CO882-(3-4) — Page 705

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

TREFFC.O. 882

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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4. The total mileage of the Ceylon Government railways opened on the 31st December 1884, was 1672 miles, but as the section from Nawalapitiya to Hatton (204 miles) was opened only on the 4th June, and that from Hatton to Taláwakelé (73 miles) was opened only on the 20th November, the mean mileage worked throughout the year was only 152.2 miles, equal very nearly to three times the mileage of the Darjeeling Railway- an important fact which must not be lost sight of in comparing the figures which will be given bereafter.

5. The Darjeeling-Himalayan railway is laid as a single line throughout; it has almost continuous curves and windings as it passes along the mountains, a radius of 70 feet being the sharpest curve, and 1 in 28 the steepest gradient. The gauge is 2 feet.

The line is laid with iron rails 30 lb. to the yard on the level portion, and with steel rails 40 lb. to the yard on the hill road portion. Seven sleepers have been laid under the 40 lb. rails on the straight, and nine where curves exist; for the lighter rails nine sleepers per rail have been laid.

The line is, where possible, laid on the cart road, half of which has been reserved for cart and other traffic.

I am indebted to Mr. Oliver, District Engineer on the Nánu-oya Railway, who visited the Darjeeling Railway in 1884, for the following additional particulars concerning that

line:-

Mr. Oliver was during his visit informed by an engineer that the cart road on which the Darjeeling Railway runs cost Rs. 60,000 per mile to construct; and he was told by the then Secretary of that railway that for 80 per cent. of its length the line was laid on this road.

The first seven miles of the line are through a flat country. The sleepers are of oak and chestnut, 4 feet 6 inches long, and each contains one cubic foot; the cost being 10 annas (62 cents).

The masonry is described by Mr. Oliver as being very rough; its cost was stated to be Rs. 4 per cubic yard.

The larger culverts and one bridge inspected by Mr. Oliver had timber tops.

6. Upon the Ceylon Government railways the gauge is 5 feet 6 inches, the limiting gradient (except on the Nánu-oya Railway) is 1 in 45 on the Kadugannawa incline, where the sharpest curve is 10 chains, or 600 feet in radius. On the Nanu-oya Railway the least radius of curves is 330 feet, the usual minimum radius being 421 feet; the steepest gradient is 1 in 44, which is flattened to 1 in 50-77 on curves of 330 feet in radius. The rails are of Bessemer steel, 72 lb. to a yard.

The sleepers are of creosoted Baltic fir, or of doon (Doona zeylanica), each is 9 feet long by 10 inches by 5 inches, and contains 34 cubic feet.

The superstructure of all viaducts is iron girders, supported on masonry piers.

The maximum paying load taken up by a single engine on the sections from Nawalapitiya to Hatton, and from Taláwakelé to Nánu-oya, the greater portions of which are on gradients of 1 in 44, is 60 tons; between Hatton and Taláwakelé, where the gradients are less severe, varying generally from 1 in 50-77 to 1 in 77-65 or flatter, the inaximum paying load is 72 tons.

On the downward journey froin Nánu-oya to Nawalapitiya, the maximum paying load for a single engine is 84 tons. These loads are carried at an average speed, including stoppages, of 10.92 miles per hour.

On the main line and level portions of the Ceylon railway system, the maximum paying load for a single engine is 144 tons, which is drawn at an average speed, including stoppages, of 16-91 miles per hour.

The maximum paying load drawn by the engines on the Darjeeling railway is not given in the reports in my possession, but it has been stated to be 20 tons; the speed of the

trains (which may, I think, be taken as certainly not less than that of the passenger goods train), is, by the published time tables, including all stoppages, except the hour spent at Kurseong, 690 miles per hour.

Now, the ability of an engine to deal with a certain amount of traffic is clearly measured, not only by the weight drawn, but also by the speed at which that weight is drawn; and assuming the figures for the Darjeeling railway as just given to be correct, it is found that the relative capacity of dealing with the traffic possessed by the Nánu-oya railway engines, working on the-by comparison-flat curves and easy gradients of that line, is 4.75 times that possessed by the engines of the Darjeeling railway, working on the sharp curves and steep gradients of that line.

