Most train buffs are familiar with American railroads’ role in delivering mail using Railway Post Offices (RPOs), and parcel post and goods by the Railroad Express Agency (REA). But how many of us know that the decline of “mail by rail” spawned the little known Highway Post Office (HPOs) RPO: The precursor of the modern RPO mail sorting & distribution facility began in 1869 on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad linking Chicago with Clinton, Iowa. By 1930, more than 10,000 trains moved mail, with RPO cars usually attached right behind the steam locomotive and coal tender on passenger trains. Eventually, passenger trains began a rapid decline with the development of better roads and a national highway system. By 1965, only 190 trains still carried mail. The last RPO, operating between New York City and Washington, DC on the Penn Central/Conrail, made its final run in 1977. HPO: The abandonment of money losing passenger trains and resulting decline of “mail by rail” caused a crisis for the US Post Office, especially for under served rural areas. To compensate, the Post Office launched the Highway Postal Office (HPO) service using re-configured White Motor Company city transit buses to sort mail just like the RPOs did on the run between destinations. The first HPO run was inaugurated in early 1941 between Washington, DC and Harrisonburg, Virginia. The reason for selecting the Shenandoah Valley route was precipitated by the end of passenger/RPO service, effective 1941, by the Southern Railway on its old B&O route between Strasburg and Harrisonburg that paralleled US route 11 with its many little towns requiring mail service. Two other HPO routes were established in 1941: one between South Bend and Indianapolis; the other between San Francisco and Pacific Grove, California US entry into WW II in December 1941 forced the suspension of the HPO experiment--to be resumed in 1946-47. By 1955. there were more than 130 HPO routes. From 1960-63, HPOs replaced an average of 20 RPO trains per month. It all ended in 1974, with the last HPO runs for Cleveland and Cincinnati. HPO service was made obsolete when the US Post Office reorganized its handling and distribution with sectional mail centers and high speed machines sorting mail by zip codes. REA: Several factors led to REA’s demise, but especially the 1960s tidal wave of passenger train discontinuance. As a result, REA no longer had a nationwide rail grid and customer base, plus it faced unaccustomed competition as a former monopoly from new ground and air delivery services. MUSEUMS: There are three of interest to rail mail fans—all in our vicinity
1--In DC, the Smithsonian’s US Postal Museum displays the very first (restored) 1941 White HPO bus used on the DC-Harrisonburg, Virginia route. 2--In Roanoke, the Virginia Museum of Transpiration displays the only other surviving 1941 White HPO bus (unrestored) that sits outdoors alongside rail cars 3--In Boyce, Virginia (US Route 340), the former N&W depot houses the obscure Railway Mail Service Library with a collection of documents & artifacts relating to “mail by rail.”
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This month we are going to continue on our journey through train related games. This time we are going to talk about Game of Trains. This competitive card game by Brain Games was released in 2015. This family friendly card game is all about numbers and getting them in the right order. Game of Trains starts every player off with one locomotive card and seven train car cards. Each train car card has a number on it. At the beginning of the game the cards are put in order of largest to smallest starting at the locomotive. The object of the game is to rearrange, add to, and replace train cars until your car’s numbers are in order from smallest to largest staring at the locomotive. Players can draw cards from the draw deck, which allows the player to replace a card in his train with the card he drew, and then place that card in the center or he can use a card in the center abilities. These abilities can range from swapping cards in your own train, moving cards in your opponent’s train, locking your own train cards from being messed with, and making all players discard train car cards for new ones. The game ends when the first player gets all their train cars in the right order. This is a great game for kids, especially those who are learning their numbers. Game of Trains can be played with up to 4 players and takes around 20 minutes to play. It’s a great game to play at home or to take with you. It’s easy to learn and a great way to spend time with friends and family.
