PREFACE

To bring to the great lay mind some slight idea of the intricacy and the involved detail of railroad operation is the purpose of this book. Of the intricacies and involved details of railroad finance and railroad politics; of the quarrels between the railroads, the organizations of their employees, the governmental commissions, or the shippers, it says little or nothing. These difficult and pertinent questions have been and still are being competently discussed by other writers.

The author wishes to acknowledge the courtesy of the editors and publishers of Harper’s Monthly, Harper’s Weekly, The Saturday Evening Post, and Outing in permitting the introduction into this work of portions or entire articles which he has written for them in the past. He would also feel remiss if he did not publish his sincere acknowledgments to “The American Railway,” a compilation from Scribner’s Magazine, published in 1887, Mr. Logan G. McPherson’s “The Workings of the Railroad,” Mr. C. F. Carter’s “When Railroads Were New,” and Mr. Frank H. Spearman’s “The Strategy of Great Railroads.” Out of a sizable reference library of railroad works, these volumes were the most helpful to him in the preparation of certain chapters of this book.

E. H.

Brooklyn, New York, August 1, 1911.

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I

The Railroads and Their Beginnings 1

Two great groups of railroads; East to West, and North to South—Some of the giant roads—Canals—Development of the country’s natural resources—Railroad projects—Locomotives imported—First locomotive of American manufacture—Opposition of canal-owners to railroads—Development of Pennsylvania’s anthracite mines—The merging of small lines into systems.

CHAPTER II

The Gradual Development of the Railroad 15

Alarm of canal-owners at the success of railroads—The making of the Baltimore & Ohio—The “Tom Thumb” engine—Difficulties in crossing the Appalachians—Extension to Pittsburgh—Troubles of the Erie Railroad—This road the first to use the telegraph—The prairies begin to be crossed by railways—Chicago’s first railroad, the Galena & Chicago Union—Illinois Central—Rock Island, the first to span the Mississippi—Proposals to run railroads to the Pacific—The Central Pacific organized—It and the Union Pacific meet—Other Pacific roads.

CHAPTER III

The Building of a Railroad 34

Cost of a single-track road—Financing—Securing a charter—Survey-work and its dangers—Grades—Construction—Track-laying.

CHAPTER IV

Tunnels 48

Their use in reducing grades—The Hoosac Tunnel—The use of shafts—Tunnelling under water—The Detroit River tunnel.

CHAPTER V

Bridges 56

Bridges of timber, then stone, then steel—The Starucca Viaduct—The first iron bridge in the United States—Steel bridges—Engineering triumphs—Different types of railroad bridge—The deck span and the truss span—Suspension bridges—Cantilever bridges—Reaching the solid rock with caissons—The work of “sand-hogs”—The cantilever over the Pend Oreille River—Variety of problems in bridge-building—Points in favor of the stone bridge—Bridges over the Keys of Florida.

CHAPTER VI

The Passenger Stations 80

Early trains for suburbanites—Importance of the towerman—Automatic switch systems—The interlocking machine—Capacities of the largest passenger terminals—Room for locomotives, car-storage, etc.—Storing and cleaning cars—The concourse—Waiting-rooms—Baggage accommodations—Heating—Great development of passenger stations—Some notable stations in America.

CHAPTER VII

The Freight Terminals and the Yards 107

Convenience of having freight stations at several points in a city—The Pennsylvania Railroad’s scheme at New York as an example—Coal handled apart from other freight—Assorting the cars—The transfer house—Charges for the use of cars not promptly returned to their home roads—The hard work of the yardmaster.

CHAPTER VIII

The Locomotives and the Cars 119

Honor required in the building of a locomotive—Some of the early locomotives—Some notable locomotive-builders—Increase of the size of engines—Stephenson’s air-brake—The workshops—The various parts of the engine—Cars of the old-time—Improvements by Winans and others—Steel cars for freight.

CHAPTER IX

Rebuilding a Railroad 138

Reconstruction necessary in many cases—Old grades too heavy—Curves straightened—Tunnels avoided—These improvements required especially by freight lines.

