girdle round about the earth in forty minutes to the time when
Jules Verne's itinerant hero accomplished the task in twice that
number of days, the restless ingenuity and energy of man have
been unceasingly taxed to increase the speed, comfort, and safety
of passenger travel. The first railway on which passengers were
carried was the "Stockton & Darlington," of England, the distance
being 12 miles. It was opened September 27, 1825, with a freight
train, or, as it is called in England, a "goods" train, but which
also carried a number of excursionists. An engine which was the
result of many years of labor and experiment on the part of
George Stephenson was used on this train. Stephenson mounted it
and acted as driver; his bump of caution was evidently largely
developed, for, to guard against accidents from the recklessness of
the speed, he arranged to have a signalman on horse-back ride in
advance of the engine to warn the luckless trespasser of the fate
which awaited him if he should get in the way of a train moving
with such a startling velocity. The next month, October, it was
decided that it would be worth while to attempt the carrying of
passengers, and a daily "coach," modelled after the stage-coach
and called the "Experiment," was put on, Monday, October 10, 1825,
which carried six passengers inside and from fifteen to twenty
outside. The engine with its light load made the trip in about two
hours. The fare from Stockton to Darlington was one shilling, and
each passenger was allowed fourteen pounds of baggage. The limited
amount of baggage will appear to the ladies of the present day as
niggardly in the extreme, but they must recollect that the bandbox
was then the popular form of portmanteau for women, the Saratoga
trunk had not been invented, and the muscular baggage-smasher of
modern times had not yet set out upon his career of destruction.
The advertisement which was published in the newspapers of the day
is here given, and is of peculiar interest as announcing the first
successful attempt to carry passengers by rail.
[Illustration: Stockton & Darlington Engine and Car.]
[Illustration: (Sign for S. & D. Railway Coach)]
The Liverpool & Manchester road was opened in 1829. The first
train was hauled by an improved engine called the "Rocket,"
which attained a speed of 25 miles an hour, and some records put
it as high as 35 miles. This speed naturally attracted marked
attention in the mechanical world, and first demonstrated the
superior advantages of railways for passenger travel. Only four
years before, so eminent a writer upon railways as Wood had said:
"Nothing can do more harm to the adoption of railways than the
promulgation of such nonsense as that we shall see locomotives
travelling at the rate of 12 miles an hour."
America was quick to adopt the railway system which had had its
origin in England. In 1827 a crude railway was opened between
Quincy and Boston, but it was only for the purpose of transporting
granite for the Bunker Hill Monument. It was not until August,
1829, that a locomotive engine was used upon an American railroad
suitable for carrying passengers. This road was constructed by the
Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, and the experiment was made near
Honesdale, Pa. The engine was imported from England and was called
the "Stourbridge Lion."
In May, 1830, the first division of the Baltimore & Ohio road was
opened. It extended from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills, a distance
of 15 miles. There being a scarcity of cars, the regular passenger
business did not begin till the 5th of July following, and then
only horse-power was employed, which continued to be used till the
road was finished to Frederick, in 1832. The term Relay House,
the name of a well-known station, originated in the fact that the
horses were changed at that place.
The following notice, which appeared in the Baltimore newspapers,
was the first time-table for passenger railway trains published in
this country:
RAILROAD NOTICE.
A sufficient number of cars being now provided for the
accommodation of passengers, notice is hereby given that the
following arrangements for the arrival and departure of carriages
have been adopted, and will take effect on and after Monday
morning next the 5th instant, viz.:
A brigade of cars will leave the depot on Pratt St. at 6 and 10
o'clock A. M., and at 3 to 4 o'clock P. M., and will leave the
depot at Ellicott's Mills at 6 and 8½ o'clock A. M., and at 12½
and 6 P. M.
Way passengers will provide themselves with tickets at the office
of the Company in Baltimore, or at the depots at Pratt St. and
Ellicott's Mills, or at the Relay House, near Elk Ridge Landing.
The evening way car for Ellicott's Mills will continue to leave
the depot, Pratt St., at 6 o'clock P. M. as usual.
N. B. Positive orders have been issued to the drivers to receive
no passengers into any of the cars without tickets.
