Below submitted by Richard Palmer;   Syracuse Standard, Sept. 14, 1890

 

FIRING AN ENGINE

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Some of the Hardships of Locomotive Fireman's Life
_____
 

His Lot is Not as Easy as Many Believe - The Amount of Fuel
Required to Keep an Iron Horse Going - Coal Must Be Supplied Very
Carefully.
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"If people only knew the hardships of a fireman's life," said
one of the local leaders of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen to
a Chicago Evening Post Reporter, "they would not be so apt to wonder
that the men want to strike once in awhile to better their
circumstances. Their lot at the best is a hard one, and the pay is
poor when the skill required to be a fireman, the severity of the
work and the constant strain to which the men are subjected are taken
into account.
 

"Many people, probably a majority, consider that the fireman's
work is not skilled labor, but this opinion arises from ignorance of
the requirements of the calling. An unskilled fireman could no more
fire a locomotive on the road so as to keep up steam steadily and
enable the engineer to make good time than he could build the
locomotive.
 

"Take a green hand and put him on a passenger train, for
instance, and the chance are that the passengers will turn out and
mob the whole train's crew before the trip is half through. The
likelihood is that the train will come to a dead stop half a dozen
times before the trip is ended, and while the train is running it
will be making such miserable progress that all on board will have
their patience exhausted and be driven almost to distraction over the
way in which their valuable time is being frittered away.
 

"Firemen have to serve a regular apprenticeship to the work.
They generally begin as cleaners in the round-house, where they are
put to clean the locomotives after they come in from a long trip. In
that way they get an acquaintance with the several parts of the
engine and how and where they should be oiled when running. Their
next step is on the switch engine in the yards, where they learn how
to fire an engine and raise steam rapidly and keep up a constant
supply. This requires a good deal of practice.
 

"it is the easiest thing in the world to fire your engine in
such a way that though you have a big fire in it it will not be of
the kind to make steam. Too much coal is often as bad as too little.
If the fie is too heavy and burns too slowly, the inevitable
consequence will be the lowering of the supply of steam to such an
extent that thee will not be enough to keep the train running.
 

"If any kind of a fire would do, the fireman's lot would be an
easy one. He could then fire up, sit down comfortably in the cab and
take it easy until the fire burns out. As it is he has to keep firing
steadily, adding fresh fuel to the flames at intervals of not much
more than two minutes, so that while he is on a run he hardly knows
what it is to have a chance to straighten his back.
 

"He is constantly clambering half-bent from the box to the
gangway and from the gangway to the box, manipulating a heavy
scoopful of coal, and all this time he has got to keep a lookout
ahead, for it is his duty to watch out for danger as much as it is
that of the engineer. In a fifteen hours' trip he will often shovel
as many as ten tons of coal. Some heavy passenger locomotives eat up
about three-quarters of a ton every hour they run.
 

"An ordinary fire in four or five scoopfuls, and it must be put
in the fire box just so or there will be trouble. the fire box of a
locomotive is a peculiar piece of workmanship and it requires to be
thoroughly understood before it can be fed in such a way as to keep
things running smoothly.. It is from six to ten feet in length,
according to the size of the locomotive, and four of rive feet wide.
The grate is composed of movable bars so placed as to provide for
ventilation at the sides and ends.
 

" If you have ever watched a fireman putting in coal you may
have noticed that he hardly ever pitches it in straight. he turns his
shovel now to this side and then to that, now to this end and then to
that, and it is only once in awhile that a shovelful goes straight to
the center. The reason for that is that he does not want to put the
coal where it will interfere with the ventilation of the grate or in
such a way as will cause it to cake.
 

"A steady burning and at the same time roaring fire is what is
required, and every thing depends on the way in which the fuel is fed
to it. The amount of steam required to run an ordinary passenger
engine is 135 pounds, and the aim of the expert fireman is to keep it
at that figure constantly from the time he starts out on his trip
till he is on the last mile of his run when he will gradually let it
fall so that, when he reaches the final stopping place, there will be
just about enough left to run the engine to the round-house, that
none of it may go to waste.
 

"That is another matter the fireman has to look to, or he will
get hauled over the coals by his superiors. he must be as economical
of fuel as possible. The inexperienced fireman will use up far more
fuel than his more expert brother and have no better results for it.
He must keep his fire so that all the heat will go to the flues, and
that no cold air entering the fire-box can get to them until it has
been thoroughly heated and rendered incapable of cooling them off.
 

"His fire is not the only thing that the fireman has got to
attend to, however. In the short intervals between his firing up he
must assist the engineer in keeping the engine thoroughly oiled. When
there is no automatic bell he must keep the bell ringing while
approaching all crossings and all stations."
 

The following was sent to me by Richard Palmer; originally printed in an old Trains Magazine

 

The Country Trains
 
What happened to the country trains
     That traveled from town to town?
What happened to the old worn rails
     And the ties that held them down?
What happened to the whistle and
      The old-time string of cars?
What happened to the engines too
      I wonder where they are.
 