CHAPTER X

The Railroad and its President 152

Supervision of the classified activities—Engineering, operating, maintenance of way, etc.—The divisional system as followed in the Pennsylvania Road—The departmental plan as followed in the New York Central—Need for vice-presidents—The board of directors—Harriman a model president—How the Pennsylvania forced itself into New York City—Action of a president to save the life of a laborer’s child—“Keep right on obeying orders”—Some railroad presidents compared—High salaries of presidents.

CHAPTER XI

The Legal and Financial Departments 170

Functions of general counsel, and those of general attorney—A shrewd legal mind’s worth to a railroad—The function of the claim-agent—Men and women who feign injury—The secret service as an aid to the claim-agent—Wages of employees the greatest of a railroad’s expenditures—The pay-car—The comptroller or auditor—Division of the income from through tickets—Claims for lost or damaged freight—Purchasing-agent and store-keeper.

CHAPTER XII

The General Manager 187

His duty to keep employees in harmonious actions—“The superintendent deals with men; the general manager with superintendents”—“The general manager is really king”—Cases in which his power is almost despotic—He must know men.

CHAPTER XIII

The Superintendent 202

His headship of the transportation organism—His manner of dealing with an offended shipper—His manner with commuters—His manner with a spiteful “kicker”—A dishonest conductor who had a “pull”—A system of demerits for employees—Dealing with drunkards—With selfish and covetous men.

CHAPTER XIV

Operating the Railroad 220

Authority of the chief clerk and that of the assistant superintendent—Responsibilities of engineers, firemen, master mechanic, train-master, train-despatcher—Arranging the time-table—Fundamental rules of operation—Signals—Selecting engine and cars for a train—Clerical work of conductors—A trip with the conductor—The despatcher’s authority—Signals along the line—Maintenance of way—Superintendent of bridges and buildings—Road-master—Section boss.

CHAPTER XV

The Fellows Out Upon the Line 243

Men who run the trains must have brain as well as muscle—Their training—From farmer’s boy to engineer—The brakeman’s dangerous work—Baggagemen and mail clerks—Hand-switchmen—The multifarious duties of country station-agents.

CHAPTER XVI

Keeping The Line Open 256

The wrecking train and its supplies—Floods dammed by an embankment—Right of way always given to the wrecking-train—Expeditious work in repairing the track—Collapse of the roof of a tunnel—Telegraph crippled by storms—Winter storms the severest test—Trains in quick succession help to keep the line open in snowstorms—The rotary plough.

CHAPTER XVII

The G. P. A. and His Office 276

He has to keep the road advertised—Must be an after-dinner orator, and many-sided—His geniality, urbanity, courtesy—Excessive rivalry for passenger traffic—Increasing luxury in Pullman cars—Many printed forms of tickets, etc.

CHAPTER XVIII

The Luxury of Modern Railroad Travel 292

Special trains provided—Private cars—Specials for actors, actresses, and musicians—Crude coaches on early railroads—Luxurious old-time sleeping-cars—Pullman’s sleepers made at first from old coaches—His pioneer—The first dining-cars—The present-day dining-cars—Dinners, table d’hôte and a la carte—Café-cars—Buffet-cars—Care for the comfort of women.

CHAPTER XIX

Getting the City out into the Country 311

Commuters’ trains in many towns—Rapid increase in the volume of suburban travel—Electrification of the lines—Long Island Railroad almost exclusively suburban—Varied distances of suburban homes from the cities—Club-cars for commuters—Staterooms in the suburban cars—Special transfer commuters.

CHAPTER XX

Freight Traffic 325

Income from freight traffic greater than from passenger—Competition in freight rates—Afterwards a standard rate-sheet—Rate-wars virtually ended by the Interstate Commerce Commission classification of freight into groups—Differential freight rates—Demurrage for delay in emptying cars—Coal traffic—Modern methods of handling lard and other freight.

CHAPTER XXI

The Drama of the Freight 343

Fast trains for precious and perishable goods—Cars invented for fruits and for fish—Milk trains—Systematic handling of the cans—Auctioning garden-truck at midnight—A historic city freight-house.

