USA > Pennsylvania > The Delaware and Hudson Canal, a history > Part 3
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Coal for New York
The ten boats had arrived on December 5, 1828, and on that same day, ten tons of the cargo was transferred to the sloop "Toleration," the same ship which four years before, almost to the day, had brought the first sample of "Lackawaxen Anthracite" to the City of New York by way of Philadelphia. The "Toleration" arrived in New York five days later and part of the cargo was sent without delay to the Western Hotel on Cartlandt Street where a grate had been prepared to demon- strate the great advantages of coal over wood. Later another grate was set up in the company's offices on Wall Street. A part of the first hundred tons to reach Rondout was shipped to Albany for use by Governor Martin Van Buren and members of the Legislature who had been so helpful but although the practicability of anthracite coal as a fuel had by now been conclusively demonstrated, the public was still reluctant to accept the new fuel and so, ironically enough, the canal, which had been
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built, primarily for the purpose of hauling anthracite coal, hauled far more cord wood than coal during the first two seasons of operation.
Again we have from the Albany "Argus" for December 20, 1828:
"The public scarcely seems aware that a canal 108 miles in length commencing at tidewater, near Kingston, and terminating at the forks of the Dyberry in Pennsylvania (at which place a thriving village is already established called Honesdale), has been completed since October- and this great work has been accomplished principally by the enterprise of an individual company. The first squadron of boats loaded with coal arrived at Tidewater on the 5th instant. Fifty tons have been consigned to Messrs. Townsends of this city which will afford our citizens an oppor- tunity to test its quality."
Originally Four Feet Deep
The canal as originally constructed was four feet deep, 20 feet wide at bottom and 32 feet wide at the water line. There was a wooden aqueduct 224 feet long over the Neversink River, supported on stone piers, one over Rondout Creek, entirely of stone having two arches one of 50 foot, the other of 60-foot chord. There were in addition ten other smaller aqueducts of varying length, all of wood supported by stone abutments, but the first twenty years of operation there was no aqueduct across the Delaware. In its place the boats were poled across the lake formed by the dam just below the mouth of the Lackawaxen River. After crossing the Delaware they entered directly into the canal and immediately ascended a series of six locks.
Beginning at the tidewater lock at Eddyville the boats passed through Rondout Creek for three miles to the point where the actual canal began. The canal rose through a series of fifty locks to an elevation of five hundred and twenty-five feet above sea level near Phillipsport then con- tinued along at that level for sixteen miles to the Neversink River before descending again fifty-eight feet through a series of six locks to the Port Jervis twelve-mile level. From the western end of this level, at Butler's Falls on the Delaware River, the canal rose to an elevation of nine hundred and seventy-two feet at its terminus in Honesdale. Orig- inally there were in all one hundred nine locks with an average lift of ten feet, although some had a lift of twelve feet, others as little as eight. Each lock was seventy-six feet in length, nine feet in width and the early boats which they accommodated were small, being seventy feet in length and only eight feet seven inches in width.
Contrary to expectations, very little progress had been made during 1828 towards the completion of the Gravity Railroad from Honesdale to the mines and during 1829 further delays developed, so that it was not until October 8, 1829, that the first loaded coal car reached Honesdale. In the meantime the 7,000 tons of coal which were shipped through the canal during 1829 had been hauled over the Rixe's Gap road by wagon and sledge.
When John B. Jervis, then chief engineer for the company, was assigned the task of planning the railroad there were but a few miles of railroad in operation anywhere in the world. In fact four years later, on January 2, 1832, the American Railroad Journal in its first issue gave out the fol-
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lowing "list of railroads now constructing, several of which are in part completed and in successful operation:
(1) Baltimore & Ohio, whole length 250 miles, 60 miles completed.
(2) Albany & Schenectady, whole length 16 miles, 12 miles in use.
(3) Charleston & Hamburg, whole length 135 miles, about 20 miles completed upon which the United States mail is carried.
(4) Mauch Chunk, 9 miles completed and in use.
(5) Quincy, near Boston, 6 miles now in use.
(6) Ithica & Owego, 29 miles.
(7) Lexington & Ohio, 75 miles.
(8) Camden & Amboy, 50 miles.
(9) Lackawaxen, 16 miles."
(The last named was the D. & H. Gravity.)