P. S. Parties desiring to engage a car for the day can be
accommodated after July 5th.
It will be seen that the word train was not used, but instead the
schedule spoke of a "brigade of cars."
The South Carolina Railroad was begun about the same time as the
Baltimore & Ohio, and ran from Charleston to Hamburg, opposite
Augusta. When the first division had been constructed, it was
opened November 2, 1830.
Peter Cooper, of New York, had before this constructed a locomotive
and made a trial trip with it on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, on
the 28th of August, 1830, but, not meeting the requirements of the
company, it was not put into service.
[Illustration: Mohawk & Hudson Train.]
A passenger train of the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad which was put
on in October, 1831, between Albany and Schenectady, attracted
much attention. It was hauled by an English engine named the "John
Bull," and driven by an English engineer named John Hampson. This
is generally regarded as the first fully equipped passenger train
hauled by a steam-power engine which ran in regular service in
America. During 1832 it carried an average of 387 passengers daily.
The accompanying engraving is from a sketch made at the time.
It was said by an advocate of mechanical evolution that the
modern steam fire-engine was evolved from the ancient leathern
fire-bucket; it might be said with greater truth that the modern
railway car has been evolved from the old-fashioned English
stage-coach.
England still retains the railway carriage divided into
compartments, that bear a close resemblance inside and outside
to stage-coach bodies with the middle seat omitted. In fact,
the nomenclature of the stage-coach is in large measure still
preserved in England. The engineer is called the driver, the
conductor the guard, the ticket-office is the booking-office, the
cars are the carriages, and a rustic traveller may still be heard
occasionally to object to sitting with his back to the horses. The
earlier locomotives, like horses, were given proper names, such
as Lion, North Star, Fiery, and Rocket; the compartments in the
round-houses for sheltering locomotives are termed the stalls, and
the keeper of the round-house is called the hostler. The last two
are the only items of equine classification which the American
railway system has permanently adopted.
[Illustration: English Railway Carriage, Midland Road. First and
Third Class and Luggage Compartments.]
America, at an early day, departed not only from the nomenclature
of the turnpike, but from the stage-coach architecture, and adopted
a long car in one compartment and containing a middle aisle which
admitted of communication throughout the train. The car was carried
on two trucks, or bogies, and was well adapted to the sharp
curvature which prevailed upon our railways.
The first five years of experience showed marked progress in the
practical operation of railway trains, but even after locomotives
had demonstrated their capabilities and each improved engine had
shown an encouraging increase in velocity, the wildest flights of
fancy never pictured the speed attained in later years.
[Illustration: One of the Earliest Passenger Cars Built in this
Country; used on the Western Railroad of Massachusetts (now the
Boston & Albany).]
When the roads forming the line between Philadelphia and
Harrisburg, Pa., were chartered in 1835, and town meetings were
held to discuss their practicability, the Honorable Simon Cameron,
while making a speech in advocacy of the measure, was so far
carried away by his enthusiasm as to make the rash prediction that
there were persons within the sound of his voice who would live to
see a passenger take his breakfast in Harrisburg and his supper in
Philadelphia on the same day. A friend of his on the platform said
to him after he had finished: "That's all very well, Simon, to tell
to the boys, but you and I are no such infernal fools as to believe
it." They both lived to travel the distance in a little over two
hours.
[Illustration: Bogie Truck.]
The people were far from being unanimous in their advocacy of the
railway system, and charters were not obtained without severe
struggles. The topic was the universal subject of discussion in
all popular assemblages. Colonel Blank, a well-known politician
in Pennsylvania, had been loud in his opposition to the new means
of transportation. When one of the first trains was running over
the Harrisburg & Lancaster road, a famous Durham bull belonging
to a Mr. Schultz became seized with the enterprising spirit of
Don Quixote, put his head down and tail up, and made a desperate
charge at the on-coming locomotive, but his steam-breathing
opponent proved the better butter of the two and the bull was
ignominiously defeated. At a public banquet held soon after in that
part of the State, the toast-master proposed a toast to "Colonel
Blank and Schultz's bull--both opposed to railroad trains." The
joke was widely circulated and had much to do with completing the
discomfiture of the opposition in the following elections.
