Black Diamond Express Magazine, April, 1904
REMINISCENT OF THE L. V. R. R.
The early days of the Lehigh Valley Railroad were days of tribulation. There was lack of encouragement and lack of financial help. Skepticism of the feasibility of the project ruled in Lehigh Valley communities, and both skepticism and ridicule were meted out to its projectors by outside critics. Expressions of good will and wishes for success were not entirely absent, but the helping hand was withheld. It was a cave somewhat parallel to that of Dr. Johnson and his dictionary, and it recalls his famous reply to Lord Chesterfield, who was profuse with proffers of encouragement and aid when the work was projected, but left the author to struggle alone through the years of toil and penury necessary to the completion of the work.
Then he came forward to bask in its success through a dedication as its patron, and Dr. Johnson, in his letter declining the honor, administered the just and dignified rebuke: “Is not a patron, my
Lord, one who looks with unconcern of man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?"
“The Lord helps them that help themselves,” was the main standby of the pioneers of the L. V. R. R.
The original preliminary survey for a railroad in the Lehigh Valley was made by Roswell B. Mason, of New York, for a number of citizens of the State of New Jersey, who procured a charter for the line. But the project proved too formidable for them and they abandoned it . Later, this charter was secured by Asa Packer, who had an unwavering faith in the resources of the Lehigh Valley, the inflexible determination to utilize them. His foresight and faith in the enterprise in the face of difficulties that
would have appalled most men, were backed by splendid courage and a tireless energy, which won victory for him and the faithful band of brave spirits who cooperated with him.
The scanty and almost the only financial aid they obtained was from Commodore Stockton and William H. Gatzmer, of the Camden and Amboy Railroad, and from the Central R. R. of N. J.. and
this through pledging stock of the Lehigh Valley line at a liberal discount.
Asa Packer and the Chief Engineer Robert H. Sayre, were the active powers of the road. Upon their shoulders rested the responsibility and work. The two represented the functions of all the departments that make up a railway organization of today; the one, the executive and financing departments, the other, the construction and operating departments. The little, as well as the big things, demanded their personal attention, exacting of them eternal vigilance.
The original time schedule here reproduced is eloquent of this and an interesting study. It is in the hand
writing of the Chief Engineer, written with a quill pen, and its erasures and changes say as plainly as words that here is a busy man, with all the details of arranging a first passenger service on his hands, who has stolen some odd minutes to give to the preparation of an off-hand schedule.
Spanish coin was current at that time, the sixpence or fippenny bit, the shilling or ‘leven penny bit, etc., hence the fractional rate for tickets. The 68 3/4 cents fare from Allentown to Bethlehem is, of course, an error, the MS. showing it 18, the curve of the six having been blurred by a hasty swipe of the thumb,
no doubt emphasized by an original remark or two. But the camera in reproducing cannot tell a lie.
This schedule tells of the responsibilities crowded upon one hand, and it also suggests some briefs of the road prior to and up to the time of its being opened for business. Any one can read between the lines that there were difficulties to be met and overcome that would have broken the spirit of ordinary men.
About the middle of May, 1855, some progress had been made at track laying westward from South Easton, but the work was hampered because of the lack of motive power. Arrangements were then effected with the Central Railroad of New Jersey for the use of one of their lighter engines, named “General Wall.”
There were also hired from this company one second-class passenger car, one flat car and ten gravel cars. These had to be transported from Phillipsburg to the end of the track in South Easton. At the first move of the “General Wall” toward South Easton by boat it was upset into the Morris Canal basin. This
meagre equipment was all there was to depend upon for distribution of material and track ballasting.
It took about ten days to get “General Wall” and the cars on the track in South Easton and to complete the water tank. Then, toward the end of May, the work of ballasting was begun and rushed. On June 6th the construction train way run as far west as Bethlehem. On June 7th the passenger car and flat car were hauled over on the public road from Phillipsburg to South Easton, and on the 9th a train left South Easton equipped with a second-class passenger car and a flat car with unplaned board seats for its virgin excursion.
