Posted inDaily News Iron & Steam Railroads Travelers' Tales

N. P. Willis on the “Baltimore and Ohio Railroad”

ldlewild, August 8, 1859

Dear Morris : There is one class of sights upon a new railroad which are very interesting while their freshness lasts—the places that have been taken by surprise. On the line of the streak of lightning that was thrown over the Alleghanies by the Baltimore thunder-cloud of thirty-one million dollars, is a succession of far-hidden remotenesses—wild valleys, cascades, solitary shanties and mountain fastnesses—many of which were thought by the hunter, or by the pioneer settler, wholly unreachable by common thoroughfares, and, in fact, inaccessible to all visitings but the eagle’s, but which have been laid open, almost with the suddenness of a thunderbolt, and are now daily looked at from crowded freight trains and expresses, as familiar to the man in the locomotive as the signs of a street!

Posted inDaily News Iron & Steam Railroads

American Locomotives

The best manufactory of Locomotive Engines in this country, is the establishment owned by Baldwin, Vail & Hussey, Broad street, Philadelphia. Since this company began their labors, few short years ago, they have manufactured one hundred and twenty-nine locomotive engines. Of this number twenty-six have been for the Columbia and Philadelphia Railway, twelve for the Utica and Schenectady, and ten for the Georgia Rail Road.

Posted inDaily News Railroads

Seven Killed, Scored Hurt in P. & R. Express Wreck Near Atlantic City

Express Train Plunges Over High Embankment After Running into Open Switch

ATLANTIC CITY, July 3.—An open switch sent seven persons to their death and resulted in injury to about 75 others, about half of them seriously, when the Camden-Atlantic City night express on the Philadelphia Reading railroad running at full speed, left the rails on a curve at Winslow Junction and rolled down an embankment. The dead and injured were from South Jersey, Philadelphia and vicinity. Nearly all of the injured were removed to this city.

John F. Walt, an operator who has been in the service of the company for twenty-four years, is in a state of collapse in his home at Hammonton, N. J. He is under the surveillance of the state police. The engineer of the express, Walter Westcott, is dead. He was killed instantly.

Posted inRailroads US Civil War

June 17, 1861 – Reconnoitering the Loudon and Hampshire Railroad

One of the Connecticut Light Guard Shot!

Alexandria, June 16. — A reconnaissance of the Loudoun and Hampshire railroad was made to-day, two miles beyond Vienna, which is fifteen miles north of Alexandria. The train was under charge of Col. Powers, accompanied by the first Connecticut troops, under the command of Brigadier General Tyler. On the return of the train, when two miles this side of Vienna, a man fired on the train from ambush, wounding George Busbee, of the Connecticut Light Guards.

Posted inLocal Histories Railroads

Ruction on Train

Last Friday afternoon, there was considerable excitement on the train which left here at 2 o’clock for Milwaukee. Conductor White in collecting fares approached a man somewhat under the influence…
Posted inRailroads

Sawyer’s Bay Railway Accident

DUNEDIN, This Day.

The railway smash at Sawyer’s Bay turned out to be more serious than was at first reported. The train, which consisted of sixteen trucks and a large guard’s-van, was coming down the incline into Sawyer’s Bay when the engine —an Addington “U”— ran into a cow which had wandered on to the line just below the water tanks used by the engines, and on a curve a few feet above the lie that runs along the bay to Port Chalmers.

The morning was very dark. The cowcatcher bar first struck the cow and carried it along for a little distance, and then the engine, going over the animal and cutting it in two, left the line and ploughed its way along for some distance between the rails on the roadside. It came to a sudden stop by mounting the station platform and smashing into the front of the wooden structure.