Game of Trains isn’t available to play digitally, but you can easily pick the game up on Amazon for $12.97 or from Brain Games for $12.95. In parts of the world, the COVID-19 virus has revived the use of ambulance trains. But hospitals built & run by railroads remain a thing of the past. According to news reports:
In India, rail passenger cars are being repurposed into makeshift hospitals. Plans call for railway shops in the country’s ten railway zones to convert 10 cars a week. Regular passenger service remains suspended so the rail system can deliver emergency food & supplies across India. In France, high speed trains adapted as mobile hospitals are shuttling virus patients from hard hit regions to hospitals elsewhere with more capacity to ease the stress on resources. However, nothing special is being asked of American railroads. Amtrak has canceled its high speed Acela train and cut service elsewhere. Indeed, to stay afloat, Amtrak is to receive a federal stimulus bailout of $1 billion. US railroads are increasingly putting idled running stock in storage. Origins of Ambulance Trains Makeshift ambulance trains first appeared during the Civil War and were used by both sides. They were not needed again until WWI. Twenty years later, with WWII, the Army had to start from scratch. Ambulance trains next found use during the Korean war. By this war’s end, ambulance trains were made obsolete with wounded being evacuated by specially fitted helicopters & transport aircraft. Railroad Hospitals and Clinics In the late 19th & early 20th century many Class I railroads had their own hospitals, which were responsible for many advances in medical treatment. Railroad wrecks and work were hazardous, and medical facilities and care in scarce supply, especially in the western and southwestern reaches of the US where numerous railroad emergency clinics sprung up. The majority of major railroad hospitals appeared west of the Mississippi, with a handful in the east. At their peak, about 35 big railroad hospitals existed. Still standing ones, now repurposed for other use, include the Frisco & Missouri Pacific in St. Louis; the Southern Pacific in Houston and San Francisco; the Western Pacific in Portola, California and the Illinois Central in Chicago. Railroad hospitals developed trauma surgery and specialty care. They pioneered many methods of examination and treatment now common place in occupational and emergency medicine. Because of them, we have vision & hearing testing standards. And Johnson & Johnson came up with first aid kits that were first deployed on railroads. Chesapeake & Ohio Hospitals The C&O Railway had two major hospitals: Clifton Forge, Virginia (1897-1976) & Huntington, West Virginia (1900- 1971). They operated under the auspices of the C&O Employees Hospital Association (COEHA). C&O employees and retirees paid monthly dues and got free rail travel passes to their hospital. The system worked well for decades, but faced two problems by the 1960’s: the death of C&O passenger service and the increased availability of other health care—especially with the advent of Medicare in 1965. Today both hospitals have been repurposed. But the COEHA lives after 123 years. Today, it helps members navigate the Medicare system and oversees two Medicare supplement plans of its own. The Clifton Forge hospital merged in 1976 with a private hospital in near by Covington to become the Allegheny Regional Hospital System. The C&O hospital started out in 1897 with one doctor, five nurses, & 50 beds located in the Gladys Inn in Clifton Forge. Norfolk & Western Hospitals Sources claim N&W hospitals existed in Norfolk & Roanoke, but this story’s author found no information to flesh out these claims, which still may be true. However, he discovered a wealthy benefactor of the Roanoke Hospital who served as the superintendent of N&W’s Eastern Division from 1890- 1895. This was David Flickwir, a railroad construction engineer & contractor. After leaving N&W, he built the famous Tunkhannock Viaduct and other projects for the Delaware, Lackanna, & Western Railroad. In the 1920’s, he funded expansions of the Roanoke Hospital and its nursing residences. With everything around us changing it seems like a perfect time to try out new games that might not fit into what we would normally play. Over the Christmas holiday a friend of mine thought I should step out of my normal board game world and try something new. This new thing was a card game called Goat Lords. If you are feeling a little confused do not worry, I was at first too. Do not let the name foul you though. This is a great card game to play with family and friends. Goat Lords is a card game that can be played by 2-6 players and is great for children and adults. The silly illustrations on the cards make the game even more fun as each player compares the goats in their herds. There are several different goat cards, each with its own point value. There are also wild goat cards, as well as action cards that can be played which can help or hinder other players. Each player in the game is trying to match up goats in their hand or the trash and place them in their herd. If they do not have any to match but the player next them has a matching pair at that time in their herd, they can duel that player to gain their stack of goats. At the end, each player’s herd is tallied up to see who has the most points. Goat Lords is a quick card game that lasts about 30-45 minutes, but is a world of fun and laughter. I have played it many times with friends and we always end up laughing at the end and shaking fists at each other playfully because someone stole some else’s prize goat. Goat Lords is a physical card game and can be purchased at Walmart.com and Amazon.com for $19.99. It can be played online but it requires you have Tabletop Simulator, which we will be talking about in an article very soon, so keep an eye out for that!
