. Cost, capitalization and estimated value of American railways; an analysis of current fallacies . e block signal system onover 50,000 miles, the equipping of virtually the entire servicewith automatic couplers and train brakes—not 10% of the carsbeing so equipped prior to 1889—the reduction of grades,straightening of alignment and relaying of thousands of miles : ■ ..■.■ : ■■■ 1 ■ ^^J-;-: 4- ■ Wi Track Elevation in Chicago by the Chicago and Western Indiana R. South From 49th Street. of old line with heavier rails, more ties per rail and better bal-last. Nor has the elimination of
. Cost, capitalization and estimated value of American railways; an analysis of current fallacies . e block signal system onover 50,000 miles, the equipping of virtually the entire servicewith automatic couplers and train brakes—not 10% of the carsbeing so equipped prior to 1889—the reduction of grades,straightening of alignment and relaying of thousands of miles : ■ ..■.■ : ■■■ 1 ■ ^^J-;-: 4- ■ Wi Track Elevation in Chicago by the Chicago and Western Indiana R. South From 49th Street. of old line with heavier rails, more ties per rail and better bal-last. Nor has the elimination of crossings of highways and railwaysat grade been a matter of insignificant expense to the Massachusetts, where the commonwealth and the local au-thorities bear 35% of the cost, the Railroad Commissioners re-port that this work since 1890 has cost the railways $16,299,664. 57 Xearly three times this sum has already been spent by the rail-ways of Illinois, without state or local aid, on track elevation inChicago alone; and similar work laid out will call for a total. Track Elevation in Chicago by the Chicago and Western Indiana R. North From 49th Street. expenditure of $75,000,000, an amount equal to the Census valu-ation of all the railways of South Carolina in 1904 and morethan the construction cost of all the railways of the kingdomof Norway. It has been estimated that it would cost nearly half a billiondollars to do away with the 8,733 grade crossings in New YorkState alone! Whether the railways of the United States are worth theirnet capitalization as of June 30, 1906—$11,671,940,649 or $54,-421 per mile of line or $37,746 per mile of track—is an inquirythat we may now approach from several different points of view. 58 VFIRST COST OF CONSTRUCTION From the earliest records, and despite the financial shifts towhich the original builders of American railways were forcedto raise capital, the fact stands out through all the statisticst
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