On Mon, 17 May 2004 05:22:56 -0700, The Independent
<
[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> But...it took them over a hundred years to do the change over. Steam
>> worked well enough for all that time to justify its issues.
>>
>> Gunner
>>
>
>Actually it took about 30 years. The first Diesel electric units stated
>coming off the production lines in the 1930's and I think that the last
>steam locomotive was put to rest in the 1960's. The diesel electric
>units just could not pull long trains up out of Rock Spring Wyoming up
>the Green River Pass. I think that it took the development of the big
>double locomotives (4500 HP) to accomplish that task. Even today the
>Diesel locomotives cannot maintain the speeds of the old steam passenger
>locomotives. (100 MPH over long distances) I think that the best
>Am-Trac can do is about 70 MPH and that is slower than you automobile.
>Of course the track beds are in far worse shape than they were when the
>100 MPH passenger steam locomotives ruled the root.
Chuckle..think again...
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/nation/train_1
First U.S. Railway Chartered to Transport Freight and Passengers
February 28, 1827
On February 28, 1827, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad became the first
U.S. railway chartered for commercial transport of passengers and
freight. There were skeptics who doubted that a steam engine could
work along steep, winding grades, but the Tom Thumb, designed by Peter
Cooper, put an end to their doubts. Investors hoped a railroad would
allow Baltimore, the second largest U.S. city at the time, to
successfully compete with New York for western trade.
The first railroad track in the United States was only 13 miles long,
but it caused a lot of excitement when it opened in 1830. Charles
Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence,
laid the first stone when construction on the track began at Baltimore
harbor on July 4, 1828.
Another typical example
http://www.historicperrysburg.org/history/rail.htm
Perrysburg's First Railroad
Today we complain that they are noisy, dirty and dangerous, but almost
150 years ago people went out of their way to have a railroad come
through here. A town just couldn't expect to succeed and grow without
one.
The steam locomotive had become America's growth stimulant. Canals,
which in this part of the country offered snail-pace transportation
and were uselessly frozen over in the winter, had passed their brief
heyday.
Railroad building was busting out all over America and within a short
period of time Toledo, with its excellent outlet to the Great Lakes,
was to have railroads approaching from all directions. The challenge
for our village was to get one of them through here.
In 1850 a delegation a meeting in Norwalk, Ohio to plead for
consideration of Perrysburg as the site of the river crossing for a
new railroad to be built coming this way from Cleveland. Former mayor
John C. Spink, speaking for the delegation, stated that his group did
not think it possible to ever construct or keep up a drawbridge then
being considered downriver toward Toledo. He humorously cited the
backing of the high authorities: the U. S. Supreme Court, and God
Almighty "who gave us a navigable river, except he put the bottom in a
little too high in some places."
The citizens of Perrysburg and Maumee were even willing to tax
themselves to buy stock ownership in the railroad, but it is not known
if they actually did. However, in 1851 the people of the area
announced with great joy that they had secured the permanent location
of the Junction Railroad through Perrysburg and Maumee to Toledo.
Stock sales had raised $120,000 from our town and adjoining townships.
The new railroad, organized a year earlier, was to run from Cleveland
through Elyria, Sandusky, Port Clinton, Perrysburg, and then across
the river to Maumee and on to Swanton where it linked up with a branch
of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Road. Completion was
promised for 1853.
The line was to run through here along Third Street, as it does now,
but continuing west at Cherry Street and passing just to the right of
what is now Fort Meigs Cemetery. A new railroad bridge was to be built
across the rapids near where the present vehicular bridge now stands.
Work on the railroad began, coming west, in 1852 and a local man,
Shibnah Beach, had the contract to lay eight miles of track in this
area. But sometime during this year Junction Railroad merged with the
Cleveland, Norwalk and Toledo line and work apparently slowed down or
stopped.
Three long years went by before the Perrysburg Journal reported that
the stone piers and abutments for the new bridge were finally finished
and trestle work underway. Local news coverage is apparently lost now,
but sometime, probably in 1858, the "Iron Horse" finally chuffed into
Perrysburg without much fanfare. People were probably so tired of
waiting for it that they didn't feel like celebrating.
Backing up a little to 1852, Perrysburg got all excited about the
proposed laying of a north-south line between Cincinnati and Detroit,
organized at the Dayton and Michigan Road.
Plans called for it to cross the river on the Junction bridge, and the
Village bought $50,000 worth of stock and the Township $10,000 worth.
In time this was to become a hefty tax burden for the people.
But this rail line was also a long time a-coming. Four years went by
and rumors were that Perrysburg might be by-passed. However, by the
end of May track laying was completed from Toledo to Perrysburg, and
by August of 1859 construction crews from both north and south met 50
miles south of here and the last spike was driven.
As the years went by, the original railroad went out of business and
in 1861 the D & M built a two-story depot here and in 1879, a large
frame engine house. Still later we had double tracks through here and
passenger and freight trains ran at all hours. We especially needed
trains then to carry passengers and mail, for this was before the days
of trucks and automobiles.
We paid a high price, however, for over the years before we had gates
and warning lights at crossings here in town and in the Township, a
large number of people were killed by trains.
That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's
cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays
there.
- George Orwell
