CHAPTER XIII. NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD. THE great through route between New York and Chicago, by way of Albany and Niagara Falls, consists of the following lines of railroad : Miles. The Hudson River Railroad, from New York to Albany 144 The whole length of the New York Central Railroad is five hundred and fifty-six miles. The whole length of the first track, laid on Miles. 555.88 280.51 The length of sidings, turnouts, and switches Miles 152.27 988.66 The length of lines leased by the New York Central Railroad Company is as follows:— Niagara Bridge and Canandaigua Railroad, from Suspension Bridge to Canandaigua, Sidings, turnouts, and switches, Miles . 98.46 Saratoga and Hudson River Railroad, from Junction, east of Schenectady, to Athens, Sidings, turnouts, and switches, Total length of equivalent single track, Total length of equivalent single track on lines owned and lines leased, 1,133.73 The New York Central Railroad Company was organized under an Act of the Legislature of the State of New York (Chap. 76 of the Laws of 1853), entitled "An act to authorize the consolidation of certain railroad companies," whereby the Albany and Schenectady, the Schenectady and Troy, the Utica and Schenectady, the Syracuse and Utica, the Rochester and Syracuse, the Buffalo and Lockport, the Mohawk Val ley, the Syracuse and Utica direct, the Buffalo and Rochester, and the Rochester, Lockport, and Niagara Falls Railroad Companies, were authorized at any time to consolidate the said companies into a single corporation. Articles of agreement were accordingly entered into by the said several companies, bearing date the 17th day of May, 1853, which were duly executed in duplicate, and a copy filed in the office of the Secretary of the State of New York, as required by the said act of the Legislature, by which the said several companies were consolidated into one corporation, under the name of "The New York Central Railroad Company." The first Board of Directors of the new Company were elected on the sixth day of July, 1853, and the Company then organized. The officers of the former companies continued to receive the income of the several lines of road of which they are in charge, until the first day of August, 1853. ་ The first railroad ever constructed in the State of New York was the Mohawk and Hudson road. It was chartered in 1826, commenced in 1830, and finished in 1831. It was one of the first railroads in the United States, to use locomotive engines. Horse power was employed upon it for a few months at first, but two locomotives were placed upon it soon after its completion, to which we will refer again. There were considerable elevations at both ends of the road, but these were overcome by stationary engines, operating on inclined planes. The plane at Albany was three thousand one hundred and three feet long; that at Schenectady two thousand and forty-six feet long.. The road was built in a very primitive style, in conformity to the crude and defective stage of railway enterprise at that early day. Instead of the massive and durable rail of modern times, weighing seventy-five pounds to the yard, a flat bar was used not quite threequarters of an inch thick, and two and a half inches wide. At that time the Erie Canal was the principal medium of communication between all points along its line, from Albany to Buffalo. The great number of locks, however, between Troy and Schenectady, and the slow progress made by the canal boats, made the journey anything but desirable. Before the year 1831, a regular line of stage coaches ran between Albany and Schenectady, and these were well patronized by the travelling public. But when the railway was first built, it was found to be a great convenience, and it soon crowded the line of stage coaches off the track. Early in the year 1830, the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Company made an engagement with John B. Jervis, Esq., who afterwards became so celebrated as a civil engineer, and whose merits in that capacity, even then, began to be appreciated. Mr. Jervis at once entered upon his duties, as chief engineer of the road. In July, 1830, the grading of the road was put under contract, and the work of laying the track was commenced in the spring of 1831. About midsummer of that year, the rails were so far laid as to allow coaches for passengers to run from the head of the inclined plane at Schenectady, to the junction of the western turnpike road, about two miles west of Albany. This section, of about twelve miles, was then operated for passengers, mostly by horse-power. Two locomotive engines were put on, soon afterwards; one of them an English engine, and one of American manufacture. The latter was built in New York, by the West Point Foundry Association. The American engine was quite light, not over six tons weight, but was able to haul a train of eighty or a hundred passengers. The English engine was larger, weighing about eight tons, and was able to haul a train of one hundred and twenty-five, or one hundred and fifty passengers from twenty to twenty-five miles an hour. The line of the railroad was very straight, with light grades. The above was the utmost capacity of these two engines. The sharpest grade between the heads of the inclined. planes was twenty-six feet per mile for a distance of about two miles. The formation of the country was abrupt at both ends of the railway, and at that day a railway was regarded as impracticable without the use of inclined planes with stationary engines, where the elevation to be overcome was so great as on this road. Hence the use of inclined planes of great length on the Pennsylvania railroad, which were continued to as late a period as the year 1853. Subsequent experience, of course, has demonstrated that this idea was erroneous, and it has been corrected for many years. It is proper, however, to remark, that the line eventually adopted for this part of what afterwards became the New York Central Railroad, could not have been established in the commencement of the work, on account of the opposition to a location |