The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-12-29
"All Aboard !"

1t Is hard to realize that the rail-
road is comparatively a very recent
growth. In these tImes, when one
can finish his days business in New
York and go to bed at very reason
able time in Boston. having occupied
a good part of the journey in taking
a comfortable dinner in luxurious
restaurant while whirling along at
forty miles an hour; when in seven
DAYS the tourist can travel from New
York to Los Angeles, having in the
Atlantic metropolis simply stepped
into a hotel on wheels, with a bath
room, barber, restaurant and library
at his daily command, to quietly step
out of it again at the Pacific Ocean
it seems almost impossible to believe
that men now In active life can dis
tinctly recOllect the first locomotive
engine in this county, and can easily
look back to the DAYS when rapid
journeys were made by the tOur-hoI Sc
stage-coach and the inexpensive ca
nal-bOat
happened to pick UP recently a
lately published book, which brings
the contrasts between travel to-day
and travel fifty years ago most sharp
lv to mind. The author has been a
railroad conductor for forty years,
and he gives, in an unpretentious,
conversational way, a little account
Of the introduction of steam rail
roads, a glimpse at their marvellous
growth, and some OF the entertaining
and amusing experiences with which
his life has been naturally filled.
Our author began his railroad life
at seventeen years of age as baggage
master of the train from Boston to
Medford. Eve had," says, "a
small, cables engine, weighing about
five tons" (the engine of to day
weighing seventy fye), "and the
train was made up of single car,
which was baggage and passenger car
combined" His next position was
on the Boston & Name Railroad,
which at that time, though only
hundred and eleven miles long, was
considered q wonderful line. The
work on this Portland train was
burdensOme. I'm those days the
baggage master had to take a turn at
the brakes as often as the brakeman,
and had to keap his own car clean
inside and out, as car-cleanerS We're
then unknown. The wheels had to
be wiped with waste, which was no
small task, splashed as they were
with whale oil, the only kind then
use for such purposes. Part of the
baggageman's equipment was long
nosed Oil-can, from which we had
to oil the wheels at nearly every sta
ton. The passenger cars in those
early days of railroading were eight
ed whale. oil lambs, from which the
tops of the cars were made smoky
and the sides were spattered with
grease" TO the discomforts of the
rigid, n-uph0lstered seats and badly
heated or unheated cars were added
the showers of cinderS and the dense
smoke from the engine, fer the early
engines were without spark -arresters,
and the flame often streamed back as
far as the rear car. Pitch pine was
largely used for fuel, and the amount
of smoke, sparks and cinders may be
imagined. The only way to get
breath of fresh air was by opening
the windows, no attempt at ventila-
ton being made. 1t was a long time
before coal was used for fuel, engines
being built only for wood. This
necessitated frequent stoppages to
wood up" when all hands turned
In till the work was done. i
Freight cars were mere boxes, a little
longer than wide, with a wheel at
each corner. They had doors on each
side, and the trainmen had to walk
around on foot-board, holding on
by an iron rod running the whole
length of the car. l re-
member collision at Sommersworth
in 1849. when the cars were thrown
all over the neighborhood farms"
All of the contrivances which we
now look at as matters of course in
railroad travelling, and which play
such necessary and important parts
in railroad management, were, not
many years ago, very primitive.
Brakes, rails, switches, tickets, coup
lings, uniformed officials, and the
like, have grown out of almost moth
ing. In the early days the brakemen
used to sit on top of the car, in a lit.
tie cab, and work the brake with a
foot.lever. such as is applied to heavy
wagons and carriages nowadays.
Then a man named Stevens came
along and contriYed the wheel-brake
which controlled both trucks of the
car at the same time, and it was con-