The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1909-01-23
In FIVE DECADES
RAILROADS HAVE MADE WON
DERFUL STRIDES.
Changes Are Shown by Comparisons
Which Are Really humorous
One Line That Could Not
Afford Clock.


1t would seem far Cry between
period when d railroad corporation
would order $1.6O0O0O worth of pas
senger equipment, apparently with no
more concern than would be displayed
by the ordinary individual in buying
a loaf of bread, and the time when
that same road could not afford a
clock by which to run its trains, says
the Chicago Evening Post. But this
span in the affairs of the Rock Is
land system is covered by the service
of man who still is on it's pay roll.
Readers of newspapers noticed re-
port a few days ago that the Rock
Island had ordered new locomotives
and passenger cars to cost 81 900, 900.
The contrast was presented by an old
document which was unearthed from
the records in the form of an adver-
tisement of the establishment of serv
ice by the Chicago & Rock Island rail-
road between Chicago and La Sale,
ILL.,, distance of 100 miles, all of the
system then in operation. And this was
only o5 years ago, or in 1858.
1t was this advertisement that gave
away the secret about the inability
of the road to furnish its own clock
for operating purposes. At least it is
taken to indicate that near approach
to poverty, for the trains were run by
a clock in a store located two miles
from the station.
The man still in the employ of the
Rock Island who personally remem-
bers the beginning of this service is
E. H. Whited, now cashier in the La
Sale station ticket office, Chicago.
Then II years DID, he went to the sta
tion at Blue Island with his father to
see the train go through. About nine
months later he entered the employ
of the Rock Island, and still remains
Mr.. Whited tells many incidents
concerning early railroading, but
about the most interesting anecdote
regarding the first trip of the trains
announced in the foregoing advertise
ment concerns the actions of the farm
ers at Bremen, now FINLEY Park, about
25 miles from Chicago.
The people of that neighborhood had
insisted that the train stop there, SO
they might look at it, but they were
informed no stop would be made. De-
| termined not to be thwarted in their
sightseeing purpose, the people gath
cred at Bremen and built a fence
| across the tracks. 1t was simply
an old-fashioned worm-rail fence, but
! it took the train crew long enough to
remove the obstruction to give. the
gathered curious ones time to get a
good look at the train.
Some wonderful contrasts are indi-
\ cof cd l>xyf 49, e.
narrative. In 1853 the passenger train
equipment was primitive. Instead of
all-steel cars, electric-lighted, venti-
lated and supplied with the latest
coupling and spring devices, as is the
case with this latest order of the Rock
Island, Nhe old coach was of wood, oil
lamps were used, the coaches were
without ventilation when the weather
was too cold to have the windows
open and there was little attention to
the springs and coupling devices. In
fact, the old link couplers were used
and starting trains thus coupled usual
ly was accompanied by considerable
shaking up for the passengers. Then
too, the light construction of cars
made riding a pretty rough PROPOSE
ton.
The system also has grown from its
100 miles into the Rock Island-Frisco
Chicago and Eastern Illinois family
having upward of $4,000 miles of road
and the pay roll has increased from
some 800 names to about $4,000. But
the prediction of the active railroad
man is that another half century will
find to-day's methods just as crude il
comparison as were those of 1853.