This tale highlights the key role railroads played in the civil war based on records of the short 21 year life of the author’s distant relative, a volunteer in New York State’s 144th Infantry Regiment. It’s written at Phil Wirdzek’s request after the author recounted it to Phil upon reading his description in the July PCRC Newsletter of Lincoln’s 1900 mile rail trip to the White House. Luckily for the Union, it had a superior railroad network at the civil war’s onset and quickly learned to use it effectively after the debacle of the First Manassas--won by the Confederates after rushing in reinforcements from the Shenandoah Valley via the Manassas Gap Railroad. In the first years of the war, Washington, DC was quite vulnerable, with Lincoln calling for 75,000 volunteers in 1861 and 300,000 more a year later. Farm boy Addison Griffin heeded Lincoln’s call; he and 851 others from Delaware County in the Catskill Mountains formed the 144th NYS Volunteer Infantry Regiment and were mustered into federal service on September 27, 1962. Within 6 days after leaving home on October 8, 1862— thanks to railroad transportation, the 144th was in defensive positions in and around the nation’s capital. After April 1863, the 144th saw action in South Carolina and Florida. The unit suffered 218 deaths, including 174 from disease. 500 Miles or so by 4-4-0 steam: After starting a 39 mile march on October 8, 1862 from Camp Delaware to the Erie railhead at Hancock, NY, the 144th was transported westward by the Erie Railroad to Elmira, NY, a rail and military training center. Departing Elmira on October 11, the Northern Central Railroad of Pennsylvania brought the 144th to Baltimore and the B&O delivered the unit to Washington, DC on October 13. Later in 1863, the Northern Central brought Lincoln to Gettysburg, where he delivered his famous address.
In 1864, Elmira opened a notorious prison camp for Confederates, dubbed “Hellmira” and the “Andersonville of the North.” Before the war’s end in 1865, 2,944 prisoners died; the death rate was 25%. Most of the dead are buried in Elmira’s Woodlawn Cemetery, where Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) also rests. His wife was an Elmira native and he wrote many of his stories there. At the war’s end, prison survivors reportedly were given rail passes and some money to go home. Family legend has Addison Griffin, a son of the author’s great-grandfather, dying in a train wreck on July 30, 1863. However, military records state it was due to “chronic diarrhea” or dysentery—the leading cause of death during the civil war. He is buried in one the first national cemeteries--created in 1861 near DC’s Rock Creek Park and whose modern name is the US Soldiers and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery. Unlike with today’s Covid-19 epidemic, railroads 100 years ago were unwitting culprits in spreading the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1920 since they were the principal mode of transportation. The unhappy convergence of the US entry into WWI with the flu’s outbreak during war mobilization allowed this to happen. Military training camps were among the first to be infected, with draftees brought in by rail & troops sent out by train to embarkation ports to be shipped to France and arriving with the flu. The disease disrupted war mobilization, such as coal mining resulting in off and on shortages of coal for railway steam power, home heating, generation of electricity, and industry. Still, railroads, once put under US Government control, delivered heroic levels of service moving men & equipment for the war which forced them to adopt new methods of operations & to modernize rolling stock. TIME LINE 1917 April 1917: US declares war on April 6; officially entering WW! May 1917: Selective Service (draft) law enacted; of 4.8 million US servicemen in WWI, 2.8 million were draftees June 1917: First US troops arrive in France; they see first combat in October December 1917: US railroads nationalized under US Railroad Administration (USRA) 1918 Spring 1918: Flu starts sweeping US; first recorded case (March) in Kansas, spreads to Ft. Riley; then to other training camps with troops carrying the flu overseas March-June 1918: Flu’s first wave wanes by end of summer June 1918: Crash production begins of USRA designed locomotives & rail cars for the war effort August-early winter 1918: Second more deadly wave of flu strikes US & worldwide September-November 1918: Height of US combat in WWI November 1918: WWI ends November 11; US troops start return home by ship & rail, with the flu; 1919-1920 Spring 1919: Flu’s third wave underway, lasting into 1920—start of a decade of growing automobile travel competition for passenger trains March 1920: American railroads finally return to private control with end of USRA program. Flu Hits WWI Training Camps, Then Spreads by Rail: As US draftees & volunteers were mobilized and transported by rail, Army doctors