The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-09-22
@N
EARLY RAILROADS
n
In the Days When Making a Rec"
ord Was Quite an Event.
FIRST MILE A MINUTE TRAIN.

. THIS Honcr was Claimed by two
Roads, the Boston and Maine, With
che Locomotive Antelope, and the
Mohawk and Hudson, With the Davy
Crockett.
The first achievements Of American
ra%ilroading are, In the greater number
Of cases. lost in the obscurity of tradi-
ton, and there has sprung up a 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 a 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, a dis
lance Of twenty-six miles, and n
day in 1S4S she Is said to have made
| utE ldSk AOukLESA LILIES Ill I'LL IGEn u1lu~
utes.
But II 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 be did his fam
lily. But she reached the pinnacle ~
her fame locally when in 1882. 41x-
teen years before the Antelope was
heard of, according to this other ST Dry,
she covered q fourteen mile straight
away level stretch between Albany
and Schenectady In thirteen minutes
and made n stop for water besides,
A letter written by Matthew in that
year mentions having done better than
q mile a minute with her on several
occasions.
Running an engine at a mile a min.
ute in those days was many times
more dangerous than it Is now. Three4
quarters OF a 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 sieepers and the rails
would warp in the torrid SUI and pull
apart. s.2Z
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 inn
paling passengers in their seats. Until
a remedy was found for these snake
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 IN 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 d.
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
unnoticed until the wheel broke and
the train was ditched. 1t took q bad
accident, in which q number Of peo-
pie were killed. so runs the tradition,
to bring about the testing OF q
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. .Ga
Ou ILLS particular OCCaSLCh 1A1AASk
train took It's siding. The operator at
the little country station strolled oyers
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 6ues and get power enough to-
climb the hill.
Minot was In a 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 statioa
agents to watch out for the other train
and have 1t 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.
Minot finally discharged him. put him
Off the engine and ran the train hirl-
self to the end of the division. keeping
posted by telegraph at each station.
Everything worked out just as he had
planned and was 80 satisfactory that
he at once ~inaugurated a system OF
moving all trains on telegraph signals
-Thaddeus s. Dayton in Chicago Rec
ord-Heraid-
Within oneself must be the source