The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1913-12-19
EARLY RAILROADS
In the Days When Making a Rec.
ord Was Quite an Event.
FIRST MILE A MINUTE TRAIN.


Roads, tho Boston and Maine, With
tho Locomotive Antelope, and tho
Mohawk and Hudson, With the Davy
Crockett.
The first achievements of American
railroading are, in the greater number
of cases. lost In the obscurity of tradi-
ton. and there has sprung up host
of interesting stories that go the
rounds like Homeric tales The honor
of having created a record or a custom
that is now commonplace has had
many claimants in nearly every in
stance.
Take the first train to run mile a
minute. The Antelope. an engine on
the Boston and Maine railroad, accord
ing to one Of the most cherished of
these legends. pulled the first train
that made this record. Her run was
between Boston and Lawrence. dis
lance Of twenty-six miles. and one
day in 1S4S she is said to have made
her last fourteen miles in thirteen min
utes.
But it is just as earnestly upheld
that the Davy Crockett Of the Mohawk
and Hudson railroad has this distinc-
ton. The Davy Crockett was the
pride of the road in her day. 1t is said
that her engineer. David Matthew.
loved her better than he did his fam
fly. But she reached the pinnacle Of
her fame locally when In 1882. six
teen years before the Antelope was
heard of, according to this other story.
she covered fourteen mile straight
away level stretch between Albany
and Schenectady in thirteen minutes
and made one stop for water besides.
A letter written by Matthew in that
year mentions having done better than
a mile minute with her on several
occasions.
Running an engine at mile min
ute in those days was many times
more dangerous than it is now. Three
quarters Of century ago the rails
were light strips Of iron spiked down
to all sorts Of ties. There were no tie
or fish plates then. and in hot weather
especially the sleepers and the rails
would warp in the tarrid sun and pull
apart.
Not infrequently the ends Of the light
rails would curve upward from the
track, forming the much dreaded
SNAKE heads which were the horror
Of engineers and passengers alike.
Many tales are told of "snake heads"
springing up under the jolting train,
piercing the flimsy car floors and i'm
paling passengers in their seats. Until
a remedy was found for these snake
heads" by using better fastenings and
more seasoned ties large force Of
men was continually employed to walk
the tracks and nail them down.
Broken car wheels were another ever
present danger in those remote days.
The present standard gauge is said to
have been originally established by
taking the distance between the
wheels Of the carts used on English
highways. For the same reason. ap-
parently, the first rolling stock was
equipped not with solid wheels, but
with cast iron models of the wooden
wagon wheel, though Of smaller d.
ameter. These were not submitted to
the drop test that is now universal
and were Of dangerously light pat
tern. The result was. that often int
rior defects in the casting would pass
unnoticed until the wheel broke and
the train was ditched 1t took a bad
accident. in which IL number Of peo-
pie were killed. so runs tue tradition.
to bring about the testing OF car
wheels by tapping them.
Real time saving in running trains
did not begin until 1851. Charles Mi.
not, superintendent of the Erie railroad.
was one Of those given credit for in
augurating telegraph signals for the
handling Of trains
He was in the cab Of a passenger
train one day. so the story goes. There
were no double track railroads in those
days. and trains had to lie out on sid.
ings and wait for the train bound in
the opposite direction to come along.
However long the delay. the train on
the siding waited.
On this particular occasion Minot's
train took it's siding. The operator at
the little country station strolled over.
remarking that the train in the Oppo-
site direction had got stalled on the
grade some fifty miles down the line
and that it would be two or three
hours before she could patch up her
ieaky 1ues and get power enough to
climb the hill.
Minot was in hurry. and he decided
to telegraph down the line that the
train he was on would not wait at the
siding. but would proceed-for station
agents to watch out for the other train
and have it wait on the siding nearest
the spot where they would meet. The
engineer refused point blank to take
any such risk. saying that it was
against all railroad law and custom.
Minot finally discharged him. put him
off the engine and ran the train him.
self to the end Of the division, keeping
l. 49,.