Standard Gauge – A Day Without A Railroad Train – Waiting Passengers – Quick Work – An Ovation – Again On Time
Never was the enterprise and push characteristic of our age more fully exemplified than in narrowing the gauge of the Erie last Tuesday. For the last few weeks extra gangs of men had been busily at work preparing the track and switches for the change, and getting everything in readiness for the moment when the order should be given to move one rail nineteen and a half inches nearer the other.
Moving the rail, however, did not constitute the greatest amount of work to be done. The handling of the vast amount of rolling stock was one of the largest jobs in connection with the work. Monday morning the yards all along the division were full of road gauge cars, and these had to be sent to Hornellsville on that day. During the day 300 cars were shipped out of Salamanca, and at night the yard on the Erie side looked desolate and deserted. The old switch engines, 304, 36 and 73, which had so long pulled in and out on the labyrinth of switches, were likewise sent away. As these old switch engines left the yard the Atlantic engines and engines in the shops gave them a parting salute. The departing locomotives gave a long good-bye blast, which had in it some little tinge of sadness, and the whistles which had become familiar to all were heard for the last time on the Reservation. At 6 o’clock Monday evening there were but three broad gauge cars in the Erie yard-the tool car and two gondolas, which were to be narrow-gauged here.
The passenger trains ran regular Monday forenoon, but in the afternoon there was a general abandonment after train 9 had passed over the road. The last broad gauge train over the road was a wildcat from Dunkirk to Hornellsville, run by conductor Kimball, and passed Salamanca at 9:30 P.M. Monday night was a remarkable one in the history of the Erie road. After Kimball’s “wildcat” reached Hornellsville, the shriek of no engine broke the stillness between Dunkirk and Hornellsville. The moon shone down upon a stretch of 198 miles of track upon which stood not a single car. Excepting a few cars in the shops at Salamanca, there was not a car on the Western division from 12 M until 9 o’clock on Tuesday morning. The work of moving the rail began at 4:30 Tuesday morning, and at 8 A.M. intelligence was flashed over the wires to Superintendent Beggs that the work was completed on the main line. About 800 men were employed in the great enterprise, which was carried though without accident in just three hours and a half from the time the first spike was pulled. The Little Valley section was first to report its work finished. In just two hours from the time of beginning Foreman Carroll sent in his report that his section was ready for the narrow gauge trains. Track Foreman Wyman telegraphed to Superintendent Beggs that the Salamanca section was ready at 7:30. A number of sections were completed at almost the same moment. Shortly after the news that the line was reduced to standard gauge, an inspection train, with Wm. Wilcox as conductor and containing Division Superintendent Beggs and other railroad officials was started out of Dunkirk. The train was pulled by an engine from the Dunkirk & Allegany Valley Railroad, “The Conewango, No. 3” – with engineer Tibbits at the throttle. The engine and cars were decorated with flags and the train was greeted with continuous ovation as it passed over the road. As it reached Salamanca, at 11:45, there was such a screeching of engines as is seldom heard. The “wild cat” inspection train proceeded to Olean where it was met by a similar train from Hornellsville. The Dunkirk train returned to Salamanca and was closely followed by the Hornellsville inspection train, under the direction of Conductor Langworthy. The train was pulled by engine 574, and reached here at 2:30 P.M. and was greeted with an enthusiastic reception. M. W. Coburn, one of the most reliable engineers on the road, has the distinction of driving the first Erie engine over the narrow gauge track. Engine 574 is nearly new, having been used on the Buffalo division for a few weeks. It is a 60 ton mogul, built at the Grant Locomotive Works at Patterson.
The inspection trains having passed over the road, the track was pronounced in good condition, and train three was dispatched from Hornellsville as “wild cat. ” The train, run by Conductor Martin, came into Salamanca at 2:50 P.M., being about three hours behind its regular time. David Cary, one of the oldest men on the line pulled the train with engine No. 57. Thus with comparatively little inconvenience to the traveling public the Erie was reduced to standard gauge, and again the trains are speeding over the road nearly on time.
NOTES
The gauge of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio railroad between Leavittsburg, Pa., and Dayton, O., was changed Tuesday from broad to standard. Two thousand five hundred men were placed along the line from Dayton to Leavittsburg, 325 miles. The work began at 3 a.m. and ended at 9 a.m. the shortest piece of work of this kind on record.
The trains on the eastern division of the NYP&O with few exceptions, run on about their usual time Monday and Tuesday.
Twenty new consolidated 60-ton moguls from the Grant Locomotive Works are to pull the freight on the western division of the Erie. Their power seems almost limitless, and the boys say they will draw everything that can be hitched to them. One of them took about eighty log fed cars out of Salamanca yesterday morning.
On Monday a special order was issued by Superintendent Beggs, enjoining engineers and conductors to use the utmost care in running trains. The order was faithfully obeyed and the great amount of rolling stock moved to the east terminus of the division without delay or accident. The same care was enjoined and complied with in moving the train after the road had been reduced to standard gauge.
About 70 cars have been narrow gauged at the Erie shops since the 15th of May. They are stamped N.G. Salamanca, May (or June) 1880.” “N.G.” doesn’t’ always stand for “no good.”
The new bob-tail switch engine No. 515, to be used in the yard here reached Salamanca Tuesday. Two more of the same pattern are expected to do the same work by the old switch engines.
Train 12 on the N.Y.,P.& O. came into Salamanca Tuesday with narrow gauge coaches.
1,600 cars from the N.Y.,P.& O. road were sent east over the Erie between Monday and Monday night.
Since the “embargo has been raised,” freight traffic has been lively.
Source: Cattaraugus Republican. Salamanca, NY. June 24, 1880. Provided by Richard Palmer.