Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1912-12-20

chanic, road repairer and baggage
master. He runs the one train, en-
CINE, passenger coach and fiat car for
baggage, all the rolling stock this
railroad possesses, single handed. II
anything Is wrong with engine, cars
or roadbed he drops his other duties
and turns himself into an emergency
gang. A great and versatile man is
Hen Hauck, and he has made his
railroad the most accommodating in
the country.
ut Is not as fast limo as some, I
will acknowledge, but then 1t will
stop for any one regardless Of sta
tions, and Hen has been known to
halt his engine and go up to the near
est farmhouse to arrange for a horse
and buggy to carry a stranger up in
the mountains. There's a sort Of
schedule. of course. Hen plans to
make two round trips a day, but
when 1t comes to a question of pleas
ing passengers he lets his time table
slide and lays himself out to be
obliging.
Nobody would ever imagine there
was railroad like this, a few miles
over the mountains from Newark. But
Hen is a real character. His rail-
roads the Rockaway Valley railroad.
It runs from Chester, through Mend
ham, over little more than thirty
miles of wild. beautiful country, a
good deal Of 1t away back from civil
ization and along a historic route.
They do say, Washington marched
through there. The little railroad
comes to an end in the woods miles
from anywhere, mile even from the
nearest house.
This terminus Is FIVE miles from
Morristown, and If any OF you are
really interested you can take stage
from Morristown over there. That
stage, let me tell you. Is one OF the
picturesque things of New Jersey. No
one can tell how old 1t Is. 1t looks as
If 1t had been used in the days before
any railroads at all.
81 can't say for certain, but ! was
told by one old man up in the Rock,
away Valley that this 'one-man rail-
road never has had but one accident.
That was not at all serious one. It's
the custom of Hen to start the en-
CINE, get her running nicely, and then
come back in the passenger coach to
collect the tickets. That might sound
dangerous, but it isn't, for there are
no switches and no grade-crossings
on this railroad, and nothing can
happen. This isn't seventy-mile-an-
hour train, you know. And when
Hen leaves the engine to take care
of itself on his ticket collecting trips
it's just ambling along easy.
Something did happen once, though
They tell me cow stopped to nibble
on the track too long-for grass
grows close to this roadbed; it's not
model track-and the engine jolted
her. AS I heard it, the COW wasn't
hurt at all, and had to be driven
away by Hen Then Hen turned
his attention to the casualties. They
were very light. All that had hap
pened was the jouncing off OF a 60
cart that had been bought by widow
living in the woods near the end OF
the line from a mail-order house in
Philadelphia. 1t hadn't proved salts
factory, and she was sending 1t back
"The gocart, at that, wasn't in.
jured. 1t simply jounced off from the
fiat baggage car where Hen stacks
all the freight and express packages.
Hen remarked afterward that ne
was to blame; he'd orter ha' wedged
1t better
LAS Hen puts it. any point on the
Rockaway Valley railroad where any
one wants to get on or off is sta
ton New York Press.