South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1922-07-24


year. The road. which connected
Schenectady and Troy. is now a part
Of the great New York Central sys-
tenn. along with half a dozen other
short lines, the consolidation having
been made ia 1872.
RAilroading In those days was not
what 20 is now. To begin with. the
engines were dinky affairs. with one
pair Of four-and -a-haf-foot driv-
ing wheels. and burned wood. II is
reported that many a mile OF good
rail fence along right-of-ways Of the
period disappeared mysteriously un-
III the farmers learned 10 watch the
trains 20 through Wemple has seen
wood supplanted and peat. soft coal
blacksmith coal hard coal and oil
burned az different times since with
electricity now looming as their final
successor.
Dfspatching the Maximum.
But electricity was unheard Of in
those days as far as railroading was
concerned and so. Of course. were
the telephone and telegraph obs
patching was an art unknown
Wemple relates and trains were
run by time cards" II an engi-
neer was 80 minutes behind sched-
ule he had 10 stop and let the first
approaching train pass him. Some
times he waited until he saw the
smoke Of his fellow engineers en-
CINE IN tho distance and then
"scooted" fer a siding Il was an
exciting life.
Engines were not numbered IN
those days. but bore names. after
the maritime fashion. Wemple's first
charge was the Buffalo" There
was nothing so1n-bre about the Iron
horse" In those days either They
were enlivened with a profusion OF
nickel and brass. work, all Of which
was kept FURNISHED until Il looked
like a piece OF jewelry in the sun
light. and It IS not unlikely that the
captain OF the ship felt no more pride
in the appearance Of his craft than
did the old-time engineer in the
hlgh-stacked engine over whose
throttle he presided.
II was in 1854 that Wemple be-
came an engineer. on his transfer TO
the Greenville & Miami line. run
ming from Dayton. Ohio. 10 Union
city. Indiana a distance of At miles
Later the road was extended 10
Indianapolis. making the length of
the line $50 miles. He remained
there until March. 1855, when he
went 20 the Illinois Central at Cen
tralia, ILL.,, then a town with about
10 houses, now city-of around 90
600 population.
Remembers Confederate Prisoners.
He was on this line when the Civil
war broke out and remembers how
his pity was stirred when Confeder-
ate soldiers. clad in a few rags. we're
loaded into boxcars and shipped into
the frosty north as prisoners. Close
~ guarded by Union soldiers in
heavy overcoats their breaths smok-
ing in the crisp atmosphere, they
made a picture Wemple could never
forget
In 1863 an offer came 10 Wemple
20 return 20 his old love. the same
branch OF the New York Central on
which ne had worked before. 1;
was here that he piloted the funeral
train which bore Lincoln's body from
Schenectady to Troy-there being nc
bridge az Albany at that time-ou
the long run from Washington "a
Springfield. III where the martyred
presidents body still rests.
Great solemnity marked the pro-
Eress OF the presidential cOrtege
Wemple relates. a pilot train ran
ahead OF the funeral train and clear
ed the way. Both were heavily
draped IN mourning and ran at A
constant speed Of "a miles an hour
one OF the duties OF the pilot train
was to stop all trains on the parallel
track and make them wait until the
funeral train had passed
At each station the bell Of the en-
CINE tolled I'm proclamation and a;
the larger cities the train stopped "a
let the popuIace file through for a
glimpse OF the body as it lay in state
heavily guarded. Both trains car
rled a crew of workmen and repair
materials. so that there might be nc