im-oci« SHIP mmi
Remarks of Dr. Wm. F. Channing' before
the Select Committee of the House of
Representatives, March 27,
[WITH EXHIBITS.]
Tliomas McQill A Co., Laio Printers^ Washington, D. C.
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IV
C3U
LIBRARY
■OREM) Of RAILWAY EC0M0MIC8,
UBMIIY OF CONSRESS
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee :
It is not necessary for me to urge the importance of a
Ship Railway or Ship Canal across the American Isthmus.
Either will make the Northern Hemisphere circumnavigahle
and the Atlantic and Paciñc coast lines of the United States
practically continuous.
Count de Lesseps, in transforming and reopening on a
magnificent scale the ancient Suez canal, created an era in
modern commerce. Through the Congress -which met in
Paris May 15, 1879, he still further served the commerce
of the world by announcing authoritatively that the time
had fully come for opening the Isthmus of Panama.
I do not propose to discuss, except in very general terms,
the comparative cost of the Ship Railway and Ship Canal
across the American Isthmus. It is sufficient to say here,
that there is no reason to believe that the open-cut through
the sands of Suez, costing, all expenses included, nearly
one hundred millions of dollars, can be duplicated through
any gap of the Cordilleras at the Isthmus for less than twice
that amount, and that a canal at sea level can be made
to dispute, successfully, the passage of the valley of the
Chagres, with that river in freshet, for less than two hun¬
dred and fifty millions of dollars.
The Ship Railway is the American solution of the Isthmus
question. American in its origin, it will certainly be con¬
structed by American enterprise. Even if a Ship Canal
should be built across the Isthmus, (with or without locks,)
a Ship Railway will be built at one-half the cost, and will
supplant it. If a foreign company should undertake to
build a Ship Canal, an American company can build a Ship
Railway in one-half the time.
The Ship Railway is a structure on the surface of the
ground, which can traverse inclines almost as easily as
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levels, and surmount elevations impracticable for a canal.
It is independent of water supply. The Ship Canal on the
Isthmus, at ocean level, is an immense excavation, below
natural drainage, as well as a deep cut through a mountain
pass.
The Ship Canal with locks, in addition to excavation at
the sea level, and at higher levels, surmounts an elevation
by steps—only a few feet at a time—each of which costs
several hundred thousands of dollars, the expense in this
case being some index to the time required for construction.
The Ship Railway has its terminal locks or docks, which
may be considered as belonging to its harbor structures.
The canal proposed by Count de Lesseps at Panama,
though at mean sea level, must have terminal locks, or
their equivalent, on account of the great rise and fall of
the Isthmus tides.
The cost of excavations, especially helow natural drain¬
age, under the conditions which exist at the Isthmus, cannot
be estimated with any certainty. The cost of the Ship
■Railway, on the other hand, can he predetermined with
sufficient accuracy after proper surveys to assure the capi¬
talists by whom it will probably be built. In the absence
of distinctive surveys on the Isthmus for a Ship Railway,
we know that three or four of the routes which have
been surveyed for canals and railroads ai-e favorable in
grade and other requirements for this enterprise; the
grades at Tehuantepec, Mearagua, and Panama prob¬
ably not exceeding sixty-six feet to the mile. It is, there¬
fore, safe to say that the Ship Railway across the Isth¬
mus can be built at a cost considerably less than that of
the Suez Canal, already stated ; prohablj^ for one-third less ;
while the tables show that the tonnage which will naturally
pass over the American Isthmus will be nearly double that
of the Suez Canal.
I pass from this general review to the special subject on
which I wish to address the Committee. The Ship Railway
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has a history. It is no new project originated and brought
forward for the first time since the Paris Congress. It has
been studied and elaborated in tbis country for years, and
made familiar to many of our best engineers.
There has been no time witbin fifty years when it has
not been possible and customary to draw the largest exist¬
ing vessels out of the water on a cradle, running on rails
of wood or iron, up an inclined plane. This is the well-
known Marine Railway, requiring and using originally
only a single pair of rails.