What happened to the depots that
     stood snug along the tracks?
Now we see them falling down,
     And our thoughts go wandering back
To that railroad bed beside the track
     Where once the old train stood:
It's bare of all the telegraph poles
     And the cross arms made of wood.
Remember the old chime whistle as
   It echoed through the dells?
I'd like to see those trains once more
   And hear the ringing bells
 
But the trains are gone from the country towns
    As far as the eye can see,
And we reminisce of other days
     When our trains made history.
They made this country great and fine,
     Reaching far and wide;
Through the hills and dells they cut the trails,
     But, alas, they now have died.
 
Modern times have changed them all,
     They've vanished from our sight.
To see a steam train once more

Would bring us sheer delight.
 
The trains they reached from shore to shore,
    Like the passing of the noble great,
How we'd like back once more
     To carry passengers and freight.

 

The following was transcribed and submitted by Mary Rhodes

November 18, 1882 Wellsville Reporter

 

OUR THIRD RAILROAD

 

What Wellsville Should Do About It

 

 

 

The road bed of a narrow gauge railroad is practically completed from this village to Genesee Forks in Pennsylvania, a distance of twelve miles.  This work has been done and paid for by a company composed principally of citizens of Wellsville.  The control of the work has been entirely local, it has been done by parties deeply interested in the welfare of the project, who have taken into account everything tending to economy of construction, and it is a well founded boast of the management that a cheaper railroad grade of equal extent and quality was never built by any company.  This is of course partly due to the condition of the route taken by the road, it being laid out by nature apparently for the very purpose to which it was being put. The gradients are practically of no account whatever, and the short curves and long trestles which are a feature of most of the narrow gauge architecture in this region are not seen.

 

But all these advantages would not make a railroad valuable, unless the traffic was behind it to make it useful.  Anyone who is at all familiar with the resources and products of the region which it is intended to tap, will not question long on this latter point.  A journey upon either of the two upriver roads on almost any day and an observation of the amount of lumber, bark and produce of all kinds that drifts down these to this market would easily convince one that the traffic for a narrow gauge was ready made and only waiting to be gathered.  To go into details – there is enough of bark from that direction, which could be brought to the Wellsville tanneries by rail cheaper than it could be drawn, to furnish of itself a paying freight traffic to the road for at least two months of the year.  There is enough lumber now out and ready to be hauled to Wellsville to keep a road of the proposed facilities of this one reasonably busy this entire winter.  These are but two items and form but a small portion of the receipts which might be expected.

 

Now all these facts admitted, what is the duty of Wellsville’s business men in the premises.  Borrow a map which will show you Southern New York and Northern Pennsylvania, and see if that will help you to a more realizing sense of what should be done.

 

Two railroads are now building, with eastern connections both of which carry danger to Wellsville’s southern communications and threaten to seriously contract its trading area in that direction.  The first and most important of these is the extension of the Corning and Cowanesque road, from Elkland up the Cowanesque River. This is of standard gauge, is to be built to Westfield this fall, and there is a strong probability that work will be kept up until the line reaches Harrison Valley, only twenty four miles from Wellsville, and only eight miles from Ulysses, the objective point of the Wellsville line.  Over all this proposed route, the road follows the easy grade of the Cowanesque valley.  The road is built by the Magee interests and is therefore intimately connected with the New York Central system.  Over a week ago cars commenced running over the road as far as Knoxville, and Westfield must now be nearly reached.  It is rumored also in regard to this road that it does not intend to find an end at Harrison Valley, but will ultimately be extended through Potter County to Olean.  This, however, it too shadowy to need any discussion at present.  It is its present condition only that we call the serious attention of our business men to, with its tendency to head off to the Erie road at Corning a portion of our commerce.  Then there is the Addison and Northern Pennsylvania, which leaves the Erie at Addison, strikes the Cowanesque Valley at Elkland, follows it to Knoxville and Westfield, and turns southward into the Pine Creek region, with its present terminus at Gaines in Tioga county.  This road is being rapidly built and will be in running order this winter.  Although this does not come as near Wellsville as the former, it makes an entry into the Pine Creek region on which we have hopefully depended as an aid to future prosperity.

 

What is Wellsville to do, and why this long prelude?  It cannot prevent or hinder the building of these two or any other outside lines.  It must, however, act on the defensive and make some effort itself in common with other enterprising villages.  The Wellsville, Coudersport & Pine Creek Railroad affords a means of doing this very thing.  Even standing by itself, it will be an important feeder to our village interests, although no other part of the boasted chain of which it was to be a link is ever carried forward.  Wellsville should see to it that this road is finished.  This can be done as well this fall as next year, and should be done before the opposing lines gain a foothold.  Money is needed to do this.  The right of way and grading has been paid for by the stockholders, and to provide for the balance of the cost, bonds have been issued at the rate of $6,000 per mile.  This is a much smaller ratio of bonds than is usually carried by these narrow gauge roads, and as a purely financial investment can hardly fail of being good property.  There are a large number of our business men who have stood aloof from the project entirely, and have rather opposed than encouraged the earnest and enterprising men in charge.  There is now an opportunity for these men to make a fine investment, serve the business interests of the town and protect its material prosperity from threatening dangers, by subscribing for the portion of these bonds still untaken.  There are many who should see it not only as a duty but as a privilege to do this, who are amply able.

 

Ties, rails and rolling stock can be placed on the road bed speedily if the necessary money is forthcoming, and the road can commence earning its dividends this winter as well as next summer.