The locomotive had yet to make its appearance in this country, never- theless, the following optimistic article appeared in the Dundaff, Pa., "Republican."
December 20, 1828: "The railway is to be furnished with five sta- tionary engines and seven locomotive steam engines. It is estimated that the railway and its appendages will transport 540 tons per day in one direction. The steam engines were taken up as soon as the canal was navigable and it is expected that the railway will be in operation as early as June next."
The steam engines "taken up" were, of course, the stationary engines for use at the heads of the planes.
There was great activity at the head of the canal late in 1828 and during 1829 for, while we do not know the number of men and teams engaged in hauling coal, the number must have been considerable, and the village of Honesdale had begun to grow rapidly, for we read in Hazard's "Register," Philadelphia, February 28, 1829:
"Honesdale is situated in the Lackawaxen Valley at the confluence of the Lackawaxen River and Dyberry Creek three miles and a half south- east of Bethany. Two years ago the site of the village was occupied by woods, but since the commencement of active operations near the head of the Lackawaxen Canal and on the railroad, both of which terminate near this place a' town has been laid out on this spot and now contains 18 dwelling houses, four stores, a tavern, a post office and the offices of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co."
"The Gravity"
As we have said, the only railroads which existed were in the earliest experimental stage when John B. Jervis undertook the building of the D. & H. Canal Company's Gravity Railroad or, as it became more familiarly known locally, "The Gravity." Steel or even soft iron rails were unknown then, so the road as Jervis originally built it consisted of 6 x 12 inch stringers of hemlock set on edge to form the rails. These stringers which were twenty to thirty feet in length were notched into heavy cross ties to which they were secured by wooden pegs. The cross- ties were placed ten to fifteen feet apart and were in turn supported by
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wood or stone piers and thus the whole structure was held clear of the ground to prevent rotting. The running edge of the rails was protected from wear by a strip of strap iron one-half inch thick by two and one-half inches wide and was secured to the rails by countersunk screws.
The planes on the original gravity road had double parallel tracks whereas the single tracked levels were provided with sidings. Actually there were no "levels" on the road, the term being only relative for while the grade on the planes was extremely steep, there was a slight grade on the levels favoring the loaded cars so that it was necessary to haul the empties back by mules or horses. Each horse hauled five cars, one of which was the car in which he rode as the train was returning by gravity.
Beginning at an elevation of 1,200 feet at Carbondale, the "Gravity" rose to an elevation of 1,907 feet at Rixe's Gap through a series of five planes and the intervening levels. The road then descended the east side of the Moosic Mountains by three planes and levels to an elevation of 985 feet at Honesdale. The planes were numbered eastward from Carbon- dale. Numbers 1 to 5 being on the west side of the ridge; 6, 7, and 8 on the east.
Stationary steam engines were located at the summit of each of the first five planes. Each engine operated two huge drums placed in tandem, being eight feet in diameter and having a flanged rim nine inches wide: Around each pair of these drums a huge chain made three turns thence passing to the foot of the plane where it was attached to a trip of loaded cars. The other end of the chain was attached to a like number of empty cars being lowered which acted as a counter balance and thus left only the dead weight of the coal to be overcome by the hoisting engine. Only. one of the drums was geared to the engine, the other acted merely as an idler helping to create friction and prevent the chains from slipping.
On planes 6, 7 and 8, where the loaded cars were descending, no motive power was required. A braking system was provided, consisting of two drums similar to those of the powered planes but connected merely to a heavy brake.
Considering the lack of experience with such contrivances, the hoisting engines and drums seem to have been a reasonable success, but the chains were an absolute failure and were discarded in favor of ropes after having been in use only a few months during 1829. Concerning them, Dr. Benjamin Sillman wrote to Mr. Hazard of Philadelphia during July, 1830:
"Last year there was much inconvenience from chains by which the steam engines draw up the coal wagons from the mines; during the season about fifty coal wagons were dashed to pieces in that manner, and when chains parted the wagon could not be seen in its descent; so instantane- ously did it dart to its goal, that only a dim streak could be traced through the air. They now use cables of hemp and the accidents do not any longer occur."
On December 12, 1830, John Bolton, the president of the company, wrote to the Governor of New York a letter in which he said:
"Our railway has fully met our expectations, since the substitution of ropes for chains on the planes. The change, however, which was effected at the close of winter was very expensive."