Very early in the railroad history of this country and of
England, sections of canal boats, and, later, entire canal
boats, were drawn out of docks on railroad carriages, car¬
ried up inclined planes and docked again at a higher level,
without the intervention of locks.
During the discussion which preceded the construction
of the present Panama Railroad, about thirty years ago, I
first proposed the Ship Railway for the portage of vessels
across the Isthmuses of Suez and Panama. The Ship Rail-
wa}', in its first conception, was a road with multiple track
of equidistant parallel rails, which, by using both sides of
every rail, (except the two outside ones,) made as many
tracks as there were rails, less one. A great economy of
iron was thus secured to the road. To this multiple track
a cradle-car was adapted with corresponding ai-rangement
of tracks and wheels, and equal pressure was secured
to each wheel by rubber or other springs. The cradle
proposed was of the character then used on marine
railways, with certain improvements giving elastic sup¬
port at short intervals to the hull of the loaded ship.
As the cradle-car, three hundred feet long, for the accom¬
modation of the largest ships of that day, could not adapt
itself to the common railroad curves and gradients, I pre¬
scribed a straight and level track, changes of direction or
grade being effected by turn-tables and tilting-tables. For
the transfer of the cradle-car from track to track, instead
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of the railroad switch I provided shifting-tables moving
laterally at right angles to the track. The multiple track
followed an inclined plane into the marine dock at each
end of the Railway. The cradle-car underran the ship
awaiting transportation in the dock, and both were drawn
out of the water together by stationary power, the ship
being blocked in the cradle as it emerged from the water.
"When the level of the Ship Railway was obtained, the
cradle-car was drawn across the Isthmus or portage by
locomotives, and let down the incline into the marine
dock at the other extremity of the railway by stationary
power.
The Ship Railway which I would build across the Ameri¬
can Isthmus to-day difiers only in details, and in added
methods for overcoming curves and changes of grade, from
this earliest outline.
The Ship Railway as thus described was met at once with
the objection — then perhaps well founded'—that loaded
ships could not be safely transported on any simple modi¬
fication of the cradle then in use. I therefore substituted
the water-cradle or caisson, in which the ship floats and has
water-support during transit. Rot long after, the same
practical objection came from England that the cradle,
used to support canal boats on inclined planes, strained
their frames, and the Monkland Canal adopted water-
caissons to float their barges on an inclined plane with
single track, operated by stationary power.,
I present as " Exhibit Ro. 1 " a copy of a simple pen-and-
ink illustration of the general method of the Ship Railway,
and plan of the multiple track, which I drew and submit¬
ted to Hon. Richard W. Thompson, present Seci'etary of
the Ravy,,July 29, 1859. The specification which accom¬
panies the drawings is entitled "Inter-oceanic Railway,"
and was prepared especially with reference to the transit
of ships across the American Isthmus. It provides for a
water-caisson car three hundred feet long, weighing, with
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contained ship, two thousand tons, supported on five hun¬
dred wheels, exerting each a pressure on the track of four
tons, equalized by rubber springs; the caisson to be drawn
by locomotives between the terminal docks; the speed lim¬
ited to five or six miles an hour to insure perfect safety; a
large surplus of strength to be provided, and the water-
caisson to be constructed with reference to grades of a
hundred feet to the mile. The plan of the multiple track
represents nine rails furnishing eight tracks.
In 1865 a vigorous efibrt was made by the late Horace
H.Day, of New York, to construct a Ship Railway around
the Falls of Niagara. He called upon me to patent the
Ship Railway in the form in which he desired to use it. I
received letters-patent of the United States March 29,1865,
assigning them to him on issuing. I present the drawings
of this patent, marked " Exhibit No. 2." Mr. Day's plan
proposed a straight railway incline, about three miles long,
between slack-water channels, led in from Ontario and
Erie. A descending water-caisson on one multiple track
always balanced an ascending caisson on a parallel multi¬
ple track, the weight of both being the same while filled
with water, whether they contained ships or not. Mr. Day
was defeated in his application to Congress for a charter
by the powerful opposition of parties interested in the Erie
Canal and in a rival project for a Niagara Ship Canal.
The plan remains to be executed. It is national in its
character, and the railway, in the form proposed by Mr.
