This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 edition. Excerpt: ...made for the difference in the cost of fuel, labor and materials in the two countries, the American railroads are operated much more economically than those of the United Kingdom, otherwise it will have "to be admitted that American labor, at nearly double the price, is as cheap as English at about half the price Either the American railroad management is more economical, or the American labor is more efficient. If the American rolling stock is not better than the English, why have the Midland and other English railroads adopted so extensively the bogie-truck? And why has it been adopted so thoroughly in Canada, where all the railroads were built by English capital, and mostly by English engineers? Many roads were equipped at first with Englishbuilt rolling stock, which was afterwards changed to the American type? It is instructive to compare the progress made in railroad traffic and its economics within the past thirty years. The able work of Messrs. Alexander L. Holley and Zerah Colburn gives very reliable data for the years 1855 and 1856. In the following comparisons all the figures given for these years have been taken from their work, except those relating to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The figures for 1884 for English railroads have been taken from the Railway Returns of the Board of Trade, and for the American railroads from the Reports of the Railroad Commissioners of New York and Massachusetts. Strange as it may seem, it is only within the last few days that I have seen, for the first time, this book. At the time it was published and for many years afterward, I was engineering near the top of the Andes in South America, far removed from book-stores and libraries. Messrs. Holley and Colburn used the same plan that J did for...