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FARVIEW
1900
1800
o
1700
1600
1500
grade forty four feet to the
PROMPTON
SEELEYVILLE
HONESDALE
Canal
26
15
200
23
800
1
5-
26
Miles
·
SHEPHERD'S CROOK
FARVIEW
1900
1800
1700
1400
per
ELEVATION
17
16
GPROMPTON
SEELEYVILLE
HONESDALE
13
Profile. of Light Track after 1865
Canal
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0 -
39
5-
1
1
1
1
1
21
18
15
ia
12
=-
.-
9
--
--
4-
26
BUSHWICK JUNCTION
mile
19
WAYMART
KEEN'S POND
MAYFIELD
grade
OLYPHANT
CARCHBALD
FEKT
VALLEY JUNCTION
20
CARBONDALE
ZA
CARBONDALE
₣
ELEVATION IN FEET
1400
1300
1200
27
1100
1000
VALLEY JUNCTION
OLYPHANT
ARCHBALD
BUSHWICK JUNCTION
5
=
FWAYMART
9
8-
19
20
21
Ñ-
€-
*-
4-
=-
1
G-
17
1
Profile of Loaded Track. "
73 feet
Averate
--
13
25
A
O
9% feet. ..
678
Plan of Roll-way-Pay for Head of Planes nos 5 and 6 He point or end of Roll-way at A for Blant $25 to be 6 'a fost from Guter of theEve whEl and the Same. Point for Roll-way at Planc 12 6 to & 10/2 feet from Guter of secre wheel . The 2 Gol way that any the 3 roads but only seguros a single way. General Remarks Sit is not necessary that the purmoment supports of the road be placed to be an rop- resented in the plane for the Bold-way joints except the support for the now is connected with the machinery: but way better be placed so as to allow the rack to be ers to projects from 3 6 inches by its supports.
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Expensive they must have been and cumbersome also for these ropes measured seven and one-half inches in circumference. To protect this investment the ropes, although they were bound with cords and heavily tarred, were carefully taken in each Saturday night and not brought out again until Monday morning for the "Gravity" like the canal, did not operate on Sunday.
The ropes, while they greatly lessened the danger of runaway cars brought a new difficulty in that they were frequently slipping on the drums, particularly when they were wet and not until the expedient of connecting the idler drum to the driven drum, by means of a rope belt, was struck upon, did they overcome to a great extent this difficulty although that danger remained until years later when the huge ropes were replaced by the first steel cables made by John Roebeling.
The grade on the "levels" ranged between twenty-four and forty-four feet to the mile and here again the company met another difficulty for, as the name of the road implies, the cars were allowed to descend by gravity and their speed had to be controlled. Various schemes were tried, amongst them being an elaborate windmill affair, connected to the axles by ropes or belts and retarding the speed by friction. Of this con- traption a contemporary wrote "it is a new and ingenious application, by Chief Engineer Jervis, of a known power, to the descending levels, which may well deserve the name of an invention." This idea was soon dis- carded and a simple brake using the pressure of a bent sapling applied directly on the wheels came into general use.
The next improvement on the railroad was the addition of a 2 x 4 oak strip to the running edge on top of the original hemlock rails which were soon found to be too soft. The protecting strap iron was replaced on top of the oak and this arrangement served for many years.
During 1828 a young engineer, Horatio Allen by name, had become associated with the D. & H. and with Engineer Jervis, who was then planning the gravity railroad. This connection led to his being chosen in the fall of 1828 to go to England to arrange for the purchase of four "locomotive engines" for use on the "Gravity" planes.
Goal Waggon adapted ON The Carbondale Rail road
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It should be observed that when Mr. Allen arrived in England the use of the multitubular boiler in locomotive engines was unknown, or was only talked about. In the engraving of the Killingworth engine in Wood's "Trea- tise," he shows and describes an exhaust-pipe which " is opened into the chimney, and turns up within it ;" but the value of the steam blast was then not recognized. The locomotives which were known in America at that date were those which have been described. It is therefore not remarkable that Mr. Allen, then only 27 years of age, and feeling the responsibility of his position, should be gov- erned by the instructions which he received when he left home. He therefore ordered of Messrs. Foster, Rastrick & Company, of Stourbridge, three locomotives of the Stock- ton & Darlington type .* One of these (fig. 1) was the engine that afterward had the distinction of being the first one that was ever run in America. It had four coupled wheels.
