Evening journal., 1914-05-11
New News Of Yesterday
The Man Who Advised
Four-tracking the New
York Central
BY Holland.


Commodore Vanderbilt sometimes
gained reputation with railroad
men. and to some extent with the I,
public, based upon some of the devel-
opment by which the New York |
Central and Hudson River Railroad |
Company became a great trunk line.
which he really did not deserve. This
was not his fault In many respects,
the old commodore was singularly
free from personal vanity" said the
late Charles c. Clarke-who was for
more than forty years associated with
the Vanderbilt management of the
New York Central-to me at about
the time Chauncey NJ. Depew retired
from the presidency of that system.
Il suppose" continued Mr. Clarke,
"that no one thing which was done
under Commodore Vanderbilt's direc-
tion after the New York Central
system and the Hudson River Rail-
road had become one single railroad
line attracted more attention than did
the duplicating of the double track
line from Albany to Buffalo
"I remember well having heard
aAAMb bl AAaAaHAAo QA HAAAA hUAiitf
speak of the proposition to four-track
the New York Central lines 800 miles,
from Albany to Buffalo, as not only
extravagant. but as absolutely reck-
less. They could not understand
what Commodore Vanderbilt was
thinking about
But the entire line from Albany
to Buffalo was equipped with two
I additional a.
track railroad. 1t cost a good deal
OF money but almost all of the money
which il cost came from Commodore
Vanderbilt's own pocket. The ex-
penditures we're represented by IN
issue of mortgage bonds and nearly
all of these went into immediate
possession of the commodore.
From the point of view of fnan-
cling the expense of laying two adj
ditional tracks, Commodore Wander
bllt does deserve whatever credit
there may be. But he does not de-
serve the credit for the original con-
ception of four-tracking the road
81 have often thought that this
| great explOit-for il was at the time
considered an extraordinary exploit
! i'm American railroading-fur
about as good an example as any
afforded by the history of American
railway construction of the discovery
of just the right man at the right
time to do the right thing
Il suppose it is safe to say that
old Dean Richmond. who in his day
was the greatest railroad authority
in Western New York, was the man
who discovered James Tillinghast.
At all events, Dean Richmond put
| Tillinghast in a responsible executive
position with what there was of the
New York Central system before
Commodore Vanderbilt secured con-
troll of it.
After the commodore got control
of the New York Central, he met Til
linghast in Buffalo. The commodore
was a wonderfully equipped Judge of
men. That in part explains much of
his success. Within an hour after he
had left Tillinghast he had made up
his mind that the latter was just the
man he wanted to carry out the New
York Central plans. He placed TIL
linghast I'm authority over the entire
system only two or three years after
he came into possession of the New
/ York Central system.
1T could not have been more than
a year after Tillinghast was placed
in this authority when he laid before
the commodore a proposition invol-
wing the duplication of the double
track line of the Central from Albany
to Buffalo He made a perfect
demonstration, or at least a con-
vincing one, to the commodore that
if the line was four-tracked it could
increase its business tenfOld within a
few years. The commodore almost
instantly accepted the proposition
and instructed Tillinghast to go ahead
with the mechanical part of the work,
while he would see to it that the
financial end was abundantly taken
care of.
"Tillinghasts prediction was abun-
dainty justified. He never had any
pride of vainglorious kind because
he had suggested and the commodore
had accepted the proposition, but he
was always very proud OF the fact
that the prediction that he made was
more than justified in a few years
time"
l asked Mr.. Clarke what Tilling-
hast's training had been as a railroad
man.
1T was precisely the same kind Of
training all the other successful rail-
road men have had. 1t was eX-
clusively in the field of experience.
He was a poor boy" he replied, "and
think began life, as so many sue
cessful Americans have done, as a
clerk in a country store"
Copyright, 1914, by e. J. Ed
wards. All rights reserved)