7. The total capital outlay to the 31st December 1884 (exclusive of suspense account), on the Darjeeling-Himalayan railway, was Rs. 2,655,446, being at the rate of Rs. 53,109 per mile; including suspense account, the capital outlay at that date was Rs. 2,723,240.

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It is evident that these figures do not include the cost of the road, which was 80 largely available for the railway, and which was not borne by the railway company; and any calculations founded upon them with respect to the price at which a railway similar to the Darjeeling railway could be constructed, through a mountainous country where no road was available, must therefore be fallacious in the extreme.

If, as stated by Mr. Oliver's informant, the road cost Rs. 60,000 per mile (which I consider is not unlikely, considering that the cost of hill roads in Ceylon has exceeded in some cases Rs. 30,000 per mile, and that from photographs of the Darjeeling railway that I have inspected the road appears to traverse a country, in places at any rate, more difficult than that traversed by any hill road in Ceylon with which I am acquainted); and if it also be the fact that for 80 per cent. of its length the railway is laid on this road, I consider it highly probable that the cost of the line, had no such road been available, must have been Rs. 90,000 per mile, or even higher. This is, however, of course, mere supposition, exact verification of which is clearly impossible, though it is absolutely certain that the cost of the line must have been in that case enormously increased.

8. The total capital outlay upon the Ceylon Railways to the end of December 1884, including that upon the section of the Nánu-oys railway beyond Taláwakelé, which was not then open for traffic, was—

Main Line, Colombo to Kandy Nawalapitiya branch

Nanu-oya railway (total)

Mátalé branch

Kalutara branch

Total

Rs.

-

17,384,830

·

2,674,627

•

10,066,295

-

3,391,952

2,192,212

Rs. 35,709,916

The expenditure, however, upon the section of the Nánu-oya railway to Taláwakelé, the only portion of that line then open for traffic, was about Rs. 7,125,000, thus reducing the total capital expenditure on the opened lines to Rs. 32,769,621, equal to au average cost of Rs. 195,342 per mile on the total mileage of 167 miles then opened for

traffic.

The total cost of the Nanu-oya railway (40 miles in length) when completed will, it is estimated, be Rs. 10,720,000, equal to Rs. 263,067 per mile.

In considering the above-mentioned figures it must not be forgotten that the whole of the capital raised for the construction of the Colombo and Kandy Railway has been paid off; that the cost of the Nawalapitiya and Kalutara Railways has also been paid off out of the surplus revenues of the Colony, of which profit on the railway working formed no inconsiderable portion; and that, therefore, only on the loans raised for the Mátulé and Nanu-oya Railways has interest to be paid and a sinking fund provided, thus leaving the other lines, the capital expenditure on which was Rs. 22,251,669, the free property of the Colony, financial success without, as far as the writer knows, a parallel in the history of railway construction.

9. The following are the particulars of the passenger traffic upon the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway during 1884:-

carried -

First class fare per mile (72 pies) =

First class

passengers

No. Rs.

2,274

Total number of miles travelled by first class passengers Total receipts from first class passengers Second class passengers carried

0:37+ miles 102,608

R..

29,994

1

No.

4,903

Ro.

0.1875

Second class fare per mile (36 pies)

=

Total number of miles travelled by second class passengers Total receipts from second class passengers Fourth or lowest class passengers carried Fourth or lowest class fare per mile (15 pies) =

Total number of miles travelled by fourth or lowest class

passengers

Total receipts from fourth or lowest class passengers Other coaching receipts

Total coaching or passenger train receipts

Total number of passengers of all classes carried during 1884 Total number of passenger miles (expressed in the number

of passengers carried one mile)

L 2

miles 167,572

·

Rs.

33,108

No.

24,000

Rs. 0-078125

miles 735,710

Rs.

53,050

"

43,946

29

160,098

No.

31,177

1,005,850