CHAPTER XXII

Making Traffic 355

Enticing settlers to the virgin lands of the West—Emigration bureaus—Railways extended for the benefit of emigrants—The first continuous railroad across the American continent—Campaigns for developing sparsely settled places in the West—Unprofitable branch railroads in the East—Development of scientific farming—Improved farms are traffic-makers—New factories being opened—How railroad managers have developed Atlantic City.

CHAPTER XXIII

The Express Service and the Railroad Mail 369

Development of express business—Railroad conductors the first mail and express messengers—William F. Harnden’s express service—Postage rates—Establishment and organization of great express companies—Collection and distribution of express matter—Relation between express companies and railroads—Beginnings of post-office department—Statistics—Railroad mail service—Newspaper delivery—Handling of mail matter—Growth of the service.

CHAPTER XXIV

The Mechanical Departments 388

Care and repair of cars and engines—The locomotive cleaned and inspected after each long journey—Frequent visits of engines to the shops and foundries at Altoona—The table for testing the power and speed of locomotives—The car shops—Steel cars beginning to supersede wooden ones—Painting a freight car—Lack of method in early repair shops—Search for flaws in wheels.

CHAPTER XXV

The Railroad Marine 404

Steamship lines under railroad control—Fleet of New York Central—Tugs—Railroad connections at New York harbor—Handling of freight—Ferry-boats—Tunnel under Detroit River—Car-ferries and lake routes—Great Lakes steamship lines under railroad control.

CHAPTER XXVI

Keeping in Touch with the Men 418

The first organized branch of the Railroad Y. M. C. A.—Cornelius Vanderbilt’s gift of a club-house—Growth of the Railroad Y. M. C. A.—Plans by the railways to care for the sick and the crippled—The pension system—Entertainments— Model restaurants—Free legal advice—Employees’ magazines—The Order of the Red Spot.

CHAPTER XXVII

The Coming of Electricity 432

Electric street cars—Suburban cars—Electric third-rail from Utica to Syracuse—Some railroads partially adopt electric power—The benefit of electric power in tunnels—Also at terminal stations—Conditions which make electric traction practical and economical—Hopeful outlook for electric traction—The monorail and the gyroscope car, invented by Louis Brennan—A similar invention by August Scherl.

Appendix 449

Efficiency through Organization.

Index 465

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Ready for the day’s run Frontispiece

An early locomotive built by William Norris for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad 18

The historic “John Bull” of the Camden & Amboy Railroad—and its train 18

A heavy-grade type of locomotive built for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1864. Its flaring stack was typical of those years 19

Construction engineers blaze their way across the face of new country 38

The making of an embankment by dump-train 39

“Small temporary railroads peopled with hordes of restless engines” 39

Cutting a path for the railroad through the crest of the high hills 44

A giant fill—in the making 44

The finishing touches to the track 45

This machine can lay a mile of track a day 45

“Sometimes the construction engineer ... brings his line face to face with a mountain” 52

Finishing the lining of a tunnel 52

The busiest tunnel point in the world—at the west portals of the Bergen tunnels, six Erie tracks below, four Lackawanna above 53

The Hackensack portals of the Pennsylvania’s great tunnels under New York City 53

Concrete affords wonderful opportunities for the bridge-builders 68

The Lackawanna is building the largest concrete bridge in the world across the Delaware River at Slateford, Pa. 68

The bridge-builder lays out an assembling-yard for gathering together the different parts of his new construction 69

The new Brandywine Viaduct of the Baltimore & Ohio, at Wilmington, Del. 69

The Northwestern’s monumental new terminal on the West Side of Chicago 82

The Union Station at Washington 83

A model American railroad station—the Union Station of the New York Central, Boston & Albany, Delaware & Hudson, and West Shore railroads at Albany 102

The classic portal of the Pennsylvania’s new station in New York 102

The beautiful concourse of the new Pennsylvania Station, in New York 103

“The waiting-room is the monumental and artistic expression of the station”—the waiting-room of the Union Depot at Troy, New York 103

