The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1913-09-19
EARLY RAILROADS
In the Days When Making a Rec
ord Was Quite an Event.
FIRST MILE A MINUTE TRAIN.

! Mohawk and Hudson, With the DnVy
! Crockett.
The first achievements OF American
railroading are, In the greater number
of cases, lost I'm 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 q record or n custom
that is now commonplace has had
many claimants In nearly every in
stance.
Take the first train 10 run mile n
minute. The Antelope, an engine on
the Boston ana Maine railroad, accord
Ing 10 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
tance OF twenty-siX miles, and one
day In 1913 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. II Is said
that her engineer, David Matthew,
loved her better than he did his fam
fly. But she reached the pinnacle OF
her Same locally when In 1882, six
teen years before the Antelope was
heard Of according TO this other story,
she covered n 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
n mile minutc with her on several
occasions.
Running an engine at n mile n MIN
ute in those days was many times
more dangerous than II Is now. Three
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 sleepers and the rails
would warp I'm 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.
S1any sales are told OF snake heads"
&rhSak.g up under tho tolting .rain,
Eterchsg the flmsy car seors M I'm
baTlng passengers In their seats. Unul
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 IL said to
have been originally established 10y
taking the distance between the
wheels of the carts used on English
highways. For the same reason, mp
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 10
the drop test that Is now universal
and were of dangerously light pat
tern. Tho result was that often inte-
rior defects i'm the casting would pass
unnoticed until the wheel broke and
the train was ditched. IL took bad
accident, I'm which n 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 I'm the cab of a passenger
train one day, SO the story goes. There
were no double track railroads I'm 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 Mnots
train took lts siding The operator at
the little country station strolled over.
remarking th,s the train In the oppo-
site direction had got stalled on the
grade some fifty miles down the line
and that IL would be two or three
hours before she could patch up her
leaky flues and get power enough to
climb the hill.
Minct was In hurry, and he decided
b. telegraph down the line that the
train he was ON would not wait at the
siding, but would procccd-for station
agents to watch out for the other train
and have Il wait ON the siding nearest
the spot where they would meet The
engineer refused point blank to take
any such risk. saying that Il was
against all railroad law and custom.
Minot finally discharged him. put him
or the engine and ran the train him
self to the end Of the division. keeping
sosted 10y telegraph at each station.
Everything worked out just rs he had
planned and was so satisfactory that