Connecticut western news., 1891-01-14
OLD NO. ii.
Its Varied F0rtunes-From Q Crack Locomotive lO . Disma atled Wreck

ed the following history of we'll re- locomotive of the Housatonic road which was destroyed at the time of the burning of the round house at Dan- bury few weeks since. The article was written by Fred B. Young, Canaan boy, now employed on the staff of the Danburv News.
 Probably few, if any, of those who pass the ruins of the old engine house of the Brookfield branch, near the New York and New England tracks, give more than passing glance at the char red and blackened wreck of locomo- tive standing there, exposed to frost and storm. Yet many 8 railroad man, espe- cially older ones who have worked on the main line of the Housatonic road. pauses to take second look at the old locomotive, and finally turns away with a saddened expression on his coal-be- grimmed features.
 Engine No. II was purchased by the Housatonic Railroad company in 1867. and is familliary known to railroaders as the "Old Berkshire" for in accordance with old-time railroad custom ''she" had name as well as number The Berkshire" was the last engine pur chased by the old management of the road, just before Superintendent Frank lin took charge, and was also the last wood burner bought by the company. The writer we'll remembers when she made her trial trip. In those days the advent of a new locomotive was mat ter of vastly more notice and comment along the line than at the present time At each station when the new engine made her first trip a little knot of rail road men and their friends would gath CT around, criticising and admiring the new addition to the motive power, and discussing it's ''points" with as much interest as if it were endowed with life
 Engines in those days, too. were worth more admiration than now, when every bit of steel or brass is thickly plastered over with homely black paint, and the only ornament allowed is the dirty yell low initials of the road on the tender The ''Old Berkshire" was bought at about the time spoken of, and thought as the ''heydey of railroad life." The railroad man of those days was looked to as person of more than usual inn oortancc by his acquaintances along the line. Everyone who was intimately &C., qnainted with one of the employees ex l pected to ride free, and even the ten yesr-old cousin of the water boy would ! enter the train and calmly whisper the fact to the conductor when he came through the train, and be "passed" to l wherever he wished to go. We'll, times l have changed, and now an employee himself finds it hard to get free ride I without written pass from the super l mtendent.
 But to return to the subject. The Berkshire" has experienced many vi- cissitudes h her twenty odd years of railroad life. At first she was assigned to service on the way freight, which then ran from Bridgeport to Canaan, up one day and back the next. and the first trip she made was long topic of con- versation, and considered phenomenal one at that time, as she could haul 12 loaded cars up the heavy grade out oi Bridgeport, and the next day on the return trip brought down forty -one cars, mostly loaded, which performance at once settled the fact that No. II was the smartest and best freight locomotive on the Housatonic railroad, and perhaps in New England at that time.
 She was pretty as picture then, too, with bright red wheels and green and gilt stripping. the cylinders, sand box, dome and boiler bands of the brightest polished brass, and the tender xaily painted in bright colors with "Housatonic R. R." in shining gilt let ters, while on the side of the cab in old in old English characters, was the name Berkshire. The old-eashioned wood burner smoke stack was soon changed 10 accommodate a coal fire-box, indeed this engine was the first one on the roaG to be changed from a wood to a coa burner. About five years ago she wal again rebuilt and fitted up with one O the new, small, straight stacks, so called though without the addition of the ex tension cinder box.
 If one of her former admirers coult
 have seen this old-time favorite thu
 transformed he would hardly hay
 recognized 1t as the Berkshire. and ye
 he might too for amoug all the change and alterations of the old engine, on
 part Was left untouched.-the old bell , with it's fancy frame, once polishe,
 brass, now daubed over with blac
 paint, still unmistakably the same.
 Passing by the former "pride of tn road' the other day we overheard raj
 road man. whose grey hair and ben
 form were evidence that he had spe,
 many years in the employ of the con |, l pany, remark, as he drew his hau . across his eyes to wipe away susp
 cious moisture that had gathered ther. Il really feel as if I had lost all ol friend.
 g Twenty years ago engineers and fir, 6 men thought more of their natty litt
 locomotives, covered with brass an
 artistic decorations than at the presel
 time, with their ''chain gang" method
 the engineer possibly not running tl
 same machine more than once or twIt
 8 month, and at the end of the tri , stopping down and leaving his engir F. to the tender mercies of 'wiper." E
 zines, too, twenty years ago had muc h better care than at the present time. ,s We can Ill fancy see some young el
 gineer, say in the early sixties, as l
 proudly stepped on the foot -boar' d throw over the lever and pull out u
 throttle on his first trip, perhaps it W, B. on this same old Berkshire How il
 tently he listens for the least rattl
 suggestive of 8 bolt or screw loose, all
 how at night when the run was finishe he carefully examined every workir 7" part, tightening a screw here and a Il, = over there, and touching every box t- see if they have become heated by u
 days run. He was responsible for
 engine then, and was his own mast
 mechanic to a considerable extent. Al
 the fireman, also, always took pride
 having his engine look just as we'll an
 If possible, a little better than any oth
 engine on the road. No wonder tho