in the Spring of 1918 began to see an influenza-like disease among soldiers. In January, a civilian doctor in Haskell County, Kansas reported strange respiratory activity there; by March, it spread to nearby Fort Riley, where within weeks 522 soldiers were in the Seattle: 39th Regiment headed to France wearing flu masks, 1918 TRACS & WHISTLES Page 5 camp infirmary. The flu spread from training camp to camp across the country and it came with troops being sent to France. In the US, 32 large camps each housed 25-50,000 troops. At the height of US overseas involvement the flu sickened 20 to 40% of all deployed Army & Navy personnel between September-November 1918. Flu Passes Through Army Ports of Embarkation to Sail Abroad: Ports of Embarkation were under Army command responsible for moving troops & equipment overseas. Railroads under USRA command brought men & material to POE’s. The two largest East Coast POE’s were New York followed by Virginia’s Hampton Roads. New Jersey’s Hoboken POE supplemented New York. Other East Coast POEs were Boston, Charleston, & New Orleans. San Francisco was the largest West Coast POE followed by Los Angles & Seattle. By the war’s end, Hampton Roads POE had undergone massive expansion, served by Virginia’s two major railroads, the Norfolk & Western and the Chesapeake & Ohio, both of which already had before the war huge coal piers and rail yards respectively at Norfolk and Newport News. Camp Stewart near Hampton Roads was the largest single embarkation camp of the war, with some 115,000 troops passing through. US Railroad Administration’s Role in WWI: In late December 1917, American railroads were nationalized & put under control of the US Railroad Administration (USRA) to impose coordination & efficiency to avoid “wasteful competition & duplication of effort” in mobilizing for war. All railroad stock was inventoried. Duplicate passenger train service was reduced by eliminating 250 trains from service that cleared the rails for vastly increased freight traffic for the war effort. Using new USRA standard designs, over 100,000 rail cars and 1,930 steam locomotives were produced to replace obsolete or rundown rolling stock that railroads were forced to replace. The USRA designed 12 new standard types of locomotives that were produced. The design team was drawn from the three leading rail manufacturers: Baldwin, Alco, and Lima. They designed 2-10- 2s, 2-8-2s, 4-8-2s & 4-6-2s, each in heavy & light configurations— plus 2-6-6-2 and 2-8-8-2 Mallets. Switchers came in 0-6-0 and 0-8- 0 wheel arrangements. The light “Mikado” 2-8-2 proved the most popular of USRA designs; 624 were built and allocated to 17 railroads. After the war ended, 641 more USRA Mikado’s were made. The very first USRA Mikado is preserved at the B&O museum in Baltimore. USRA designs represented high standards of construction that lasted until the end of steam. 40 Hommes et 8 Cheveux: Narrow Gauge Railroading for the Army: WWI forced the US Army to cope with unfamiliar narrow gauge railroads of France and the European war theater. Soon after arriving in France, American troops were put on small French cattle & box cars for the front lines; “40 hommes et 8 cheveux” was usually stenciled inside these cars, referring to their capacity to hold 40 soldiers or 8 horses. The small size of French rolling stock was an endless source of jokes. The US Army tried to prepare ahead for narrow gauge life at Virginia’s Camp A.A. Humphrey (today’s Ft. Belvoir) as well as at Camps Benning, Sill, Harrison, & Dix. Each one had a few miles of two foot wide narrow gauge “practice” railway on which to train combat engineers to lay track, build trestles, defuse booby traps and run steam locomotives to move troops & supplies. After the war, this rolling stock & track was scrapped or ended up aboard in mining & plantation operations. Canadian Rail Spread WWI Flu Too: Some examples include that of a Canadian National Railway troop train pulling into Calgary in October 1918, with the result that most of the Province of Alberta was soon infected with the flu. A more bizarre story involved Canadian rail transport from Vancouver to the Atlantic port of Halifax of 3,000 flu-infected Chinese laborers the British recruited for their “Chinese Labor Corps.” They were intended to free able bodied men on the British home front for military service. Then in 1918, with Russia out of WWI and in civil war after the Bolshevik’s overthrow the Tsar, Canada sent its 4,000-man, flu-infected “Siberian Expeditionary Force” by rail and ship to Murmansk & Arkhangelsk in Russia’s far east to bolster the ill-fated antiBolshevik forces there.
The following account is from a newspaper clipping published in the Kent Courier, Kent, Ohio (date unknown) describing a manufacturing plant located in Kent. The article was written by Loris C. Troyer under the byline “Portage Pathways”. A geography lesson is in order here – Kent is in Portage County, Ohio.
