What's in the Basement?

 

The Cortland News, Friday, May 22, 1885.

Curious Railroad Relics.

NEW YORK, May 19, 1885.

   As a means of showing the progress in railway appliances and for the preservation of relics of the old railroad days the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company has begun the formation of a miniature museum in the rooms attached to the railway branch of the New York Young Men's Christian Association in the basement of the Grand Central Station. The articles thus far contributed are but few in number, but they show in a remarkable way the giant strides made in machinery and equipment since the little engine made by Peter Cooper drew, in 1830, the first train over then the 18 mile road now known to the world as the Baltimore and Ohio.

   One of the relics comprises the old driving wheels of the De Witt Clinton, the first locomotive built within the limits of the State, and the third constructed in America. The first trip of the engine was made on Aug. 9, 1831. The wheels, which now would not be recognized as a part of a locomotive, are apparently in as good order as when turned out of the West Albany shops over 50 years ago. They are about five feet in diameter, but, unlike those now in use are not solid, but built up from the hub like an ordinary wagon wheel. The hub is solid, from which extend the spokes, one inch in diameter, welded to the telly and fastened by bolts to the hub. The telly [rim] is about three inches wide and half an inch thick. The outer edge is dotted with holes, through which the counter-sunk bolts passed, holding the steel flange, now replaced by a flange tire. The wheels weigh only 350 pounds, as compared with 1,900 pounds, the weight of the driving wheels, exclusive of the tires, now used on an ordinary engine.

   In another corner of the room is a glass case containing a section of the old style stringer, with a piece of the old strap rails in general use till the T-rail was invented. The stringer and rail were laid on the Syracuse and Auburn Railroad in 1838. The rail is simply a flat bar two and a half inches wide and seven-eights of an inch thick. Alongside is strapped the old style of railway spike, looking not unlike a common tenpenny nail. Travelers of the olden times recall the frequent accidents of those days, when by the pounding of the trains on the flat bars the counter sunk spike would fly out, with the result that the old snake head rails, as they were termed, would fly through the bottoms of the cars, tearing and ripping through everything and frequently breaking the legs of the trustful passengers.

   The museum also includes a specimen of the early time tables of the Hudson River Railroad, when it terminated at Poughkeepsie. This shows that, despite the marvelous improvements in the engines and equipment, the leveling, straightening, and ballasting of the tracks, the old wood-burning locomotive managed to make about as good a rate of speed as their costly coal-burning successors. One of these time tables, dated July 7, 1851, gives the schedule time of trains running from the comer of Chambers and Hudson streets, whence they were drawn by horses to Thirty-second street and Tenth Avenue, to Poughkeepsie at 2 hours and 45 minutes. Similar trains, propelled by steam power, from the Grand Central to the same station now take 2 hours and 14 minutes.

   It is intended to search through the old car shops for any other relics that may be stored away and bring them together, where they may find a permanent home and illustrate the gradual evolution of railway appliances and machinery from the primitive and crude properties in use at the beginning of railway building to the present perfected machinery now deemed essential on railways everywhere.

 

   MR. A. HIGGINS, of Wyoming, N. Y., says he had the Piles for nearly 40 years, and was cured by using Gilmore's Pile Specific. For sale by Brown & Maybury.

   WHEN DOCTORS cannot help you, then take Gilmore's Magnetic Elixir for your Throat and Lungs.  For sale by Brown & Maybury. [Cortland]

 

Reference:

Steam Locomotive Driving Wheel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steam_locomotive_driving_wheel.jpg

Rail profile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_profile

Strap rails: http://www.eduborail.org/NPS-2/Image-5-NPS-2.aspx