The morning express on the Albany and Susquehanna road, usually makes a connection with No. 3 on the Erie at Binghamton. It is by this route that Boston passenger traffic is sought by the Erie, Pullman cars being run from Chicago to Boston without change.
Tuesday morning the Albany train arrived in Binghamton three hours and a quarter late, with nine passengers. Rather than disappoint them an extra was made up, consisting of baggage, smoking and palace car, and hurried westward to overtake the train ahead. It arrived at Hornellsville two hours and ten minutes later than No. 8’s time, and the Times described the latter portion of the exceptional run:
“At this station Engineer Chapman and Fireman Wagner were in waiting with Engine No. 57, and the train was transferred to the charge of Conductor Laftus. Just before leaving here, orders were received to run to Salamanca as extra; there to meet Train 34, and not to pass Olean without orders.
“It was just 10:50 when Chapman drew out of the yard here, and the manner in which he threw the throttle open led some of the boys to remark that he would make some fast time before reaching Salamanca. The run there was made in an hour and thirty-seven minutes, the register showing the time of arrival to have been 12:27.
This distance is about 82 miles, and the time made a trifle less than a mile a minute. This, for a single-track road over a rough country, throws all previous railroad records in the shade, and Engineer Chapman can be credited with the fastest time ever made between Hornell and Dunkirk. From Salamanca another extra was made up and run over the N.Y. Pa. & Ohio railroad gaining at every mile on the train they were seeking.”
Source: Wellsville Daily Reporter. July 21, 1881. Provided by Richard Palmer.