Now to the story – The Railway Speed Recorder Company was chartered on December 2, 1875 and operated for some 29 years in Kent. The Reverend W. W. Wythe of Meadville, Pennsylvania secured a patent for the speed recorder but it was the skill of James B. Miller, inventor of the Miller Keyless Lock, who perfected the speed regulator. The company was capitalized for $250,000 employing as many as 80 skilled machinists. The device recorded every movement of a train, the duration of each stop, and speed at any point along the rail line. The recorder was designed to be attached to the sill under a particular rail car. The instrument operated thusly, a worm gear was attached to the car’s wheel which in turn engaged a 50 toothed gear. It took ten thousand revolutions to cause the speed recorder’s drum to revolve one complete turn. According to the advertisement the recorder would provide freedom from wrecks and damaged roadbeds. Its inclusion on a train did away with stealing time at stops at stations and then making up for the lost time by fast runs between stations. It was the only firm in the world that manufactured a device to record the speed of trains and at one time the devices were used on scores of rail companies throughout the United States and foreign countries. Eventually the Company filled all the orders placed by the various rail companies and it turned its attention to the manufacture of other railroad hardware - track jacks, caboose and car shop stoves, milk testers and an electric saw. The company quit the Kent facility and moved to Meadville in 1904 thus ending a bit of historic rail ingenuity. Growing up I was pretty lucky; my family was always playing games, whether it was board games, card games, or video games. It was a good way for us to spend time together, laugh, and learn new skills. Over the years I’ve played a lot of games and I want to share them with everyone. Many of them are train based games, but some are just general fun for the family. The first game I want to talk about is one of my grandpa’s favorites, Ticket to Ride by Days of Wonder. Ticket to Ride is a multiplayer board game, where each player is trying to connect up their routes to make it across the country, before another player takes the route they want. If they do take the easy route it could mean you have to go the long way or worse, not go at all. Some may remember that a few years back we had a club game night where we played Ticket to Ride. It was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to really enjoy the game. The game is fairly easy to play and to set up. The original Ticket to Ride is set in the United States. The playing board is a simple map of the US that has different colored routes, each route is separated by red dots. Each color, except gray, corresponds to one of 9 train car cards you can draw. In order to take these routes, you have to have the same number of corresponding colored cards as there are in that route. As usually there are wild cards that can be played as well. The gray routes on the map can use any color but they all have to be the same. If you need 3 cards for the gray route and you choose red, then all the cards have to be red. Sounds pretty easy right. The difficulty comes with route cards. At the start of every game each player is dealt three destination cards. Destinations are train routes that can be very short or cross country. Each player has to keep 2 of their destination cards but they can keep all 3 if they want. These destination cards are one of many ways for a player to gain points. If they finish a destination, then they gain however many points that destination gives them. Then the player can choose to take more destinations or just keep taking routes to create the longest train and keep other players from easily getting their routes finished.
Players have to be careful though, because each route they take, uses their train cars and they only have so many. Taking routes though helps the player gain points as well. A one car route is worth 1 point, but a 6-car route is worth 15. It’s important to pick your routes wisely. Each turn the player can play a route, draw two train car cards, or pick a new destination. The first player to get down to 2 train cars starts the final round and then the game is over. Points are tallied and the longest train is found, which awards 10 points to the player. Destinations that were finished add to a players points and those that weren’t finished deduct points. Who ever has the most points in the end wins! Ticket to Ride is easy for new players to pick up and remains fun for those who have played many times. Each game is different, and I’ve played quite a bit and still haven’t gotten the same set of destinations twice. It’s also a good game for people who love trains and those who maybe aren’t as into trains as the rest of us. It requires no real knowledge of trains to play, but if you do have a train enthusiast playing, you will learn some interesting things. Ticket to Ride isn’t limited to the United States either. Since it’s release 2004, the Ticket to Ride board game family now includes, Europe, Nordic Countries, Germany, Asia, India, The Heart of Africa, Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, and Japan. They have two specific to the cities of New York and London, which play with the underground maps. They also have Rails and Sails, which takes your around the world both by steam trains and by steam liners. And for younger players there is Ticket to Ride: First Journey The physical board game runs about $50. I know that sounds a little steep for a board game, but this isn’t your typical board game either. The game board is made with good heavy material and is coated so it’s not easily damaged, it’s also not a small board, which is nice for reading. The toy trains are made from good quality plastic. The cards in the game aren’t flimsy and can hold up to wear and tear. Even the box is made to last. My Ticket to Ride has traveled with us to South Carolina twice, traveled back and forth to friends, and made its way through two nieces and still looks almost new. I can’t say that about a lot of things. If you want to play this game but aren’t sure you would have anyone to play with or just aren’t interested in a physical copy, they have created a digital game. You can download it on the iOS (Apple) app store or on the Android store for about $7 for the base game. You can also play other maps, but I do believe they are an additional cost. You can also purchase the game through Amazon for the Kindle at the same price. If you want to play on your computer, it can also be found on Steam for $10. (Note: Steam is a digital marketplace for computer-based video games. You can purchase most games through them, and they keep track of your games in a library. Through this platform gamers can download and keep track of what they have purchased easily. It also allows friends to play games together easily and much more. For more information visit www.Steam.com) The Steam version does include more content with the base price and allows you to play against computers or against other