The Cairo bulletin., 1910-01-05
Yearly RAILROAD DAYS
Incidents on a Coal Road in the
cixties


awanna in particular. be il known
that the coal train upon which Mr.
Merfifeid made his initial entry intc
what na3 20 hEcoI.c his HES worR
Was minus the luxury of cabooSe,
and that in consequence he nearl.
persisted from the cold and exposure
and woGld probably have succumbed
had it not been for his soldiers over
coat, which protected him on the rear
end of many a night as the train
passed along Martins Greek. Nichol
sen and north to Great Bend
MI. Merrifeld says that the pas
Senser equipment was in keeping
with the no cabooSe coal trains. All
brakes wele unheard Of and the hand
brakes we're exclusively in use. The
brake beams were OF wood, as were
the brake shoes. which had an I'M.
pleasant habit of becoming ignited
from too constant use in coming down
the psconos, which rendered it neces'
sary for the train crew to keep water
cups constantly on hand, which We're
employed when the train stopped at
If the train happened to be pulled
by a wood burning locomotive the
train crew was compelled to assist In
''wooding up" at the different wood
piles along the line, and II coal
burner the two brakemen when they
arrived at Hampton junction would
9just f0ir exercise transfer the con.
/ tents Of a five ton jimmie Of lump
coal over the back Of the tank In the
absence OF coaling chutes at that
station.
The train was due to arrive at
junction along the middle of the after
noon, and after the engine had been
backed into the roundhouse 1t WAS
the duty of one of the brakemen to
scour the running gear and machinery
below the footboard and polish II the
following morning before leaving
time.
In speaking of the locomotives OF
his train Mr.. Merriield says they
We're brass trimmed, including brass
On the cylinders and brass bands
around the boiler jacket, and that
when they backed down to the sta
ton to couple up to the train they
were the showiest and prettiest
taings imaginable. The names of the
locomotives that pulled the mail
train in 1856 were the Colonel Scran-
ton and William +. Dodge. The
Moses Taylor and John j. Phelps
pulled the night line. Sam Dotteser
was the engineer on the Colonel
Scranton, and Hy Adams on the
William f. Dodge.
On September 6. 1869, Superintend.
ent (afterward general manager
. William f. Hallstead promoted Mr..
Merrifleld to conductor aud placed
him in charge of coal train running
between Great Bend and Scranton.
AS in 1865 there was no cRboose, and
one extremely cold night in January,
1879, in order to avoid freezing he
started a wood fire on the top OF
loaded coal jimmie, which. famed by
the motion of the train and the crisp
atmosphere soon got beyond control,
igniting the coal, and in order to save
the balance of the train the burning
car was cut out and sidetracked,
where II was soon consumed.
Mr.. Merrifield says that he fully
expected Superintendent Hallstead
would summarily hand him his walk,
ing papers upon his arrival at Scran-
ton the next morning. and the least
I he looked for other than discharge
was the deduction from his pay OF
the value Of the car and cargo. 70
his infinite surprise and satisfaction,
however, the Old Man listened in
tently to the conductors decidedly
eloquent verbal report Of the incident.
suppressed smile and remarked:
"Merriheld, II thought YOU wouldn't
burn caboose I would give you one"
and as a consequence a four wheel
the next trip.
At this time all the company's cars
and locomotives were equipped with
projecting bumpers, which allowed
the trainmen to couple up after the
cars had come togather. as the coal
jirnmies all had a hook at one end
and three link Ut the other, thus
allowing slack of six inches to
foot between each car. In running
Up Martins Creek through Nichol-
son to Great Bend it often happened
that the following train would run up
against the caboose of the train ahead
and assist up the grade. At other
times the engineer would delight in
. blowing his whistle in derision of
. the weak pulling power of the loco
motive Of the head train, whereupon
the conductor or brakeman of the
head section would judiciously dis.
tribute a little oil on the rail, In
which event it was clear case Of
laugh last, as by the time the play
full engineer had succeeded in getting
up steam after the slide the head
train was out of sight and hearing.
Few Of the present generation of
railroad, men have ever seen a coal