The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-04-25
John BULL MEMORIES.
The Old Engines Start To
Chicago Brings a Rival
In the Field.
NO. IS HAS AN OLDER RECORD.
A Locomotive That Steamed Away
Down Below Wilmington Before
the "Bulr' Ran over the
Old Amboy Road.
NO. IS HAS AN OLDER RECORD.

AcSuIb 1OE LIE OlQ~tfulcIS All 1hSbOuy Co
pecially those who were won't long ago to
push Durham boats on the Delaware and
trade between Philadelphia and points in
the Delaware Valley, is the shop on
Front street OF B. NJ. Youells. a veteran
waterman int the harbor master of this
port. 1t Is a curious shop. and 1t is filled
with much that would delight curio
hunters, while as for scrap books and
collections of data upon events and incl
dents Of half a century ago it Is not
equalled by any other spot hereabouts.
Mr.. Youells Is a veritable walking en-
~cyclopedia and is filled to~-overf1owing just
now with incidents recalled by the start
ing of the John Bull train for Chicago.
Among mis- daily visitors one who especial
~ enjoys his dtscourses on early railroad
Ing is VIM. Huston, who is now in his SD
year and who reflects with pleasure that
he drew the first train out of Philadelphia
that carried through passengers to Balti-
more. These two old friends were talk
ing over the trip of the John Bull train
when a reporter found them one morning
last week. They were discussing with
much satisfaction, an article detailing
the early history OF the old engine.
FROM ~sTEvENSON'S sHo
"You must know" said MIR. Huston,
shat way back In the thirties there were
mighty few railroads in this country. A
steamboat was a great novelty, nut an
engine to draw a passenger train was al
most unknown. In 1882 / was a machin-
ist, working at Wilmington. Del. just be-
fore that there had been opened the sixteen
miles of railroad between New Castle,
DEL. and Frenchtown. That was fully
sixty-two years ago. Something got
wrong with the engine. and as they had
M chnnu I'm NaW Cnafia fn fdn ranQirfnn
/ was sent for to come and put the
ma hine In order. The engine was No.
Is, and it came from Stevenson's shop i'll
Eugland in 1882. 1t was bought for the
Philadelphia & Germantown Railroad
for about $1,000, but, when it arrived that
company could not pay for it and a direc-
tor, who was also q director in the New
Castle road, bought 1t for that line. It
was given III charge of Matthew Baldwin
of Philadelphia. to be put together, but it
took him nine months before he got it to
working. He had never seen a locomo-
tive before. He took ii for his model in
making other engines, n that was the
business.
After 1 went TO New Castle we made
locomotives there. In those days the ma
chinists, as they are called nowadays. were
known as engineers ii they made en-
gines. ana they were of more account in
tl6 COtlLluultY tud1 W0t0 uH0 okIfCk6 Va
the engine 1t was considered that any
one could drive an engine ii he had any
gumption. The New Castle road was the
first TO carry passengers in this country.
by steam. / know that TO be a fact. The
same year that | was asked to 60 to New
Castle. went in a steamboat, the New
Philadelphia, to Philadelphia, and then
crossed the river to Camden. From there
I tool the railroad to Amboy. Il was a
horse railroad. The John Bull was at
that time on a side track awaiting COM
plation of arrangements to introduce
steam power l remember seeing the
| John Bull. OF course it was attracting
a great deal of attention at the time.
Now bear in mind that at that time No.
10 was runDiDg on the New Castle road.
THE OLD LINE TO BALTIMORE.
"Between 1888 and 1887, three different
| companies built railroads, which subse-
uuently became the line of the Pniladel-
| Dhia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad.
One company constructed the road from
Hayre de Grace to BalJimore: another
| had a line from Wilmington to a point
on the Susquehanna River, opposite
Havre de Grace; a third company built
a road from Philadelphia to Wilmington.
| Matthew Newkirk was its president.
Before the last road was built, steam
boats carried passengers between Phila-
delphia and Wilmington, where they took
| the cars. Just about the time the road
was finished, but before there had been
any traffic over it to any extent, the
steamboat broke down. l happened then
to be running a train on the Wilmington
Susquehanna road, and Drougnt my
train into Wilmington. l was told to go
on to Philadelphia and get passengers Tor
Baltimore and Washington who could not
get away from Philadelphia because the
| steamboat was laid up. So | went up with
my train. 1t was the first to run into
Philadelphia from Wilmington. After
turning the engine round We made up the
train and started back. This was in the
summer OF 1887, and it was the first train
out of PHILADELPHIA that carried passen
gers to Baltimore. We had six cars and
| about sixty In each car. 1t was a big thing
l can tell you, and crowds OF people were
seen at all points watching che train. We
made about twenty miles an hour. the
rails were laid on long wooden stringers
which rested on stone piers.
AN ODD EQUIPAGE.
I'VE had no whistle on the engine. The
| front brakeman stood on the front plat
form; when I wanted to stop l would
motion to him. He would pull on his
break and at the same time ring a hand
he'll at theSside Of thecar to notify the
other brakemen to put or their brake.
AS to signals with other trains we had
none. We had q schedule and we had
| plenty OF time to reach passing points.
If a train was not there IN a reasonable
| time we would start out and il we found
| it along the track one train or the other
would back up to a siding. When we
came TO q curve we would run slow and
If there was any danger Of the other
train meeting us on the curve, we would
| send a man ahead to warn US.
II never had a whistle till I got to be an
engineer on the Reading Road at Phila-
delpnia. I made the first regular whistle
nsed for a steamboat. and l put one on
INV engine. Another engineer had one
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