Among its guests were Judge Asa Packer, Judge James M. Porter, Andrew H. Reeder, Matthew Hale Jones, John N. Hutchinson, Alexander Brown, Dr. Edward Swift, David Barnet, John Davis and other citizens of Easton, with employees of the road, all in high spirits as this, the first express of the Lehigh Valley, moved westward to Bethlehem, its first stop. Here they were met by all Bethlehem, and a procession was formed which marched to headquarters without music, except in their hearts. The Chief
Engineer has been heard to say that his heart was fuller of proud satisfaction than it ever was before or since. The Eastonins were welcomed with expressions of delight, and substantial comforts by the
Bethlehemites, a large contingent of whom continued with the excursionists to Allentown, where like expressions of delight, with good cheer, met the visit ing party. And so, on the 9th day of June, 1855, the three principal boroughs of the Lehigh Valley were joined with bands of iron, which, in the course of
years, have become bands of steel stretching from the metropolis to the Great Lakes.
On the 18th of June, 1855, two passenger trains daily each way, went into operation between South Easton and Allentown. It required hustling to do this, as the services of the road's only locomotive, the busy little" General Wall," was available only part of the time, there being construction work as
necessary for it to do in the intervals . This first passenger train equipment was made up of the second-class passenger car and the flat car. The latter was used to carry the overflow of passengers and
the express packages from New York and Philadelphia, contracts for said service having been made with A. D. Hope, of New York, and Howard & Co., of Philadelphia.
Mr. John Smylie was Superintendent of the Howard Express Company, and this company subsequently built the temporary passenger and freight houses and carried all the freight, except coal and iron, under a contract with the Railroad Company, for a number of years.
Edward Young, of Boston, was the first passenger conductor. The development of traffic was remarkable, and it was a surprise where all of the passengers came from. A two horse hack had been ample to carry all the travel between Easton and Allentown, and now frequently there was not standing room on the train.
Receipts from passengers the first week averaged about $40 per day, and for the second week $80 per day. The receipts of the first three months of 1855 - October and December inclusive - were $26,317.95; the expenses, $23,756.33, leaving a profit of $2,781.62. Passengers from the CR. R. of N. J. and the Bel.-
Del. Railroads were wagoned from Philipsburg to South Easton by reason of the unfinished condition of the railroad between those two towns.
Included in this stretch was "' Porter's Pond,” just west of the L V.'s present baggage room. The bottom of this pond was four or five feet below the surface of the Lehigh river and it had to be filled. The heavy rock cutting between the present passenger station and the Delaware River was twenty-two feet deeper than it now is, and the Delaware River bridge, three spans of which had to be raised, without false work in the river, had been much delayed in erection by freshets.
Instead of false work, the novel use of wire cables was resorted to. This bridge, by the way was a unique structure, with two tracks on top connecting with the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Morris Canal, and one track on the bottom chords connecting with the Belvidere-Delaware Railroad, which ran at right angles to the Central and twenty-two feet below it. In other words, the bridge was so constructed as to permit the L.V.R.R. to connect with two roads running at early right angles to each other, and
with a difference in elevation of more than twenty feet.
Rude as were the facilities afforded the traveling community, they were such an improvement on those of a month previous that they were gladly availed of.
On the morning of July 17th, 1855 the Chief Engineer left Mauch Chunk by carriage for Allentown, having as a companion Mrs. Asa Packer, who expected to take the train at Allentown for Easton. No train came, but after a wait of two hours, word came by a messenger - no telegraph on L. V. until that the road's only engine, the “General Wall,"" lay on the track at Freemansburg with a broken driving axle.