players. It also has a ranking system and competitive play with all players. You can also download all of the other versions of the game for the same price it would cost to buy just the physical board game. I can tell you that any form of this game you get will be amazing. We currently have Ticket to Ride and Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries as physical copies. Grandpa, myself, my husband, and many of our friends have Steam copies of the game. I also have it on my Kindle and my phone. It’s just a great game to be able to play whether you are on the go or looking to sit down with your family and friends. Until next time, keep gaming. How many of you know about the Long Bridge? I worked at the Pentagon for five years (1981 to 1986) and only vaguely remember a rail bridge across the Potomac near there—I’m not the most observant person in the world—and I certainly don’t remember it’s name. Turns out it has been around for quite a while. The first bridge at the current location was the “Washington Bridge,” built to provide foot, horse and stagecoach traffic from Washington to Alexandria County. It was built by the Washington Bridge Company, authorized by an Act of Congress on February 5th, 1808 and signed into law by President Thomas Jefferson shortly thereafter. It was a timber pile structure with two draw spans. It opened for traffic May 20th, 1809 and at the time was the longest bridge in the United States, being 5000 feet long or a mile including abutments. The Washington Bridge was often referred to as the “Potomac Bridge,” or simply “The Bridge.” On August 25th, 1814, during the War of 1812, the British burned the north end of the bridge. Amer- TRACS & WHISTLES Page 5 ican troops, who had retreated to Virginia, burned the south end. After the war the bridge was restored and returned to service in 1916. In 1931 portions of the bridge were washed away by ice and high water. The following year Congress purchased the bridge and appropriated funds for rebuild. On October 30th, 1835 the bridge was reopened with President Andrew Jackson in attendance. The repaired bridge was generally referred to as “the long bridge across the Potomac,” to distinguish it from Chain Bridge. Later if simply became Long Bridge. On September 7th, 1846, President James K. Polk returned that portion of the Federal District that the State of Virginia had ceded to the Federal Government for establishment of the Capital. Since 1835, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had been granted access to the Northeastern quadrant of the Capital. The Alexandria & Western Railroad connected the B&O at the New Jersey Avenue Station to the north shore of the Long Bridge by 1855 and in Alexandria in 1857. But tracks across the bridge were prevented by Virginia legislature, so goods had be off loaded on each end of the bridge and transported by wagon to be reloaded on the other side. The B&O Railroad made several requests to reinforce or replace the bridge but all were denied by Congress. However, with the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 the value of the bridge became apparent. In May of 1861 Union troops took control of Long Bridge and the city of Alexandria and built Fort Jackson on the Virginia side to guard the structure. Rails were laid across the old bridge but is was obvious that the structure would not support heavy loads so lightly loaded rail cars were pulled across the tracks by horses. Finally a new bridge was built just downriver of the old span that would support heavy locomotives. Both bridges continued to be used for the remainder of the war under control of Union troops. When the Civil War ended the Union Army handed the bridge back to the B&O Railroad. Over time competition for access to the Capital became more intense as the Pennsylvania Railroad sought to break the B&O monopoly. Of course politics became involved followed closely by the personal interests of the politicians—i.e. greed. The PRR was funding the development of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad to get into the Capital and on June 21st, 1870, Congress approved the B&P to use the Long Bridge in perpetuity, cost free, as long as they allowed other railroads to use the bridge and maintained it in good shape. Evidently other railroads did not include the B&O and in 1874 they began using tugboats and rail barges to gain access to Virginia. In the meantime, in 1872 the B&P built a new Long Bridge to replace the old Civil War bridge. In 1895 the B&P granted the use of the bridge to the streetcar company Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Electric Railway and powerlines were hung on the bridge. Then in 1898 a consortium of railroads, minus the B&O, formed the Washington Terminal Railway Company and acquired the B&P terminals in the Capital and the Long Bridge. In 1900 another consortium, including the B&O, took control of the line between Richmond, VA and the Long Bridge. As the new century dawned a movement to beautify the Capital took hold that required removal of the steam locomotives from the streets. Out of this movement, Potomac Yard in Alexandria County and Union Station in Washington City were created. Old, separate city stations were removed and a new double-track railroad bridge with a swing-span was built across the Potomac River to handle increased passenger and freight traffic. The new bridge was a 13 span steel truss bridge with a single swing span that allowed two 100 foot clear channels. The bridge opened for traffic on August 25th, 1904. Some time after late 1906 the old, unsightly Long Bridge was demolished. In 1937-38 the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad needed some new equipment, so they ordered five modern 4-8-4 steam locomotives from Baldwin Locomotive Works in Chester, Pa. Amazingly, they were several inches too wide to properly clear the tunnels in the Capital. More importantly, they had too heavy of an axle-load to traverse the Long Bridge. Accordingly, they were confined to the Virginia side of the Potomac. By 1942, with World War II underway, the weight restrictions on the Long Bridge were becoming a serious obstacle, so all the truss spans, except the swing-span were replaced with new supporting girders and new piers placed between the old ones to support the additional weight. As rail traffic increased during World War II, the US government built an "Emergency Bridge" to connect Shepherds Landing in the District of Columbia with Alexandria. The second bridge, built between June 3rd and November 1st, 1942, provided additional security in case Long Bridge was disabled by accident or sabotage. Both the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad used the Emergency Bridge, until it was taken out of service on November 14th, 1945 and dismantled two years later. But now there may be another change. In 2011 the Federal Railroad Administration funded the first of many studies for replacing the two-track bridge. To the north and the south there are three tracks, and bridge's condition requires train speeds to be constrained. A maximum of 96 trains can use it within 24 hours.