Day, may well be constructed by the United States for the
defense of the Lakes. It can be built with a capacity to
move the largest ships which navigate the lakes for a
fraction of the cost of the "Weiland Canal.
Without appearing formally before the Committee on
Military Afiairs of the Senate of the United States, to
which Mr. Day's application for a charter was referred, I
was in frequent communication with Hon. Henry Wilson,
its chairman, and other members.
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In a printed argument addressed to that committee in
February, 1865, by Charles H. Woodman, on behalf of
Mr. Day, there occurs the following remarkable testimony
of Mr. W. H. Talcot, superintendent of the Morris Canal,
which is of present as well as historical value:
" This canal overcomes 1,449 feet of elevation by means
of 23 inclined planes. When I came here the cargoes
were only 18 tons. The canal has been enlarged and the
planes adapted to 100-ton cargoes. The planes work with
the same certainty as the locks, and with much greater
facility. There is, in fact, no detention at the planes.
"A mile of canal embracing in it a plane with 100 feet
elevation is passed quite as quick as a mile of level canal.
" The planes on this canal have cost about one-third as
much as locks would have cost to overcome the same ele¬
vation.
"A vessel of one thousand tons cargo could be carried
on twenty rails if the vessel was one hundred feet long, or
ten rails if the vessel was two hundred feet long, without
subjecting the wheels or rails to any greater service than
those now used on the Morris Canal.
" The transition from hxke to lake [a¿ Niagarai] by means of
planes could be made in one-tenth the time that would be required
to make the same by means of locks.
" In some respects the planes for the trade of the lakes
would have to be different from the planes on the Morris
Canal. The safe transition of vessels of the size required
for that trade, and particularly those laden with grain in
bulk, would require the natural support of water on every
part of the vessel; in other words, the vessel must not be
taken out of the water during the overland passage. This
can be accomplished by making the car which is to carry
the vessel a water-tight caisson large enough to receive the
largest vessel. Every vessel would then displace from the
caisson an amount of water just equal to its weight, causing
the load upon the wheels and the strain on the machinery
to be always the same, whatever might be the size or weight
of the vessel and cargo."
The improved construction of the largest steamers and
ships, and also of marine cradles, makes it possible now to
dispense with the water support insisted on so strongly hy
Mr. Talcot as late as 1865. For these vessels, therefore, I
revert to my original plan of a specially adapted cradle
without water support. For a large class of smaller ves¬
sels of inferior construction the water-caisson will probably
still he used.
The details of the Ship Eailway must be decided on this
point as on others by consultation of the most experienced
naval architects as well as railroad engineers.
Mr. Day, in 1865, obtained the opinions of many engi¬
neers on the different problems of the Ship Railway, and
published various pamphlets and lithographic drawings
illustrating the system.
In the year 1865 I prepared a drawing, illustrating the
Ship Railway as a substitute for the Languedoc Ship Canal
between the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean, to he
submitted to the French Government. I present a copy
of it, marked "Exhibit 3." While resembling the Patent
drawing of the same year, it shows the turn-table, the
tilting-table, and the shifting-table with lateral movement
for the transfer of the cradle-car from track to track.
Up to this time these were the only expedients which
I had proposed to meet changes of direction and grade in
the road.
Somewhat later I devised a cradle-car with axles or
trucks, which were capable, under certain restrictions and
guidance, of horizontal excursion sufficient to adapt them,
in the longest car, to a curve of large radius. I have
heard the same plan since proposed by some other mechan¬
ical engineer. Still later I have overcome the much
greater difficulty of adapting a rigid cradle, several hun¬
dred feet in length, to pass over changing grades or in¬
equalities in the track, preserving at the same time equal
pressure on every wheel.
, In April, 1879,1 published an article on the Ship Rail¬
way in the New York Times, for the pui-pose of calling the
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attention of the Congress soon after to meet in Paris to
this solution of the Isthmus problem. My French corre¬
spondent, to whom I forwarded copies for translation and
republication, reported subsequently the uselessness of any
attempt to change the predetermined action of that body.
