Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-05-29
OLD RAILWAY TIMETABLES.

They Show Great Improvement in
transportation Facilities.
There is worse employment of your
time than reading old advertisements
and timetables in the garnet of a rainy
day. The perusal Of old timetables
will, among other good effects, have
that Of reconciling you to your trans
portation privileges by demonstrating
that your fathers were much worse,
says the Boston Transcript. You COM
plain because the shortest time by rail
to New York is five hours, attained
only at the price Of a special ticket.
But think how your poor father must
and Providence reminded the travelling
public, with typographical emphasis,
that the running time between Boston
and New York was eight hours. The
Boston and Worcester and the West
.ern railroads had become by consolida-
ton, not to be outdone, resorted to
black-faced type to advertise that 1t,
too, made the two cities in eight hours.
Moreover, it announced that early in
1863 1t would put on several new and
luxurious drawing room cars" on the
Springfield line. That was the ante
Pullman era, at least hereabouts. Pull
man built his first cars in 1868, and
organized his company in 1857, but 1t
was not until the early '70's that the
legend now so familiar appeared in
train make-ups In New England. The
Eastern railroad was operating Pull
man Sleepers at the time of the Revere
accident in August, 1871, and these
were frequently referred to in contem-
porary accounts Of the disaster, their
great weight adding to the impact Of
the "telescoping'' train. Probably time
tables were then, as they sometimes
are now, the tabulation Of things to be
hoped for rather than expected.
Eight hours was liberal time enough
for the New York Boston run by either
line, one would think, to forestall even
the possibility of delay save by ''un-
avoidable accidents" but conditions
were often unfavorable. The Shore
Line transferred its trains across the
Thames River at New London by a big
steam ferry boat and if the water was
rough or the fog was heavy this was a
slow operation that proportionately cut
down the margin of running time left.
The Boston and Albany made its prom
Use Of eight hours with a mental reser-
walton, for its schedule shows that one
Of its three expresses took eight hours
and ten minutes and the other two
eight hours and a quarter and twenty
| minutes respectively. 1t was about
1875 that the railroads cut the time
to seven hours and a half and took
considerable pride in demonstrating
that the feat could be accomplished
Thenceforward they made several re.
auctions, until in the late SOS and
early '90's the Gilt Edge did the dis
lance In six hours regularly and held
the primacy until the old New York
and New England shaved off twenty
minutes with it's famous White Train
that ran via Middletown and Will
mantle.
The New York and New England, SO
long a competitor working more for a
place than in the hope Of dividends
was the cause of much quickening Of
time and general modernization Of the
older lines, especially in the early rail-
reading days Of the late Charles P.
| Clark. It gave us our first solid trains
to Philadelphia and later to Washing
ton. In 1877 1t was a cause Of great
satisfaction that 1t brought the Presi.
dent of the United States through from
Washington to Boston without change
via the Harlem River Transfer. The
| locomotive that drew the presidential
train carried the proud inscription on
it's front, washington to Boston in
Twenty Hours !" That was epOched
time then, though the same service Is
now performed in fourteen hours and
will be reduced again when the Penn
| sylvania has it's New York tunnels in
| operation.
A Caustic RejOinder.