake at high water ADDISON AND NORTHERN PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD, From a junction with the New York, Lake Erie and Western railroad at Addison, to the Pennsylvania State line. Gauge of track, three feet; newly constructed and opened for business in 1883. From Addison the line crosses the Canisteo and Tuscarora creeks, and follows the easterly slope of hills bordering the last-named stream, and at a distance from Addison of nine miles, reaches the summit with a maximum grade of eighty five feet per mile; thence after a short piece of level grade the road descends with a maximum grade of ninety-five feet per mile to the State line. The length of road in New York is about ten and one-half miles. Following closely the indentations of the hill-side along the Tuscarora valley, the line is extremely curved, with short intervening tangents, and occasionally reversing, many of them very abrupt; the maximum curve having a radius of 205 feet. |