FIG. 1 .- " STOURBRIDGE LION." 1828.
all drivers, driven by two vertical cylinders, with 36-in. stroke, placed at the back end and on each side of the boiler. The motion of the piston was transferred through two grass- hopper beams above the cylinders, and from those beams by connecting-rods to the crank-pins on the wheels. The front end of the beam was supported by a pair of radius rods which formed a parallel motion. The spokes of the wheels were heavy oak timbers, strengthened by an iron ring bolted to the spokes midway between the hub and felloes, and the latter was made of strong timber capped by a wrought-iron tire. From the illustrations of this en . gine which have survived, the cranks on each pair of wheels were apparently at right angles to each other, other- -
* In the latter part of his life, Mr. Allen was of the impression that one loco- motive was ordered of this firm and two of Messrs. Stephenson & Co., of New- castle, but an examination, since his death, of some correspondence on file in the office of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company has shown conclusive- ly that three engines were built by the first-mentioned firm and one by the Messrs. Stephenson. This correspondence shows that the locomotive built by the Stephenson« arrived in New York on board the ship " Columbia" about the middle of January, 1829. The first one of those, built by Foster, Rast- rick & Co., arrived on board the " John Jay." May 13, of the same year ; the second one on the ship " Splendid," about the middle of August, and the last one on September 17, on the " John Jay."
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wise it is not clear how the engine could start when they were on one of the dead points The boiler was cylindrical and had several large flues inside.
After Mr. Allen arrived in England, as already stated, he made the acquaintance of George Stephenson. and from him received much valuable aid and advice. He visited Liverpool, the Stockton & Darlington Railway, and New- castle. Locomotive engines had then been in successful use since 1814, and the subject of railroads was attracting great attention, not only in that country, but in America and the whole civilized world as well.
On his arrival in England Mr. Allen found, as Mr. Wood, in the preface to his treatise says, that " The eyes of the whole scientific world were upon the great work of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway ;" and as another writer of that period reported, " discoveries were daily made of new principles applicable to locomotives, and, ex- traordinary as they now are, in their power and velocity, great improvements may yet be reasonably anticipated.' In England Mr. Allen spent considerable time in visit- ing the different roads then in operation, and in study- ing the performance of the locomotives in use. The kind of power to be used on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway was regarded as a question of great moment.
Mr. Allen made a contract with Messrs. Stephenson & Company, of Newcastle, for one more locomotive. This engine, he said, was ordered to be identical in boiler, en- gine plan, and appurtenances to the celebrated Rocket.
When completed the four engines were shipped to New York and arrived there during the year 1829. The Stour- bridge Lion, it is said, was sent from the foot of Beach Street, in New York, to Rondout, and thence reshipped by canal to the track at Honesdale, where it made its cele- brated first trip. Some of the other engines were for a time stored in the warehouse of Messrs. Abeel & Dunscom on the East side of New York. One of them was there raised up so that its wheels were not in contact with the ground and was exhibited in motion with steam on as a curiosity to the public. The singular part of this is that it is not now known what ever became of these engines. All trace of them has been lost as completely as though they had been cast into the sea.
Why the Stourbridge Lion was sent to Honesdale and not the Stephenson engine, which arrived in New York first, is not known. It this one, which has since passed into oblivion, had been selected for the first run we would have had the remarkable circumstance that a trial of an engine, which Mr. Allen said was built on substantially the plan of the famous Rocket, would have occurred in this country before that celebrated event took place in England.
"It is to be regretted," said Mr. Allen, " that one of the Stephenson locomotives was not sent, and for the reason, that they were the prototypes of the locomotive Rocket, whose performance in October of the same year so aston- ished the world. If one of the two engines in hand-ready to be sent had been the one used on August 9th, the per- formance of the Rocket in England would have been antici- pated in this country."*
The story of this first trial of the Stourbridge Lion has often been told. The engine received its name, Mr. Allen said, " from the fancy of the painter who, finding on the
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boiler end a circular surtace, slightly convex, of nearly four feet diameter, painted on it the head of a lion in bright col- ors, filling the entire area."
