The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1913-09-12
EARLY RAILROADS
In the Days When Making a Rec.
ord Was Quite an Event.
FIRST MILE A MINUTE TRAIN.


the Locomotive Antelope, and the
Mohawk and Hudson, With the Davy
Crockett.
The first achievements OF American
raflroading 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 record or a custom
that Is now commonplace has had
many claimants In nearly every in
stance.
Take the first train TO run mile q
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
tance OF twenty-six miles, and one
day in 1S4S she Is said to have made
her last fourteen miles In thirteen min
utes
But 1t is just as earnestly upheld
that the Davy Crockett OF the Mohawk
and Hudson railroad has this distfnc
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
ffv Rn oh ho ninnQnIa a
her fame locally when In 1882, six
teen years before the Antelope was
heard of, according TO this other story,
she covered a 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
mile minute with her on several
| occasions.
| Running an engine at mile min
ute in those days was many times
more dangerous than 1t 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 torrid 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 fimsy car floors and I'M
| paling passengers in their seats. Until
q remedy was found for these ''spske
heads" by using better fastenings and
more seasoned ties a 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. APP
parently, the first rolling stock was
equipped not with solid wheels, but
with cast iron models of the wooden
wagon wheel, though OF smaller di-
ameter. These were not submitted to
the drop test that is now universal
and were OF a dangerously light pat
tern. The result was that often inte-
rior defects in the casting would pass
unnodced until the wheel broke and
the train was ditched. 1t took bad
accident, In which a number of peo-
pie were killed, SO runs the 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 its 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 1t would be two or three
hours before she could patch up her
leaky dues 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 1t was
| against all railroad law and custom.
| ninot finally discharged him, put him
| off the engine and ran the train him.
self to the end OF the division. keeping
posted by telegraph at each station.
Everything worked out Just ms he had
planned and was so satisfactory that
| he at once inaugurated a system Of
moving all trains on telegraph signals
-Thaddeus S. Dayton in Chicago Rec
ord Herald