The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-06-06
FIRST LOCOMOTIVE CAB.
Neither Fame Nor Money For Its

of the Cowcatcher's nventor-George
Stephenson Got 9100 For the Loco
motive Whistle.
''William M. Ross, who built the first
locomotive cab and the first locomotive
snow plough, died recently in Connecti-
cut" said veteran railroad man. 1.-THE
pioneer cab was made and attached to
the locomotive Gen. Putnam, on the
Norwich and Worcester Railroad, IN
1912. Ross was a car repatrer in the
employ Of that company. Up to that
time the only protection the engineer
and fireman had from the elements
was the dome on the boiler. The en-
gineers themselves had never thought
of the possibility of having shelter.
Ross never got any credit for his idea
and the practical application of it be-
yond his own railroad, and his genius
was so lightly appreciated and nothing
more as long as he was in that COM
pany's employ.
He designed the snow plough in the
winter of 1S43 The workmen who con-
structed it were careless in putting on
the iron, and on thes trial trip of the
new appliance the iron scraper was
torn loose and the locomotive was
thrown down an embankment, killing
the engineer, a man named Robinson,
who brought from the Boston Locomo-
tive Works, in 1888, the first locomotive
than ever ran between Norwich and
Worcester. He brought it from Boston
by boat to Norwich, and it was the To-
connective on which he was killed while
testing the original snow plough. 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 To-
connective cab,it was not adopted by any
of the New England roads for several
years. The New Jersey Railroad was
the first of the other railroads to at
tach it to locomotives. This was in
1916 or 1S47. The Erie Railroad, al
though it had been the leader in adopt
ing railroad improvements and was the
originator of many of them, had no To-
connective with cab on in it's service
until 1S48
"Joe Meginnes, known to this day as
the dandy engineer was the man who
got 1t on. Meginnes was one Of the
original engineers 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 go
ing to a party-kid gloves, silk hat, and
all One time in 1S49 he went on pleas
ure trip down in New Jersey. There
he saw for the first time locomotive
with a cab. 1t took Joe Meginnes'
aesthetic eye, and when he went back
49, ~ ~ 4 Tn1,
Brandt, who was the first master me-
chanic Of the Erie, for a cab to be at
tached to his locomotive, which was
known as the Orange. Brandt put him
off with a promise. He made the de-
mand frequently after that, but moth
ing was done toward providing the cab.
AT last Joe went to H. c. Seymour, the
general superintendent, and told him
that unless a cab was put on his loco
motive he would Quit the road. That
settled it. They couldn't afford to lose
Joe Meginnes, so Seymour ordered the
Orange to the Pierrnont shops and had
cab put on her. That was the first
locomotive cab on the Erie, and no en-
gines were ever built for the road after
that without one. FL. G. Seymour, by
the way, resigned from the Erie in 1S49
to becomh State Engineer of New York
and he afterward took the 100000
contract for building the Ohio and Mis-
sissippi Railroad, the largest railroad
contract that had ever been taken by
one man up to that time. He died be-
fore the work was completed.
81. B. Davies, the man who invented
the cowcatcher-an attachment to loco
motives that should have brought mill
ions to it's originator-is still living,
hale and hearty, at Columbus, O., and
he Is one of the only two engineers alive
to-day who ran locomotives before cabs
or cowcatchers were thought of, and
before the locomotive whistle was
known In this country. The other sur
vivor Of those pioneer railroad days is
Ben Hafner of Port Jervis, who ran a
locomotive from 1888 to 1890 Davies
never received a cent for his invention,
not even SO much, as he told me once,
ais a free ride over the railroad whose
engines he originally equipped with it.
Davies is native of Kennebec, Me. in
1886 he came to New York, where ne
got a job on Commodore Vanderhilt's
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
1899, thus being the first engineer on
the first locomotive on Ohios first rail-
road He subsequently entered the
service Of the Columbus and Xena
Railroad Company, and it was while
running a locomotive on that road,
about 1849, that he conceived the idea
of the pilot or cowcatcher.
f4The first cowcatcher was a 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 a
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 coun-
try, scarcely a night passed on any
railroad that some cow or hog or horse
was not impaled on these spikes much
to the peril of the train and its pas-
sengers. The dangerous character CT
this cruel trap was source of con-
slant apprehension to engineers, and
Engineer Davies. at least, spent much
time thinking how it might be i'm
proved
Zone day, while he was making his
trip and thinking on the subject of i'm
proving the cowcatcher. he noticed a
farmer ploughing in af1eld near the rail-
road. The manner in which the mould