Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1913-08-16


ID gaze upon AIT 81 these facilities
ID a few years would be as inadequate
as those which Mr. willard found,
unlesa they had been continually IN.
creased and improved It cannot stop.
A railroad Is never finished. Some
are much less 50 than others. owing
to special conditions.
John +. stevens says NY early
experience On Western roads, where
We were always looking forward 10
the time when the country should
grew up to the railroads, gave me the
idea that the Eastern roads had pass
ed the summit Of their traffic devel
opment The fact is, with the Baltl-
more & Ohio at least. that the traffic
is still Increasing on large scale,
and must continue to do so as far as
any one can see into the future. The
Baltimore & Ohio Is primarily a coal
carrier Its extraordinary position
Il such that il serves eight or nine
coal regions. not one OF which has
reached it's maximum productive ca
paeity All OF them can produce
at The present or a greater rate for
an Indefinite time suppose for the
next fourteen generations
Reflect that fhe total railroad deyol-
opment to this time mas taken place
in two generations. Yon cannot deli
niieIy say how many times the rail-
roads have been made over in the
span of one long life Comparisons
are uneven, either between two roads
or as between parts of the same sys,
TEN, some Of which Will have been
rebuilt several times while elsewhere
the original work of some unusual
genius survives and continues to re-
ceiye an increasing load without
Sinking. There is piece of work
like that on the Baltimore & Ohio 1t
is the Thomas Viaduct at Relay, nine
miles from Baltimore-seyen beauti-
full stone arches spanning the Patap-
SEQ River 1t was built in 1885 for
singletrack railroad and lotion en-
gines, 1t now supports double I
track ROAD and 200-ton engines. But
there Is hardly another vestige OF or
iginal construction. Railroad men
themselves are reminded only by some
occasional contrast how rapidly their
tools have changed. Recently two /
of them were waiting for train at
Grafton, and one noticing an engine
about to pull out with little branch I
line train. said
"Do you remember when we used
to think that type of engine the most F
efficient thing that could ever be +
butt? It looks like teakettle now. +
You could almost push it off the +
track. | wonder what it's date isl"
rhat?" said the other, who knew I
about the equipment, why, that en-
CINE was built in 1892 and was ex
hibited at the Worlds Fair in 1898 I
as the largest engine in the world
that very one you're looking at"
But that is nothing. People are yet (
living in Baltimore who remember the /
origin of the Baltimore & Ohio. 1t .
was the first railroad in this country. I
It was a railroad before there were +
locomotives. The notion of the pro-
jectors was to make first a railway I
and then to employ the most efficient
motive power, whether that should .
be horse or steam.
The first piece of fourteen miles be- \
tween Baltimore and Ellicott Mills /
was opened in May, 1890, with carri- (
ages drawn by horses. The locomo- \
tive had just appeared in competi-
ton with horse power Elaborate
scientific calculations were made to
prove the superiority of horse power
over steam power. in the converse, /
and when the experts failed to agree
it was determined to have a race. A
horse-drawn vehicle competed with
the first locomotive train ever run IN
this country over rails, and the horse \
beat. However, four months later the /
locomotive was regularly running on
the Baltimore & Ohio between Balti- 1
more and ElliCott Mills.