Something over a million dollars’ worth of passenger cars are constantly stored in this yard 114

A scene in the great freight-yards that surround Chicago 114

The intricacy of tracks and the “throat” of a modern terminal yard: South Station, Boston, and its approaches 115

One of the “diamond-stack” locomotives used on the Pennsylvania Railroad in the early seventies 126

Prairie type passenger locomotive of the Lake Shore Railroad 126

Pacific type passenger locomotive of the New York Central lines 126

Atlantic type passenger locomotive, built by the Pennsylvania Railroad at its Altoona shops 126

One of the great Mallet pushing engines of the Delaware & Hudson Company 127

A ten-wheeled switching locomotive of the Lake Shore Railroad 127

Suburban passenger locomotive of the New York Central lines 127

Consolidation freight locomotive of the Pennsylvania system 127

Where Harriman stretched the Southern Pacific in a straight line across the Great Salt Lake 140

Line revision on the New York Central—tunnelling through the bases of these jutting peaks along the Hudson River does away with sharp and dangerous curves 140

Impressive grade revision on the Union Pacific in the Black Hills of Wyoming. The discarded line may be seen at the right 141

The old and the new on the Great Northern—the “William Crooks,” the first engine of the Hill system, and one of the newest Mallets 154

The Southern Pacific finds direct entrance into San Francisco for one of its branch lines by tunnels piercing the heart of the suburbs 155

Portal of the abandoned tunnel of the Alleghany Portage Railroad near Johnstown, Pa., the first railroad tunnel in the United States 155

The freight department of the modern railroad requires a veritable army of clerks 176

The farmer who sued the railroad for permanent injuries—as the detectives with their cameras found him 177

Oil-burning locomotive on the Southern Pacific system 190

The steel passenger coach such as has become standard upon the American railroad 190

Electric car, generating its own power by a gasoline engine 190

Both locomotive and train—gasoline motor car designed for branch line service 190

The biggest locomotive in the world: built by the Santa Fe Railroad at its Topeka shops 191

The conductor is a high type of railroad employee 208

The engineer—oil-can in hand—is forever fussing at his machine 208

Railroad responsibility does not end even with the track walker 209

The fireman has a hard job and a steady one 209

How the real timetable of the division looks—the one used in headquarters 222

The electro-pneumatic signal-box in the control tower of a modern terminal 228

The responsible men who stand at the switch-tower of a modern terminal: a large tower of the “manual” type 228

“When winter comes upon the lines the superintendent will have full use for every one of his wits” 229

Watchful signals guarding the main line of a busy railroad 229

“When the train comes to a water station the fireman gets out and fills the tank” 248

A freight-crew and its “hack” 248

A view through the span of a modern truss bridge gives an idea of its strength and solidity 249

The New York Central is adopting the new form of “Upper quadrant” signal 249

The wrecking train ready to start out from the yard 262

“Two of these great cranes can grab a wounded Mogul locomotive and put her out of the way” 262

“The shop-men form no mean brigade in this industrial army of America” 263

“Winter days when the wind-blown snow forms mountains upon the tracks” 272

“The despatcher may have come from some lonely country station” 273

“The superintendent is not above getting out and bossing the wrecking-gang once in a great while” 273

The New York Central Railroad is building a new Grand Central Station in New York City, for itself and its tenant, the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad 284

The concourse of the new Grand Central Station, New York, will be one of the largest rooms in the world 284

South Station, Boston, is the busiest railroad terminal in the world 285

The train-shed and approach tracks of Broad Street Station, Philadelphia, still one of the finest of American railroad passenger terminals 285

Connecting drawing-room and stateroom 296

“A man may have as fine a bed in a sleeping-car as in the best hotel in all the land” 296

“You may have the manicure upon the modern train” 297

“The dining-car is a sociable sort of place” 297

An interior view of one of the earliest Pullman sleeping-cars 302

Interior of a standard sleeping-car of to-day 303

“Even in winter there is a homely, homey air about the commuter’s station” 314

Entrance to the great four-track open cut which the Erie has built for the commuter’s comfort at Jersey City 314

