§14 Colorful Quotes

The Railroadiana Collection of Joseph McMahon of New York has many interesting news items which give insight into the operation of the railroad. Although the few given here are about events in Connecticut, they are probably typical of what may have been published in The Pine Plains Herald and The Pine Plains Register. Most of the following are from the Winsted Citizen:

April 7,1889 — "A special train was run over the PR&NE railroad with a Philadelphia tailor aboard to measure the agents and operators along the line for their summer uniforms."

May 17, 1889 — "The first paying train across the Poughkeepsie bridge will be Barnum's circus train of 40 cars traveling in two sections"

Sept. 18, 1889 — "The palace car of the Central New England & Western railroad was destroyed by fire in Hartford early this morning with a loss of $20,000."

Sept., 1889 — "Pullman drawing room cars are to be added to some of the trains on the Central New England and Western Railroad between Hartford and Campbell Hall."

Oct., 1890 — "Freight trains on the CNE are heavy these days and if business continues as it now is or increases, the road will have to be double tracked."

Oct. 29, 1891 — "The engineer and fireman on a freight train from the west on the CNE&W railroad fired the conductor and three brakemen who were 'out of sorts' off the train and took it along to Hartford themselves following a slight wreck at West Winsted."

March 2,1892 — "Seven of Barnum's Circus stock cars filled with horses were sidetracked at West Winsted this morning and left by way of the Naugatuck railroad for Bridgeport this afternoon. They were brought here from Pine Plains, N.Y."

March, 1893 — " All the trains were running very late on account of the snowdrifts. The Boston Express was running in two sections, and the second section consisted of two locomotives with seven Pullmans, carrying members of the Russell Club of Massachusetts and Governor Russell on their way home from the inauguration of President Cleveland in Washington."

June 13, 1894 — "The PR&NE railroad is running a through vestibule car from Winsted to New York via Millerton and the New York Central. It leaves Winsted at 11:25 AM. The car returns from New York arriving here at 7:20P.M."

Oct., 1894 — "Train No. 1 on the PR&NE covers the distance between Hartford and Campbell Hall, N.Y., 145 miles, in five hours and 50 minutes. It makes 60 stops and travels at the rate of 21 miles an hour."

Dec. 9, 1894 — "Many double-headers are being run on the Philadelphia, Reading and New England through here now. Some have 40 cars while others have as many as 70 cars, making a train more than half a mile long."

Jan. 6, 1898 — "The Philadelphia, Reading and New England railroad, which was purchased last October by a group of Philadelphia capitalists for $3,807,000 is to be greatly improved. They plan to spend about $1,000,000."

Aug., 1898 — "Many telegraph offices on the PR&NE are to close because business is so dull. The West Winsted night station is to be abandoned."

Sept. 8, 1898 — "There are now 522 employees on the PR&NE railroad. The company operated 181 miles of track. They purchased four new passenger cars last year. Anthracite coal makes up 35 per cent of their tonnage while 21 per cent comes from bituminous coal. This information comes from the company's annual report."

Oct. 3, 1899 — "Thirteen cars of an eastbound Central New England train were demolished near Summit station east of Norfolk at 12:55 o'clock this morning and two others which went off the track weren't so badly damaged. The train had 31 cars and was being drawn by two engines. No one was hurt."

July 1, 1909 — "Three new Baldwin locomotives with three driving wheels on either side passed through Winsted today over the Central New England Railway en route to Hartford. They will be used in the passenger service on the Central New England."

Jan. 4,1915 — "The CNE railroad has started the harvest of 10,000 tons of ice at Pine Plains, N.Y. and is employing 150 men in this work. About 300 tons will be stored in Hartford for use on the trains."

Snow Was a Hazard	Table of Contents		Abandonment
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