A 2015 Long Bridge Study concluded that adding two tracks could increase capacity to 166 trains per day. Various alternatives were examined and the preferred alternative is to build a new two-track bridge dedicated to passenger service and retain the existing Long Bridge just for freight trains. The 1904/1942 bridge had been rehabilitated in 2016 and did not need to be replaced. Currently a Draft Environmental Impact Statement has been completed and a public hearing was held October 22nd, 2019. Sources: Virginia Places, Long Bridge Over the Potomac River; Washington DC Chapter, National Railway Society; Wikipedia, Long Bridge (Potomac River); The Long Bridge Project. When I was a young boy—I was actually young once—we lived in a development called Terrytown between the cities of Scottsbluff and Gering, Nebraska. The property across the street had not been developed when my family lived there, so you could walk across the field to the fence that bordered the Union Pacific Line. My friends and I spent many hours in those fields and we always ran to the fence to wave at the steam engines coming by. I guess that must be why I like trains. Probably the first train song I remember was “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” That song, at least the version I know, came out in 1894 as “The Levee Song” and was written for a musical production at Princeton University. Based on the lyrics, the Princeton version was actually a combination of several older songs that go back at least to the 1850’s, perhaps further. The lyrics in the song about “Dinah” can be found in several other songs around that time. The composer of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” was never identified but the song has been covered by many folk artists including one of my favorites, John Denver. And the song is still a popular children’s song, you can find all sorts of renditions on YouTube. Another train song still popular with children today is “Down by the Station.” I knew it as the “Pufferbelly Song.” You know “Down by the station early in the morning. See the little pufferbellies all in a row?” I doubt if the kid’s singing the song nowadays, and maybe even their parents, know what a pufferbelly is. Do you? The song is credited to Lee Ricks and Slim Gaillard in 1948, though similar lyrics can be found back as far as 1931. One thing I did not know was that Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra did a recording of the song, though I couldn’t find it in the listing of records he released. How many of you know who Tommy Dorsey is? Yet another song I remember from my youth is still sung as a children’s song; “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain.” The song was actually derived from a religious song; “When the Chariot Comes.” The first printed version of “Coming Round the Mountain” appeared in Carl Sandburg’s An American Songbook in 1927, but is thought to have originated in Appalachia in the 1800s. The song has been sung by such notables as: The Peanuts cast in Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, Jessie from Toy Story II, Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Muppets, and, wait for it, Barney the Dinosaur. And how about “Come all you rounders if you want to hear, the story about a brave engineer?” That’s about all the words I can remember to “The Ballad of Casey Jones.” I know snippets of other verses but that’s about it. Casey was, as everyone, I’m sure, is aware, was a real person; an engineer on the Illinois Central Railroad. He is credited with saving the lives of the passengers on his train, on April 30, 1890, when he stayed in the engine cab working the throttle and brakes to try and slow his train when he came upon a stalled freight train on the main line. None of the passengers lost their lives in the wreck, but Casey died “With the throttle in his hand.” A friend of his, Wallace Saunders, a wiper on the IC, wrote the original lyrics, but never tried to copywrite the song. Some other folks borrowed and performed his song and it got spread around, but they also never looked into a copywrite. Eventually two other gentlemen, Lawrence Seibert and Eddie Nelson rewrote the lyrics and music, releasing the song in 1909 as “Casey Jones, the Brave Engineer.” “But the dreams of a boy disappear when you’re grown. And though I may dream the railroads are gone. The ties they are rotten. And the tracks shot to hell. Along with my dreams and the old railroad bell.” Trains and songs have been linked together from the inception of the railroad. The earliest known train song, according to Wikipedia, is “The Carrollton March” written by Arthur Clifton. It was first performed on July 4th, 1928 at the commencement ceremony of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Baltimore, Maryland. Incidentally, Wikipedia has a list of over 1,000 train and railroad songs. Music, singing, and chanting had to have helped make the backbreaking work of laying rails much more tolerable for the workers. Carol and I attended a rail festival in Manassas a few years after we moved there and enjoyed listening the chants of the Buckingham Lining Bar Gang when demonstrating how the rails were straightened before the days of modern machinery. There was no instrumentation, but the chants used to synchronize the gang’s work was musical indeed! Many musicians began their careers “riding the rails,” working odd jobs and performing along the