The river and canal being closed by ice, it was not until the opening of navigation in 1829 that access was had to the railroad at Honesdale, Pa., which was then at the head of the canal and at the beginning of the railroad.
Being at liberty during July and August, Mr. Allen vol- unteered to go to Honesdale and take charge of the trans- fer of the locomotive from the canal-boat to the railroad track. Of the place where the trial was made he wrote :
" The line of road was straight for about 600 ft., being parallel with the canal, then crossing the Lackawaxen Creek, by a curve nearly a quarter of a circle long, of a radius of 750 ft., on trestle-work about 30 ft. above the creek, and from the curve extending in a line nearly straight into the woods of Pennsylvania.
" The road was formed of rails of hemlock timber in section 6 × 12 in., supported by caps of timber 10 ft. from center to center. On the surface of the rail of wood was spiked the railroad iron-a bar of rolled iron 2} in. wide and } in. thick. The road having been built of timber in long lengths, and not well seasoned, some of the rails were not exactly in their true position. Under these circum- stances the feeling of the lookers-on became general that either the road would break down under the weight of the locomotive, or, if the curve was reached, that the locomo- tive would not keep the track, and would dash into the creek with a fall of some 30 ft.
" When the steam was of right pressure, and all was ready, I took my position on the platform of the locomotive alone, and with my hand on the throttle-valve handle, said : ' If there is any danger in this ride, it is not necessary that the life and limbs of more than one should be subjected to danger,' and felt that the time would come when I should look back with great interest to the ride then before me.
" The locomotive having no train behind it answered at once to the movement of the valve ; soon the straight line was run over, the curve was reached and passed before there was time to think as to its being passed safely, and soon I was out of sight in the three miles' ride alone in the woods of Pennsylvania.
" I had never run a locomotive nor any other engine before. I have never run one since, but on August 9th, 1829, I ran that locomotive three miles and back to the place of starting, and being without experience and with- out a brakeman, I stopped the locomotive on its return at the place of starting. After losing the cheers of the lookers-on, the only sound, in addition to that of the ex- haust steam, was that of the creaking of the timber struc- ture.
" Over half a century passed before I again revisited the track of this first ride on this continent. Then I took care to walk over it in the very early morning, that nothing should interfere with the thoughts and the feelings that, left to themselves, would rise to the surface and bring be- fore me the recollections of the incidents and anticipations of the past, the realization of the present, and again the anticipations of the future.
" It was a morning of wonderful beauty, and that walk alone will, in time to come, hold its place beside the memory of that ride alone over the same line more than fifty years before."
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An Early Cut
Pond Eddy
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"Stourbridge Lion" was never again used on rails and for a while it lay stored in a shed in Honesdale, then it was dismantled, the boiler taken to Carbondale, where it was used in the company shops and later sold, but the original engine has now been re-assembled and partly reconstructed and is housed in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C.
A word here about Horatio Allen would not be out of place for he was one of the outstanding civil engineers of his time. In addition to having the honor of being America's first locomotive engineer he built the famous reservoir at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue in New York where the Public Library now stands. Another of his achievements was the construction of High Bridge which carried the Croton Aqueduct across the Harlem River to. New York City. A few years later he became chief engineer of the Erie Railroad and in 1846 was elected its president. He died in East Orange, N. J., on January 1, 1890.
The D.H" Canal
In December, 1829, when freezing weather brought the first full year of operation of the Canal to a close, the prospects for the following year seemed to be good but, unfortunately, some of the coal which had been sold on the New York market had been of such poor quality that the standing of the company was seriously prejudiced. As a result only forty- three thousand tons were sold during 1830, far from the company's ex- pectations and, when in 1831, the increase, while better, was again not what had been expected, the managers began to make efforts to interest the New England market.
In April of 1830 the "Wallenpaupack Improvement Company" was in- corporated by the State of Pennsylvania. This company, which seems to have had only local backing, proposed to construct a railroad from the mines near Slocum Hollow (Scranton) on the Lackawanna River to "the forks of the Wallenpaupack," a distance of sixteen miles, and from that point a canal or series of slackwater pools to the head of the falls at Wil- sonville, a distance of about eighteen miles, according to their calcula-
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