Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-03-07
AN INTERESTING RELIC.
ENTUCkY'S LIBRARY GETS WHAT
is LEFT OF A RAILROAD.


of the AIeghanies-A Fatal Accident
Causes the Management to Substitute
Horse Power for Steam.
State Librarian Thompson, through the
suggestion of Col. John o. Hodges, of
Lexington, and the courtesy of Vice Pres
ident NJ. II. Smith of the Louisville and
Nashville railroad, was put into possession
of q relic for the state library, which has
an interesting bit of history attached to
it. The relic consists of two large stones,
each about four feet long, eighteen inches
wide and twelve inches deep. One stone
is followed out on the top, the full length
of the middle, about two and one-half
inches wide and two inches deep. On the
edge of this chiseled indentation is "A flat
strip of bar iron about two and one-half
inches wide, fastened with iron spikes
driven into drilled holes in the stone.
The other stone has the bar iron fastened
at the edge of the outer surface. These
stones are all that is left of the first rail
road west of the Allegheny mountains,
and the second railroad ever built in the
United States.
STONES FOR STRINGERS.
The road had its beginning in Lexing-
ton. Oct. 81, 1881, when the corner
stone" was laid with appropriate public
demonstrations 1t was finished to this
city, distance of twenty-eight miles,
in December, 1885, stone sills like line
of broad fat street curbing in cities, TAX
ing the place of what is now called string
ers. to which the rails were fastened
The ordinary straight or slightly curving
lines of the road were constructed with
plain fiat surface stones, but for the av
erage or heavy curves, the stones with
chiseled gutter way in the center were
used as double precaution to keep the
fange of the wheel from jumping the
rails
The engineers of the day claimed that
the road was the safest and most sub
stantial that could be built, but it was
found that for any length of time the
action of the machinery pressing heavily
against the edge of the stone rendered it
liable to wear and crumble, requiring
constant attention at a great expense to
keep the road in good repair Despite
all this care and cost in the construction
this road had the honor of the first rail
road accident in the United States. This
accident occurred in March, 1885, at a
point about two miles the other side of
this city. From a report of Thomas
Smith, president of the Lexington and
Ohio railroad. of which the Lexington
and Frankfort was a part published in
h, f,l n
Hodges for his March number of The
Trades journal, the following excerpt is
taken:
Notwithstanding these precautions on
the occasions alluded to, the hanges of
the wheels of the engine, while passing
with the usual speed over an embank-
ment, lost their hold upon the rails, and
before the brakes could be used the en-
CINE and several cars, one of them con-
tanning "A large number of passengers,
were upset and broken. Two individu-
ais were killed and several wounded. 1t
is probably not within the scope of human
invention to devise a means of travelling
entirely free from all hazard.
WHAT ONE ACCIDENT DID.
railroad was built by Joseph Bruen, of
Lexington. in 1885. 1t had an upright
boiler and two upright cylinders and
lever beams. both attached to one axle,
with crooks at right angles. Bruen got
his idea from Thomas IL. Barlow, who,
it was claimed, built the first locomotive
in the world at Lexington, lS26-21
Barlow had a car for two passengers at
tached to his locomotive, which had
power to ascend an elevation eighty feet
to the mile In May, 1927, it was opened
for public exhibition in large room over
Joseph Bruen's machine shop, where an
oval track around the room was con-
structed This was the first train in
western America. Gen. Leslie Combs
and DR.. w. S. Chipley rode in it at fifty
cents trip. The locomotive was after
ward exhibited in Louisville and other
cities in the south.
The accident referred to, ''in conse-
quence of the responsibility of the suf-
ferers and the novelty of the occurrence"
directed public attention SO strongly to
it that the company substituted horse for
steam power in the transportation of
passengers. This primitive mode of con-
structing and conducting a railroad was
continued until 1912, when change of
ownership brought with it a change from
stone to wooden stringers and a return
to steam from horse power. An inclined
plane at Arsenal Hill, in this city, was in
use until 1919, when the tunnel was COM
pleted to give entrance to the city and
connections with the division of the road
to Louisville, part of which, from the
center of Louisville to the Portland
wharf, had long been in successful oper-
ation.-Frankfort (KyD Cor. Louisville
Courier-Journal.