way. Woodie Guthrie is one I’m more familiar with. He traveled throughout the mid-west and sang many train songs including “This Train is Bound for Glory” (“This Train”), “Little Black Train,” and “Lost Train Blues.” One musician that didn’t “ride the rails” was Lecil Travis Martin. You might know him better as Boxcar Willie. He joined the Air Force in 1949 and served as a flight engineer in B-29 Superfortresses during the Korean War. During his Air Force career, he performed at local venues as an amateur. While sitting at a railroad crossing near Lincoln, Nebraska he saw a person riding in the door of a boxcar that looked a lot like a fellow serviceman, Willie Wilson. He immediately pulled off the road and wrote the song “Boxcar Willie.” Later he performed the song at a local talent show in California, won first prize and the nickname Boxcar Willie. He retired in 1976 and became a fulltime performer, eventually moving to Branson, Missouri where he opened a theatre, a museum and two motels. I enjoy his song “From a Boxcar Door.” “In my dreams I’d ride the rails to California. Workin’ diners and farms along the way. Or I’d hop a ride to hide across the border. With a black-eyed girl beside me all the way.” What about some more mainstream railroad songs? How about “Chattanooga Choo Choo?” The song was originally written by Mack Gordon and composed by Harry Warren in 1941. They wrote the song while travelling on the Southern Railway’s Birmingham Special and were inspired by the train’s small wood burning steam locomotive The song’s name, however, did not refer to any particular train. “Chattanooga Choo Choo” was originally recorded as a swing tune by Glenn Miller and his orchestra. The song was an extended production number in the 20th Century Fox movie Sunrise Serenade. “Chattanooga Choo Choo” became the #1 hit in the US on the Billboard Best Sellers chart on December 7th, 1941. An interesting juxtaposition, a number one hit on a day that lives in infamy! The song was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Song from a Movie in 1941 and won Glenn Miller the world’s first ever Gold Record in February 1942. “Chattanooga Choo Choo” has been covered by a litany of singers and orchestras. One I would like to hear is Cab Calloway and his orchestra's version but I couldn’t find it on YouTube. Another well know railroad song is “Wabash Cannonball.” It probably originated in the late 1800s and first appeared on sheet music in 1882 as “The Great Rock Island Route” credited to J. A. Roff. It was rewritten in 1904 by William Kindt as “The Wabash Cannonball.” The first recording of the song was by The Carter Family, released in 1932, but the more popular rendition was by Roy Acuff in 1936. Roy’s version is one of the few all-time singles to have sold 10 million copies worldwide. The song was so popular that, in 1929, the Wabash Railroad renamed its Detroit to Saint Louis daytime express as the Wabash Cannon Ball. “Wabash Cannonball” has been performed and recorded by a long list of country western, bluegrass, and folk singers including Johnny Cash. And you can’t mention Johnny Cash without also mentioning “Folsom River Blues.” Johnny was another Air Force (Yea!) member and was inspired to write the song while serving in West Germany and seeing the movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison. The song first appeared on his 1955 debut album With His Hot and Blue Guitar but hit #1 on the country music charts when he released a version recorded live at Folsom Prison. It’s been recorded by many other artists, but who can top Johnny Cash? One of my favorite train songs is “500 Miles.” It is also known as “The Railroaders Lament” and is credited to Hedy West in 1961 though some version also credit Curly Williams of John Phillips as co -writers. The song appears on The Journeyman’s debut album in 1961 and that may have been its first release. It has been covered by many groups including The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Sonny & Cher among many others. Why even Little Jimmy Cartmill used to pick it out on his banjo. My all-time favorite railroad song, though, is “The City of New Orleans.” The song was written and first recorded by Steve Goodman in1971. Steve was inspired by the Illinois Central’s City of New Orleans and wrote the song on a trip to visit his wife. The song has been recorded by many artists, but the version by Arlo Guthrie, Woody Guthrie’s son, is probably best know. The story goes that Steve asked Arlo to be allowed to play a song for him. Arlo agreed if Steve bought him a beer and the song didn’t last any longer than the beer. Arlo liked the song and recorded it in 1972. “Now the mountains are silent. And the railroads are gone. And the coal towns no longer hear the miners at dawn. But the train whistle shrills out her memories to me. While the thunderclouds roll out of East Tennessee.” Article by Jim Cartmill
Sources: Wikipedia and Youtube “The Railroad Song” Lyrics and music by Jim and Ingrid Croce Editors Note: To listen to the song enter “jim croce railroad song videos” in your browsers search engine. You should get a set of YouTube videos to choose from. |
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PCRCThe Page County Railroad Club has a wealth of railroad information shared between it's members. In this blog we will do our best to share that knowledge. Archives
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