Mrs. Packer was taken to Bethlehem and put in charge of Conductor Young to drive her to Easton. The
Chief went to the scene of the wreck, where, with the assistance of the engineer, fireman, a few laborers, and the tools on the engine, it was jacked up, the broken axle, with a driving wheel on each piece, was loaded onto a farm wagon and started for Phillipsburg to catch the 6 A.M, train for Elizabethport. The Chief walked behind, kept team moving, made the train, and landed with the pieces of the wreck at
the shops of the Central Railroad about 9 o'clock A. M.
John O. Stearns, Superintendent of the road, lent a willing hand, sent his master mechanic to New York for the iron for a new axle, the work was put through the shop with expedition, and was returned to Phillipsburg by the noon train on Friday, and hauled by wagon to Freemansburg, the machine put together, and steam raised before midnight, and the engine backed down to South Easton ready to take its train out on Saturday morning, thereby causing great rejoicing.
An interruption to the trains of those days created more inconvenience and annoyance to travelers than was ever felt before in this region. Everything that had wheels was sought for and pressed into service, and still the cry was, “Give us the cars.”
On August 34, the false work under the 183 foot span of the Delaware bridge was carried out by high water. The first freight engine of the L.V., the “J. M. Porter,"” was received on August 4 from the builders, Baldwin & Co., by boat from Philadelphia. On August 21st, a locomotive and flat belonging to the Beaver Railroad Co., were run from Mauch Chunk to Lehigh Gap and return.
Track laying was begun on the Delaware bridge on August 27th, and the engine, “J. M. Porter," was put on passenger duty between South Easton and Allentown, and the “Gen. Wall"relegated to gravel train duty, being no longer fit for the passenger service.
On August 29th an engine and car were run to Mauch Chunk from South Easton, having to wait a short time north of Slatington to complete the track. They arrived at Mauch Chunk at 10 P.M. On September 8th, track laying on the Delaware bridge was completed and the engine "Lehigh,” of the Central
R. R.of N. J., crossed into Pennsylvania. A short piece of track was yet to be laid between the rock cut and South Easton.
On September 12th, the track being completed, a train was run through to Mauch Chunk, which, leaving there the next day at 8.30 A. M., arrived at Easton at 11.30 A. M., thereafter leaving Easton
at noon for Mauch Chunk. The first coal train over the L. V. arrived at Easton on September 15th, and passed on into New Jersey.
On September 19th, the L. V. R. R. Board of Directors met at the office of President James M. Porter in Easton, and resolved to accept the road from the contractor, Asa Packer, subject to the completion of some unfinished details, ‘but to take possession of the road and such equipment as the contractor had
purchased.
At this Board Meeting, Mr. R. H. Sayre, who had been employed by Mr. Packer as Chief Engineer of Construction, with the approval of the Board, was elected General Superintendent and Chief Engineer of the Company. A week was taken to arrange with the Central R. R. of N. J. and the Bel.-Del. R. R. for connections between Mauch Chunk and New York and Philadelphia. A through service between the L. V.
R.R. and the Central R. R. of N. J. and connecting service with the Bel.-Del. R. R. was established, and on Sunday, September 30th, 1855, a passenger train of the Central road, consisting of a locomotive, a baggage car and two passenger cars, in charge of Conductor Captain Hill, reached Mauch Chunk to take the 4.30 A. M. train through to Elizabethport. James I. Blakeslee was the L. V. conductor. John Alpaugh and Peter Decamp were the engineers of the Central who ran the first trains in connection with this joint arrangement between the two roads. Mr. Alpaugh is still in the employ of the Central Railroad.
Mr. H. P. Baldwin, afterwards General Passenger Agent of the C. R. R. of N. J., was the conductor of the corresponding west and north bound train. His train made its first through trip on October 1st, arriving at Mauch Chunk at 1.30 P.M
Conductors Hill and Baldwin did not collect the tickets on the L. V. end of the route, their duty being to take care of their trains.
The foregoing concerns mainly the opening of the line to business. In a subsequent issue will be published briefs of the prior or construction period. of the L.V. R.R. and those connected with it, very few of whom are living at the present time.