It only remains for me to state the general features of
the plan which I now propose for a Ship Railway across
the American Isthmus. The terminal dock in which the
ship is received and from which it is discharged may par¬
take partly of the character of a lock, the ship being raised
part of the requisite distance by the admission of water in
the usual way.
The ship will be floated over the submerged cradle-car,
and blocked in the cradle in a special manner as it leaves
the water. The grade of the multiple track within the dock
may be of the usual grade of marine railways, changing by
a tilting-table to the initial grade of the main road ; or it
may be possible to make the transition from the inclined
plane of the track within the dock to the grade of the main
road so gentle that a tilting-table may be dispensed with.
The multiple track of the main road will extend between
the terminal docks, with as few abrupt changes of direction
or grade as possible, to obviate the necessity of turn-tables
and tilting-tables. The ship carried over the Railway will
be delivered at the dock where it is discharged by action
•the reverse of that in the receiving-dock. Cradle-cars will
be from two hundred to four hundred and fifty feet in
length, or longer, if necessary, to convey ships of the largest
size. Their construction will necessarily be very elaborate,
using all the refinements known in car construction, besides
special features of their own.
The arrangement of wheels and trucks and of springs
will be such as to preserve equal pressure on every wheel
and to allow, by the methods referred to, of curves of large
radius and moderate changes of grade in the road. Air¬
brakes and automatic brakes, gauged to a definite speed.
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will be provided. The sbip-car will be moved out of the
marine dock by stationaiw power and drawn over the in¬
tervening road by a special locomotive adapted to the mul¬
tiple track, or by more than one locomotive, if a division
of the power is preferable. The track which I prefer is
one of ten steel rails, weighing one hundred pounds to the
yard, with a five-foot guage. The largest cradle-car with
contained steamer, weighing in all ten thousand tons, would
rest on one thousand wheels, each sustaining a weight of
ten tons. I propose an initial speed of six miles an hour,
to he increased only as experience assures safety. The
time required for docking a ship and raising it to the level
of the road will not exceed one, or at utmost two hours.
The largest existing steamers are periodically, and at
great expense, drawn out of the water on cradle-cars on
the marine railway, unless raised by a vertical lift, as
represented in the drawing of Exhibits 2 and 3, or other¬
wise docked. After being moved thus 500 or 600 feet
they are scraped and painted, a process requiring from
twelve to twenty hours. The transit of these vessels across
the American Isthmus on the Ship Railway will furnish a
much-prized opportunity for this necessary work, and there
would often he loss instead of gain in making the time of
transit less than that required for this purpose. A consid¬
erable revenue of the ship railway may he derived from
this source. I owe these data to the valuable experience of
Mr. H. H. Hall, of the Tehuantepec Inter-ocean Railway
Company of New York.
Sehillot, a French engineer, in a recent plan for a Ship
Railway across the Isthmus of Panama, has proposed fewer
and heavier rails and fewer and much larger wheels than
those which I have adopted. Questions as to the precise num¬
ber and size of rails and wheels, of proportion of parts and
strength of materials, and, generally, concerning the de¬
tails of construction of the Ship Railway, must he finally
decided by the opinion of no single expert, hut by the
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mature consideration and judgment of those best qualified
in the difterent departments of engineering and construc¬
tion which are involved.
In conclusion : The terminal docks and Marine Railway
by which the ship will be raised to the level of the main
road are features of the Ship Railway already in successful,
practical use. The multiple track of the main road is also
easy of construction, and within the province of any accom¬
plished railroad engineer. The construction of the cradle
and of the ship-car, in its adaptation to curves and changes
of grade, with equal pressure on every wheel, and in many
other details, requires new appliances which belong to the
department of the mechanical engineer and naval architect.
The turn-tables, tilting-tables, and shifting-tables for the
multiple track also require novel expedients in construc¬
tion.
Having traced my connection with the Ship Railway
from its inception, prior to 1851, and, during its develop¬
ment, to the present time, and having expressed my readi¬
ness to take part in its construction on the American Isth¬
mus, I now respectfully ask the Committee that in an}- bill
they may agree to report to the House of Representatives
they will grant me suitable recognition.
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