A model way-station on the lines of the Boston & Albany Railroad 315

The yardmaster’s office—in an abandoned switch-tower 315

“The inside of any freight-house is a busy place” 328

St. John’s Park, the great freight-house of the New York Central Railroad in down-town New York 328

The great ore-docks of the West Shore Railroad at Buffalo 329

The great bridge of the New York Central at Watkins Glen 340

Building the wonderful bridge of the Idaho & Washington Northern over the Pend Oreille River, Washington 341

Inside the West Albany shops of the New York Central: picking up a locomotive with the travelling crane 350

A locomotive upon the testing-table at the Altoona shops of the Pennsylvania 350

“The roundhouse is a sprawling thing” 351

Denizens of the roundhouse 351

“In the Far West the farm-train has long since come into its own” 360

“Even in New York State the interest in these itinerant agricultural schools is keen, indeed” 361

Interior of the dairy demonstration car of an agricultural train 361

The famous Thomas Viaduct, on the Baltimore & Ohio at Relay, Md., built by B. H. Latrobe in 1835, and still in use 366

The historic Starucca Viaduct upon the Erie 366

The cylinders of the Delaware & Hudson Mallet 367

The interior of this gasoline-motor-car on the Union Pacific presents a most unusual effect, yet a maximum of view of the outer world 367

A portion of the great double-track Susquehanna River bridge of the Baltimore & Ohio—a giant among American railroad bridges 372

“In summer the brakemen have pleasant enough times of railroading” 373

A famous cantilever rapidly disappearing—the substitution of a new Kentucky river bridge for the old, on the Queen & Crescent system 373

Triple-phase, alternating current locomotive built by the General Electric Co. for use in the Cascade Tunnel, of the Great Northern Railway 390

Heavy service, alternating and direct current freight locomotive built by the Westinghouse Company for the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad 390

The monoroad in practical use for carrying passengers at City Island, New York 391

The cigar-shaped car of the monoroad 391

A modern railroad freight and passenger terminal: the terminal of the West Shore Railroad at Weehawken, opposite New York City 406

High-speed, direct-current passenger locomotive built by the General Electric Company for terminal service of the New York Central at the Grand Central Station 407

This is what New York Central McCrea did for the men of the Canadian Pacific up at Kenora 420

A clubhouse built by the Southern Pacific for its men at Roseville, California 420

The B. & O. boys enjoying the Railroad Y. M. C. A., Chicago Junction 421

“The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company has organized a brass band for its employees” 421

A high-speed electric locomotive on the Pennsylvania bringing a through train out of the tunnel underneath the Hudson River and into the New York City terminal 434

High-speed, direct-current locomotive built by the Westinghouse Company for the terminal service of the Pennsylvania Railroad, in New York 434

Two triple-phase locomotives of the Great Northern Railway helping a double-header steam train up the grade into the Cascade Tunnel 435

The outer shell of the New Haven’s freight locomotive removed, showing the working parts of the machine 435

The railroad is a monster. His feet are dipped into the navigable seas, and his many arms reach into the uplands. His fingers clutch the treasures of the hills—coal, iron, timber—all the wealth of Mother Earth. His busy hands touch the broad prairies of corn, wheat, fruits—the yearly produce of the land. With ceaseless activity he brings the raw material that it may be made into the finished. He centralizes industry. He fills the ships that sail the seas. He brings the remote town in quick touch with the busy city. He stimulates life. He makes life.

His arms stretch through the towns and over the land. His steel muscles reach across great rivers and deep valleys, his tireless hands have long since burrowed their way through God’s eternal hills. He is here, there, everywhere. His great life is part and parcel of the great life of the nation.

He reaches an arm into an unknown country, and it is known! Great tracts of land that were untraversed become farms; hillsides yield up their mineral treasure; a busy town springs into life where there was no habitation of man a little time before, and the town becomes a city. Commerce is born. The railroad bids death and stagnation begone. It creates. It reaches forth with its life, and life is born.

The railroad is life itself!

THE MODERN RAILROAD