[Illustration: Rail and Coach Travel in the White Mountains.]
The railroad was a decided step in advance, compared with the
stage-coach and canal-boat, but, when we picture the surroundings
of the traveller upon railways during the first ten or fifteen
years of their existence, we find his journey was not one to
be envied. He was jammed into a narrow seat with a stiff back,
the deck of the car was low and flat, and ventilation in winter
impossible. A stove at each end did little more than generate
carbonic oxide. The passenger roasted if he sat at the end of the
car, and froze if he sat in the middle. Tallow candles furnished a
"dim religious light," but the accompanying odor did not savor of
cathedral incense. The dust was suffocating in dry weather; there
were no adequate spark-arresters on the engine, or screens at
the windows, and the begrimed passenger at the end of his journey
looked as if he had spent the day in a blacksmith-shop. Recent
experiments in obtaining a spectrum-analysis of the component parts
of a quantity of dust collected in a railway car show that minute
particles of iron form a large proportion, and under the microscope
present the appearance of a collection of tenpenny nails. As iron
administered to the human system through the respiratory organs in
the form of tenpenny nails mixed with other undesirable matter is
not especially recommended by medical practitioners, the sanitary
surroundings of the primitive railway car cannot be commended.
There were no double tracks, and no telegraph to facilitate the
safe despatching of trains. The springs of the car were hard, the
jolting intolerable, the windows rattled like those of the modern
omnibus, and conversation was a luxury that could be indulged in
only by those of recognized superiority in lung power. The brakes
were clumsy and of little service.
[Illustration: From an Old Time-table (furnished by the "A B C
Pathfinder Railway Guide").]
The ends of the flat-bar rails were cut diagonally, so that when
laid down they would lap and form a smoother joint. Occasionally
they became sprung; the spikes would not hold, and the end of the
rail with its sharp point rose high enough for the wheel to run
under it, rip it loose, and send the pointed end through the floor
of the car. This was called a "snake's head," and the unlucky being
sitting over it was likely to be impaled against the roof. So that
the traveller of that day, in addition to his other miseries, was
in momentary apprehension of being spitted like a Christmas turkey.
[Illustration: Old Boston & Worcester Railway Ticket (about 1837).]
Baggage-checks and coupon tickets were unknown. Long trips had
to be made over lines composed of a number of short independent
railways; and at the terminus of each the bedevilled passenger
had to transfer, purchase another ticket, personally pick out his
baggage, perhaps on an uncovered platform in a rain-storm, and take
his chances of securing a seat in the train in which he was to
continue his weary journey.
After the principal companies had sent agents to Europe to gather
all the information possible regarding the progress made there,
they soon began to aim at perfecting what may justly be called the
American system of railways. The roadbed, or what in England is
called the "permanent way," was constructed in such a manner as to
conform to the requirements of the new country, and the equipment
was adapted to the wants of the people. In no branch of industry
has the inventive genius of the race been more skilfully or more
successfully employed than in the effort to bring railway travel
to its present state of perfection. Every year has shown progress
in perfecting the comforts and safety of the railway car. In 1849
the Hodge hand-brake was introduced, and in 1851 the Stevens brake.
These enabled the cars to be controlled in a manner which added
much to the economy and safety of handling the trains. In 1869
George Westinghouse patented his air-brake, by which power from the
engine was transmitted by compressed air carried through hose and
acting upon the brakes of each car in the train.[23] It was under
the control of the engineer, and its action was so prompt and its
power so effectual that a train could be stopped in an incredibly
short time, and the brakes released in an instant. In 1871 the
vacuum-brake was devised, by means of which the power was applied
to the brakes by exhausting the air.
[Illustration: Obverse and Reverse of a Ticket Used in 1838, on the
New York & Harlem Railroad.]
A difficulty under which railways suffered for many years was
the method of coupling cars. The ordinary means consisted of
coupling-pins inserted into links attached to the cars. There was
a great deal of "slack," the jerking of the train in consequence
was very objectionable, and the distance between the platforms of
the cars made the crossing of them dangerous. In collisions one
platform was likely to rise above that of the adjoining car, and
"telescoping" was not an uncommon occurrence.
