The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-10
FIRST LOCOMOTIVE CAB
NEITHER FAME NOR MONEY FOR ITS
INVENTOR, w. NJ. ROSS.
Neither Did He Get Anything for the
catcher Fared Similarly.
New York Sun.

motive cab and the first locomotive snow
| plow, died recently in Connecticut" said a
veteran railroad man. 1.-The pioneer cab
was made and attached to the locomotive
General Putnam, on the Norwich & Worces-
ter Railroad, in 1872 Ross was a car re-
pairer in the employ of that company. Up
to that time the only protection the engi-
neer and fireman had from the elements was
the dome on the boiler. The engineers them
selves had never thought Of the possibility
of having shelter. Ross never got any
credit for his idea and the practical appli-
| cation of it beyond his own railroad, and
| his genius so lightly appreciated even
| there that he remained car repairer and
nothing more as long as he was in that
companys employ.
HE designed the snow plow in the win
ter Of 1S4S. The workmen who constructed
it were careless In putting on the iron, and
| on the trial trip of the new appliance the
iron scraper was torn loose and the locomo-
| tive was thrown down an embankment, kill
| ing the engineer, a man named Robinson
who brought from the Boston locomotive
works, in 1888, the first locomotive that ever
ran between Norwich and Worcester. He
brought it from Boston by boat to Norwich,
! and 1T was the locomotive on which he was
| Killed while testing the original snow
| plow. 1t is doubtful if the name Of either
| Ross or Robinson is known to a single
| engineer or locomotive builder of to-day.
| Notwithstanding the value of the loco
motive cab, it was not adopted by any OF
the locomotive builders or railroads out of
| New England for several years The New
| Jersey Railroad was the first of the other
| railroads to attach it to locomotives This
though it had been the leader in adopting
| railroad improvements, and was the origi-
rator of many of them, had no locomotive
with a cab on in its service until 1913.
INVENTOR MEGINNIS.
Joe Meginnis, known to this day as the
dandy engineer was the man who got it
on. Meginnes was one of the original engi-
neers on the Erie road when it was opened
| to Goshen in 1S41 He had the curious knack
| of keeping himself spick and span on his
engine, and always dismounted from it at
the end of his run dressed as if he was
| going to party-kid gloves, silk hat, and
all. One time in 1s49 he went on a pleasure
| trip down in New Jersey. There he saw for
! the first time a locomotive with a cab. 1t
| took Joe Meginnis's aesthetic eye, and when
! he went back to work he made a demand
| on John Brandt, who was the first master
| mechanic of the Erie, for a cab to be at
| tached to his locomotive. which was known
as the Orange. Brandt put him off with
promise. He made the demand frequently
after that, but nothing was done toward
| providing the cab At last Joe went to HI.
| c. Seymour, the general superintendent,
and told him that unless cab was put on
his locomotive he would quit the road That
| settled 1t. They couldn't afford to lose Joe
| Meglnnls, so Seymour ordered the Orange
| to the Piermont shops and had a cab put
| on her That was the first locomotive cab
on the Erie, and no engines were ever built
for the road after that without one. Fl. c.
| Seymour, by the way, resigned from the
Erie in 1S49 to become state engineer of New
York, and he afterward took the SO, 900 GOO
contract for building the Ohio & Missis-
| sippi Railroad the largest railroad contract
| that had ever been taken by one man up
TO that time. He died before the work was
| completed.
IL. B. Davies, the man who invented the
Ecowcatcher,an attachment to locomotives
that should have brought millions to it's
originator-is still living, hale and hearty,
i at Columbus, O., and he is one of the only
two engineers alive to-day who ran locomo-
| thought of, and before the locomotive
whistle was known in this country. The
G GaHs suTx an Of those pioneer railroad
ran locomotive from 1888 to 1890. Davies
| never received a cent for his invention not
even SO much. as he told me once, as a free
ride over the railroad whose engines he
| originally equipped with it, Davies is a
native of Kennebec, Me. In 1886 he came to
! New York where he got job on Commo-
dore Vanderbilts famous steamboat, the
Cleopatra. The next year he went to Ohio
and helped build the Little Miami Railroad
| He was the engineer on the first passenger
train on that road when it opened in 1882
thus being the first engineer on the first
locomotive on Ohios first road. He subse-
quently entered the service of the Columbus
& Xenia Railroad Company. and ii was
While running a locomotive on that road,
about 1649, that he conceived the idea of the
pilot cowcatcher.
The first cowcatcher was row of sharp
spikes, four feet long, fastened in the
bumper of the engine a foot apart and a
foot above the track 1t was cowcatcher
and no mistake. There were no headlights
on locomotives in those DAYS and as cattle
and all kinds of live stock had free run of
the country scarcely night passed on any
railroad that some cow or. hog or horse was
| fmnqlp6 these s11tfa 10 fho
peril of the train and it's passengers. The
dangerous character of this cruel trap was
neers, and Engineer Davies. at least spent
much time thinking how it might be i'm
proved.
WHERE HE GOT THE IDEA.
Zone day while he was making his trip
and thinking on the subject of improving
the cowcatcher, he noticed a farmer plow-
ing in field near the railroad. The manner
in which the mold board of the pillow threw
the earth to one side as it moved along in
the furrow at once gave him the idea that
developed the plan of the modern locomo.
tive pilot The action Of the mold board or
the soil was just the action that was neces-
sary to make a pilot a useful attachment
instead of a dangerous one, but the motion
was one-sided. 1t did not take Davies long
though, to see that by putting together a
device that became virtually plow with
lWO HOlQ UudTuS lie WOulu accomplish LIt
desired result. Arriving at Columbus hi
constructed such a device at the railroad
shops-he being master mechanic of the
road as well as an engineer-and attached
it to the locomotive Paterson, so named
from Paterson N. j., where 1t was built
On the very first trip he made with his COW.
catcher the attachment demonstrated its
great value. He had not gone more thar
five miles before he ran into a drove of cat
tie crossing the track. The new pilot cut is
way through them as if it were really 2
pillow moving the SOIL throwing them right
and left and clearing the track without any
perceptble effect on the engine
Every locomotive the Columbus &
Xenia Railroad was equipped with Davies
cowcatcher as soon it could be made anC
put on, and its fame soon spread to Other
railroads until every locomotive in the
! whole country was equipped with the pilot
! and. from that time until this, no locomo
tive has been built without Davies's cow
! catcher. although Davies has never haC
even the honor of having his name men
toned by any locomotive builder in connec
ton with the invention. He did not paten
the device-'beng too busy he says-and
although it has saved hundreds of lives anC
millions of dollars to the railroad companie.
of this and other countries Davies never
received penny's benefit from it,
RUNNING THE BLOCKADE.