Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 130, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1913 — EARLY DAYS OF RAILROAD [ARTICLE]

EARLY DAYS OF RAILROAD

Interest Taken In Its Operation Seems Bomewhat Amusing to Travelers of the Present Day. The operation of a train In rural New England in the infancy of railroading had some amusing aspects. A line had been built and styled the Springfield, Athol & North Eastern. It was a high-sounding monicker for a road less than fifty miles long and with Iron rails less than fifty pounds to the yard. But it was long on stops between Springfield. and Athol; there were eighteen of them and the first time-table allowed two hours and a half for the run. The afternoon train from Springfield got to Enfield —about half way—a little after six o’clock and not deemed prudent to proceed farther in the dark. So there the train stopped. Most all of the villagers helped to turn the table and put the engine In the shelter-house (it was not round) in such fashion that it could be hacked out in the morning to hook onto 'the two-car train without delay. That was a great thing about working for a railroad in the times when a railroad was a novelty. Most of the men who helped to turn the table had worked nine or ten hours in the mill that day, but' they competed for the privilege and eagerly sought news from the engine and train crews, much as if they were hearing about strange lands from explorers. This assiduity was not diminished noticeably until a boy was killed in the housing of the engine. His shriek echoed through the placid little Swift River Valley and from the marrow of Enfield. One deaf old lady, living two miles down the road toward Belchertown, declared she had heard It after a village gossip had become purple shouting the nows Into her ear trumpet. It was the first shock In years.