The means of warning passengers against standing on the platform
were characteristic of the dangers which threatened, and were often
ingenious in the devices for attracting attention. On a New Jersey
road there was painted on the car-door a picture of a new-made
grave, with a formidable tombstone, on which was an inscription
announcing to a terrified public that it was "Sacred to the memory
of the man who had stood on a platform."
The Miller coupler and buffer was patented in 1863, and obviated
many of the discomforts and dangers arising from the old methods of
coupling. This was followed by the Janney coupler[24] and a number
of other devices, the essential principle of all being an automatic
arrangement by which the two knuckles of the coupler when thrust
together become securely locked, and a system of springs which keep
the buffers in close contact and prevent jerking and jarring when
the train is in motion.
The introduction of the bell-cord running through the train and
enabling conductors to communicate promptly by means of it with
the engineer, and signal him in case of danger, constitutes
another source of safety, but is still a wonder to Europeans, who
cannot understand why passengers do not tamper with it, and how
they can resist the temptation to give false signals by means of
it. The only answer is that our people are educated up to it,
and being accustomed to govern themselves, they do not require
any restraint to make them respect so useful a device. Aside
from the inconveniences which used to arise occasionally from a
rustic mistaking the bell-cord for a clothes-rack, and hanging his
overcoat over it, or from an old gentleman grabbing hold of it to
help him climb into an upper berth in a sleeping-car, it has been
singularly exempt from efforts to pervert it to unintended uses.
The application of the magnetic telegraph to railways wrought
the first great revolution in despatching trains, and introduced
an element of promptness and safety in their operation of which
the most sanguine of railroad advocates had never dreamed. The
application of electricity was gradually availed of in many
ingenious signal devices for both day and night service, to direct
the locomotive engineer in running his train, and interpose
precautions against accidents. Fusees have also been called into
requisition, which burn with a bright flame a given length of
time; and when a train is behind time and followed by another, by
igniting one of these lights, and leaving it on the track, the
train following can tell by noting the time of burning about how
near it is the preceding train. Torpedoes left upon the track,
which explode when passed over by the wheels of a following train
and warn it of its proximity to a train ahead, are also used.
In the early days more accidents arose from switches than from any
other cause; but improvement in their construction has progressed
until it would seem that the dangers have been effectually
overcome. The split-rail switch prevents a train from being thrown
off the track in case the switch is left open, and the result is
that in such an event the train is only turned on another track.
The Wharton switch, which leaves the main line unbroken, marks
another step in the march of improvement. Among other devices is
a complete interlocking-switch system, by means of which one man
standing in a switch-tower, overlooking a large yard with numerous
tracks, over which trains arrive and depart every few minutes, can,
by moving a system of levers, open any required track and by the
same motion block all the others, and prevent the possibility of
collisions or other accidents resulting from trains entering upon
the wrong track.[25]
The steam-boats on our large rivers had been making great progress
in the comforts afforded to passengers. They were providing berths
to sleep in, serving meals in spacious cabins, and giving musical
entertainments and dancing parties on board. The railroads soon
began to learn a lesson from them in adding to the comforts of the
travelling public.
The first attempt to furnish the railway passenger a place to sleep
while on his journey was made upon the Cumberland Valley Railroad
of Pennsylvania, between Harrisburg and Chambersburg. In the winter
season the east-bound passengers arrived at Chambersburg late at
night by stage-coach, and as they were exhausted by a fatiguing
trip over the mountains and many wished to continue their journey
to Harrisburg to catch the morning train for Philadelphia, it
became very desirable to furnish sleeping accommodations aboard
the cars. The officers of this road fitted up a passenger car with
a number of berths, and put it into service as a sleeping-car in
the winter of 1836-37. It was exceedingly crude and primitive in
construction. It was divided by transverse partitions into four
sections, and each contained three berths--a lower, middle, and
upper berth. This car was used until 1848 and then abandoned.
About this time there were also experiments made in fitting up cars
with berths something like those in a steam-boat cabin, but these
crude attempts did not prove attractive to travellers. There were
no bedclothes furnished, and only a coarse mattress and pillow
were supplied, and with the poor ventilation and the rattling and
jolting of the car there was not much comfort afforded, except a
means of resting in a position which was somewhat more endurable
than a sitting posture.
