Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1910-01-26
RAILROADING so YEARS AGO.
Interesting "reminiscences of the
Early Days, Written for this
Paper by Mr.. l.. l.. Caldwell.

|
welcome visitors at our home A
that time my parents moved from the
place where | had spent so p.any
happy days, to go out inlo the tnsy
marts of life-my father ID engage
in railroad building. The New
York and Erie Railway was being
built from Piermont, on the Hudson
river, to Dunkirk on Lake Erie. The
Erie was the second railroad pro-
| jected across the state of New York
The Mohawk and Hudson, as it was
first called, had been in operation
between Albany and Schenectady for a
number of years. At the time OF
which l write (1S46) it had been
extended in sections, under separate
organizations, nearly across the
state. The different interests soon
became consolidated under the name
of the New York Central"
My father entered into a contract
with the Erie Railway company to
build fifteen miles or more of road
bed along the north bank of the
Susquehanna river, east of Bingham
ton, in Broome county, with all
necessary bridges and culverts. The
grading, / remember, was largely
rock cut, which required so much
drilling and blasting it took two
years to accomplish the work. The
drilling was done by hand, and the
blasting was with common blasting
powder. Improved air drills and
dynamite were unknown at that
time. The track was being laid
20
the roadbed was finished, track lay
ing began at Binghamton eastward,
to meet those coming west at Sum-
NIT, which was at the top of the
divide between the Delaware and
Susquehanna rivers
The railroad iron used from Bing-
hamton east, came from Albany to
Utica by the Erie canal, and by the
Chenango canal to Binghamton. The
rails were from twelve to sixteen
feet in length, weighing twenty-five
pounds to the yard, whereas, today,
nothing less than seventy-fve pounds
to the yard is used and from that to
one hundred pounds and over. Long
timbers or sleepers were first i'm
beded in the grade and the ties plac-
ed on these, then the rails, the ends
of which were inserted in chairs, So
called; these chairs had lip turned
up on the outside, to receive a
round wooden key, not unlike the
large part of a base ball bat, which
was about sixteen inches long. These
keys were driven tightly between the
hollow of the rails, and the lip of the
chairs. One of the duties of the
section men was to see that these
keys were kept firmly in place.
The track of the Erie was broad
gauge, six feet, and remained so for a
great many years; but was finally
reduced to standard gauge, or to
four feet eight and one-half inches.
The change was accomplished for
the whole length of the road across
the state in twenty-four hours, from
midnight Saturday to the same hour
Sunday. Some preliminary work
was done the day before, such as
drawing part of the inside spikes
and distributing new ones, the old
ones not being used, and it was not
necessary to move but one rail, for
the time being. New standard gauge
trucks had also to be substituted un-
der the cars. Two small locomotive
engines and six fiat cars came by
canal TO Binghamton, knocked down.
Mechanics and engineers came with
them to set them up, and when plac-
ed on the track with steam up, /
thought that / was looking at all
that would ever be worth seeing in
my life time, and was ready to go
hence.
Those engines probably did not
weigh over fifteen tons each, per-
haps less. The smoke stacks were
very large, compared to modern ones.
/ have since seen engines on the
mountain division of the Lehigh val
ley, and on some of the roads west
of the Missouri, that weighed one
hundred and thirty tons. These two
small engines / have described were
named the Orange and the Rock
land" after two counties in the
southeast part of the state, and for
great many years, all engines on
the Erie road were named for the
counties of the state, not numbered
as now. i could tell many of them
by their whistle; no two were in the
same key. ] would say when
heard a whistle, THAT is the Cat
teraugus, that is the Oneida, .
that is Onondaga," etc. BY the
way, what grand names the counties
of New York have,-they sound sc
substantial and rock-rooted. Indian
names predominant but those not
Indian, like Franklin, Hamilton, Liv
ingston and Rensselaer,, have gen
uine ring to them. 1t is a great
state, and / always swell with pride
when say it was my native state.
The engines and cars of that day
were built on the general principle
of the more modern ones of the pres
ent time. / remember the steam
chests and cylinders were set on Al
angle, and not parallel with the
boiler as now. The freight cars were
painted a deep blue, and had a capa
city of eight or ten tons, with q
platform at either end for the
brakeman; one brakeman for eacl
two cars; no running over the tor
of the train as now.
Track laying began on the Fire
road at Piermont in 1S45, was com
pleted to Binghamton in 184S, ant
finished to Dunkirk on Lake Erie
in 1S55-just ten years in building
This was owing to the rock WORK II
the mountain section, and the star.
rucca Viaduct, built of cut stone
which was one-fourth of mile Ions
and forty feet high. 1t had eighteen