The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1910-04-20
WEDNESDAY, APRIL ~, 1910.
RAILROAD DEvEi OPMENT.

~ ~ 0S W. ~ SSV0 = Va . ASO2
~ eighty years ago, that ground wa
broken in Schenectady by Mayo
Stephen Wan Rensselaer, for the Mo
hawk and Hudson River railroad
The fret diminutive steam train mad
the trip between Schenectady and
Albany, Q distance of seventeen miles.
August 3, 1881, In one hour and x
minutes and marked the beginning o.
successful rsilroading in this coun'
try.
Less than q hundred years ago two
lines of stsge coaches were running
regularly between New York and
Boston, carrying all who dared to
undertake such q perilous journey in
the great wooden coaches. swinging
on huge leather hinges, It being we'll
understood that the time consumed in
making the trip depended wholly on
the favor of the elements. Today one
can 20 from Boston to New York in
the time it used to take to travel q
mile Oh the old corduroy roads. .
No longer sgoIthan 1859, it cost e5
to send q letter from St. Joe to San
Francisco, because the precious docu.
ment, written on the thinnest paper,
had to be carried every foot of the
way by pony express. It took 500
ponies, 100 ststions and 80 riders
seven days and sixteen hours to make
the trip-if t~heIIndisns did not get the
rider. Today the mails travel from
coast TO cost in lese than four days
and across the rolling prsiries, where
the pony expreseman raced with the
Men Of Red, locomotives weighing
nearly q quarter Of q million pounds
haul sumptuous trains filed with pas.
sengers.
The development of steam locomo.
tives came slow but sure Richard
Treithick, in 1903, pronounced cogs
unnecessary, built q locomotive which
was q success, using high pressure
steam and forcing the exhaust into
the stack. He may be called the father
Of steam locomotion. although Cugna,
made q steam-driven carriage in 176e
and Murdoch In LISA. Blenkinso,
made q successful locomotive in 18l:
and Hedley's "Pufing Billy" CAM
out a year later. Stephenson's "Blu
Cher al running in 1914 and Oliver
Evans, and others, began TO inven
steam locomotives about that sam,
time. In 1925 the first public railroad
was opened in England, the Stockton
and Darlington branch, with Georg'
Stephenson Is engineer. In 1929 tn,
Crockett" made the phenomenal speed
OF 20 miles an hour. 1t was that sam,
year Horatio Allen, representing tn
Delaware & Hundson Canal company
went to England and purchased fouI
locomotives. The Stephenson cam,
<tp 1929 and was called America
for every engine was given q name Il
those experimental days, but it wa
not the fret to run, as the "Stour
bridge Lion" was fret put into activ
service on the Baltimore & Ohi'
which was chartered a. early as 1872
and opened in 1880. These first rail
roads ere not what might be cslle'
successful and 1t was not until tn
year 1881, when the Albany an,
Schenectady branch was in opera
ton that railroading was pronounce'
a In this country. A ne,
road was quickly extended fror
Schenectady to Utica and placed Il
operation in 1880 and others 500,
sprang' up all ove the eastern states
All this was many years ago. ]
is quite needless to follow the slo,
development of the steam locomotiv
to the giant compound of today, ur
less to trace the extension of the rail
east and west and north and sout
until the country is wholly linke
together with hoops Of steel.