Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1904-09-01

walton car on the hock Asiano
flyer 10 northern Kansas few days
ago we're two old railway engineers
on their trip to the Fair. They were
telling about last winters storm
that ragged two days and over road
beds that had been softeued by the
heavy rain and melting snow.
at was about the worst storm for
the length Of duration ever road
through" said one OF the engineers.
ut was raining and blowing when l
went out and 1t was showing ano
blowing when came in"
While the engineer was talking
Captain James B. McGonigle, vetsr'
an Of the road and q former Abilene
ite but now a resident Of Colby, joined
them.
"Ah, my boys" the captain said'
as he drew up a chair. "You fellows
who know lot about railroading
may have some rough experiences,
but ,eu don't have anything like the
experiences we had back in Ohio in
the sos. You've got to make time
and go BY the train dispatcher's Or
ders or off goes your head, In the
early days we had no telegraph and
we didn't have train dispatcher for
ever fostering us with his ORDERS SO
we run the train just about as we
pleased; but then we had plenty Of
handicaps."
Eyes, but that wasn't railroading
at ALL" protested the old engineer
who rides in a big locomotive that
weighs as much as a small train OF
the old days. "In those days you
hardly ever carried a dozen passen'
gers on trip. The people wouldn't
ride on your train, and don't blame
them, either, for they never kne"
when they started whether the!
would get there, and besides the.
could walk faster than your little
old tea kettle could pull them. 1t il
-peedy, reliable service the peopl'
want in these days and an engineer
has got to make time no matter wha'
the weather is"
That was only wty the railroad
men have Of drawing Captain Nc
3onigle out. for they ali like him ant
lelight in hearing him relate his eA-
oeriences, brief though they were,
while railroadipg in the early day
before there were any railroads built
In the west.
.Reliable service?' The captain
said this sarca ,tically. "Neil, we
weren't always having wrecks and
killing and cripPling people"
The thrust had the effect Of quiet
ing the little group. Then the caF-
tain began relating his experiences
while railroading in the early days.
"Well, SIR" be said, sin the ten
years proceeding the civil war there
was craze for building railroads in
the eastern and middle states. Every
town wanted railroad facilities and
people who had money we're eager to
invest it into railroad enterprises
The trouble, as they afterwards
learned, was that there wasn't enough
home capital to build all OF the rail
roads demanded by the rapidly de
veloping country. That is how it
came about that foreign capital was
put into railroads and tt e little diuky
lines, as you fellows call them, built
by home companies, became the
nucleus of the great railway systems
OF today.
81 was at Steubenville On the Ohio
river Ia 1852, when a lot Of fellows
who had some money concluded to
build a railroad from Steubenville
west across Ohio and Indiana to
indianapolis by way OF Columbus.
They called it the Steubenville &
Indiana railroad. They built only
fifty miles Of the road when their
money gave out. The road ran from
Steubenville west tos cut in Licking
county and while it was being oPer-
ated under the original company l
worked first as brakeman and then
% conductor at t26 3 month. The
6remen got t26, but the engineer got
g little more, $40, think. We had
two trains on the road running In op-
posite directions. When We reached