Previous to the year 1858 a few of the leading railways had put on
sleeping-cars which made some pretensions to meet a growing want of
the travelling public, but they were still crude, uncomfortable,
and unsatisfactory in their arrangements and appointments.
In the year 1858 George M. Pullman entered a train of the Lake
Shore Railroad at Buffalo, to make a trip to Chicago. It happened
that a new sleeping-car which had been built for the railroad
company was attached to this train and was making its first
trip. Mr. Pullman stepped in to take a look at it, and finally
decided to test this new form of luxury by passing the night
in one of its berths. He was tossed about in a manner not very
conducive to the "folding of the hands to sleep," and he turned
out before daylight and took refuge upon a seat in the end of
the car. He now began to ponder upon the subject, and before the
journey ended he had conceived the notion that, in a country of
magnificent distances like this, a great boon could be offered to
travellers by the construction of cars easily convertible into
comfortable and convenient day or night coaches, and supplied
with such appointments as would give the occupants practically
the same comforts as were afforded by the steam-boats. He began
experiments in this direction soon after his arrival in Chicago,
and in 1859 altered some day-cars on the Chicago & Alton Railroad,
and converted them into sleeping-cars which were a marked step
in advance of similar cars previously constructed. They were
successful in meeting the wants of passengers at that time, but Mr.
Pullman did not consider them in any other light than experiments.
One night, after they had made a few trips on the line between
Chicago and St. Louis, a tall, angular-looking man entered one of
the cars while Mr. Pullman was aboard, and after asking a great
many intelligent questions about the inventions, finally said he
thought he would try what the thing was like, and stowed himself
away in an upper berth. This proved to be Abraham Lincoln.
[Illustration: The "Pioneer." First complete Pullman Sleeping-car.]
[Illustration: (Railwayman in uniform.)]
In 1864 Mr. Pullman perfected his plans for a car which was to be
a marked and radical departure from any one ever before attempted,
and that year invested his capital in the construction of what may
be called the father of the Pullman cars. He built it in a shed
in the yard of the Chicago & Alton Railroad at a cost of $18,000,
named it the "Pioneer," and designated it by the letter "A." It
did not then occur to anyone that there would ever be enough
sleeping-cars introduced to exhaust the whole twenty-six letters of
the alphabet. The sum expended upon it was naturally looked upon
as fabulous at a time when such sleeping-cars as were used could
be built for about $4,500. The constructor of the "Pioneer" aimed
to produce a car which would prove acceptable in every respect to
the travelling public. It had improved trucks and a raised deck,
and was built a foot wider and two and a half feet higher than any
car then in service. He deemed this necessary for the purpose of
introducing a hinged upper berth, which, when fastened up, formed a
recess behind it for stowing the necessary bedding in the daytime.
Before that the mattresses had been piled in one end of the car,
and had to be dragged through the aisle when wanted. It was known
to him that the dimensions of the bridges and station-platforms
would not admit of its passing over the line, but he was singularly
confident in the belief that an attractive car, constructed upon
correct principles, would find its way into service against all
obstacles. It so happened that soon after the car was finished,
in the spring of 1865, the body of President Lincoln arrived
at Chicago, and the "Pioneer" was wanted for the funeral train
which was to take it to Springfield. To enable the car to pass
over the road, the station-platforms and other obstructions were
reduced in size, and thereafter the line was in a condition to put
the car into service. A few months afterward General Grant was
making a trip West to visit his home in Galena, Ill., and as the
railway companies were anxious to take him from Detroit to his
destination in the car which had now become quite celebrated, the
station-platforms along the line were widened for the purpose, and
thus another route was opened to its passage.
The car was now put into regular service on the Alton road. Its
popularity fully realized the anticipations of its owner, and its
size became the standard for the future Pullman cars as to height
and width, though they have since been increased in length.
The railroad company entered into an agreement to have this car,
and a number of others which were immediately built, operated upon
its lines. They were marvels of beauty, and their construction
embraced patents of such ingenuity and originality that they
attracted marked attention in the railroad world and created a new
departure in the method of travel.